This only works if you're requiring lots of references, so you can look at the percentage response. Most hiring processes want 2-3. That's an awful lot to leave up to chance.
Far better just to know how to interview a reference on the phone. If you're looking for the "is the candidate outstanding" response, just ask for specific details about what made the candidate outstanding. A crappy pro-forma reference won't have any.
If you were really serious about references, you'd track down backdoor references anyways.
If you're looking for the "is the candidate outstanding" response, just ask for specific details about what made the candidate outstanding.
The strategy, such that it is, is designed to get around the reality that many, many bosses are only allowed to say "I can confirm that $CANDIDATE worked from $START_DATE to $END_DATE and his final position was $TITLE." If you ask "Is the candidate outstanding? What specifically makes you think so?", you will hear "I can confirm that $CANDIDATE worked from $START_DATE to $END_DATE and his final position was $TITLE."
That said, like many brilliant engineering ideas for evading legal requirements by simple logical tricks that a profession filled with people who are paid $300 an hour to think of loopholes totally can't see coming, I strongly doubt this idea will work. You're not selecting for outstanding candidates, you're selecting for managers who are not risk-adverse.
A risk-adverse manager will ignore your little logic trap, call you, and say "I am returning your phone call with regards to $CANDIDATE. I can confirm that $CANDIDATE worked from $START_DATE to $END_DATE and his final position was $TITLE. Have a nice day." He will then document that he was asked for a reference for $CANDIDATE and followed company procedure to the letter. You have learned no useful information from this, aside from "Ahh, $PREVIOUS_COMPANY has a corporate policy to not provide useful references"
Far better just to know how to interview a reference on the phone. If you're looking for the "is the candidate outstanding" response, just ask for specific details about what made the candidate outstanding. A crappy pro-forma reference won't have any.
If you were really serious about references, you'd track down backdoor references anyways.