It should be unfair labor practice. Also, what does it achieve? It is not going to increase retention significantly, on the contrary, they will likely get lower eNPS.
By the way in Germany employers are legally obliged to provide a reference (Arbeitszeugnis). Most of them that I have seen were too positive and sometimes obviously exaggerated.
There’s a complex balance of power in the US (and Germany) around these. A common reason companies ban references is to protect the company (and occasionally employee <- manager) from lawsuits if the reference is negative.
In Germany this has turned into a legal climate where only positive reviews are granted, creating a set of tiered shaded meanings inside positive reviews that stand in for ‘unacceptable’ to ‘brilliant’.
At any rate, changing one part of the system, e.g. forcing referrals as in Germany would no doubt change other ways the system works in the US as well.
>tiered shading positive reviews
That's funny, medicine works the same way. Your medical school makes a "packet" for residencies that summarizes you, and it's a bit of an honor system that the medical school should be forthcoming with shortcomings lest nobody trust the school. But of course, the medical school doesn't want to talk trash about its own graduates. So they have a system of code words i.e. "I recommend" = low, "I enthusiastically recommend" = medium, "???" = high.
As far as non-competes, the interesting thing there is I mostly work in science/programming where these are seen as jokes. "Why I can't make a living with this non-compete, non-enforceable" (exception is when they PAY you to not work, which is how it should be). So non-competes are seen as toothless. However I was hanging out with salespeople and they were 100% like "bro, these are no joke, I am banned from talking to my old clients for 1 year, they ARE totally enforceable in sales". And of course if you're starting a new sales job at some competitor, that's a bad look if your hiring arrives alongside a lawsuit, so these guys are properly afraid of non-compete scenarios
References are going the way of the dodo bird, anyway. In my circles, job seekers don't bother offering them and employers are ending the practice of asking for them. (411: I'm in the LAX market & a best friend is an HR executive.)
Yeah. They're probably still sort of a pro-forma sort of thing in many cases but I'd be surprised if people still checked them for professional jobs in a systematic way.
Of course, doesn't mean you don't check in with folks you know who have worked with the person at your company and elsewhere.
By the way in Germany employers are legally obliged to provide a reference (Arbeitszeugnis). Most of them that I have seen were too positive and sometimes obviously exaggerated.