Employment verifications
Employment verifications gather information about job applicants to confirm their prior work experience. Employers use verification of employment as part of pre-employment background checks to determine if the information the candidate provided on a job application or resume is accurate. Certain industries, such as healthcare and commercial transportation, have specific requirements for employment verification. Performing an employment verification background check helps hiring managers assess whether a job applicant has the desired work experience, skills, and required qualifications for a position
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What is employment verification?
Conducting employment verification involves searching databases, verifying employment documents, and/or contacting an applicant’s previous employers to confirm start and end dates of employment, job title(s) held and, in some cases, salary history. Human resources teams can conduct employment verification on their own or can use the services of a consumer reporting agency (CRA) like Eligible to streamline the process.
Either way, the verification process generally starts by making a reference check of the candidates to check their database. Some countries have a database to which millions of employers submit information about their employees. This database can be used for income verification as well as employment verification.
Do background checks show employment history?
It’s up to each employer whether to check candidates’ employment history as part of a pre-employment background check. However, it’s very common for pre-employment background checks to include an employment verification along with other elements such as criminal background checks, motor vehicle records checks, and educational checks.
Making employment verification part of your background check process reduces your risk of hiring employees who are misrepresenting their work history, past experience, and skills. By helping you find the employees who are best qualified for the job, employment verification also reduces costly turnover.
What information can be released for employment verification?
Although there are no federal regulations restricting what information can be released for employment verification, some states have their own laws regulating what employers can divulge about an employee. For example, many states forbid asking about a person’s salary history as part of a background check.
Except where laws impose restrictions, employers can choose what they will and will not reveal about employees. Due to concerns about lawsuits, however, many employers err on the side of caution and limit what they will say about an employee.
Employment verification generally checks:
Dates of employment
Job title or position
Salary (if legal in that jurisdiction)
How far back employment verification goes depends on the type of job applied for. If you’re hiring for an entry-level position, for example, you might check a candidate’s employment going back three years. For a more senior job, you’d probably want to go back five to seven years.
Employment verification differs from checking personal or professional references, although the two are often confused. A reference check contacts a candidate’s references, including past employers, to ask for information such as:
Any promotions
Any disciplinary actions against the person
Whether the person is eligible for re-hire
Why the person left the job
The person’s skills
This is more subjective information than an employment verification gathers.
How long does employment verification take?
How long employment verification takes can depend on a variety of factors, including whether you do it yourself or use a professional background check company. Outsourcing employment verification to a CRA can streamline the process considerably compared to doing it yourself and may take anywhere from three to 10 days. An experienced background check provider also helps ensure your employment verifications comply with the
and relevant national and local laws, helping to reduce risk of noncompliance. A third-party provider may also check employer phone numbers, so candidates can’t use a friend’s phone number to falsify employment verification. They’ll also follow up with employers to keep the verification process moving along.
If you choose to do it yourself, it could take weeks for your human resources team to contact each of the candidate’s prior employers; keep track of whom you contacted, how, and when; check to see whether they responded; and follow up until you get an answer. Additional time may be needed if the candidate needs to supply an employment verification letter, or if a payslip needs to be submitted because a previous employer is no longer in business. The process to procure an employment data report can be even more complex and time-consuming if you need to verify past employment for someone who worked in another country, also known as international employment verification. Lags in employment verification could cost your company qualified candidates and leave gaps in your workforce.
How to get employment verification
Conducting employment verification is an important part of the hiring process for most employers. However, manually confirming past employment is time-consuming, especially if you’re hiring at scale, and could expose your company to legal liability if you accidentally fail to follow employment laws.
Hire faster and with confidence by trusting Eligible Checks to handle all of your employment verification requirements. Eligible Checks offers a variety of employment verification options, allowing you to customize your background check packages for each position type. Our candidate-friendly workflow simplifies a tricky process and quickly verifies employment while helping you comply with pre-employment background screening laws, such as state and local restrictions on asking for salary history.
In addition to conducting both domestic and international employment verification, Eligible Checks also offers education verification and personal and professional reference checks.
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