Verifying previous employment is a critical step in the background screening process, ensuring that potential hires are honest about their work history and qualifications. Employment verification can be achieved through various methods such as contacting past employers, checking with third-party employment verification services, and assessing official documentation. It’s vital for businesses to implement an expedient and reliable employment verification process to support informed and timely hiring decisions.
Here we’ll explore the different methods used to acquire and verify candidate employment data and why working with a qualified provider like National Crime Search facilitates responsible hiring, minimizes manual tasks, and grants employers peace of mind about a key component of their background screening process.
Overview
Employment verification empowers your organization to thoroughly review and confirm a candidate’s past work history, experience to capably perform job responsibilities, and their honesty in representing themselves and their credentials for a given position. Of course, employment verification also identifies and catalogs any gaps in employment, fabricated job titles, or fraudulent employment claims.
Recent data from ResumeLab highlights that 56% of job candidates admit to “stretch[ing] the truth” on job applications, with 36% admitting to openly lying. Implementing a proven strategy to confirm objective information about a candidate’s work history, credentials and past job responsibilities helps employers spot these fabrications quickly, creating space for job candidates who are more reliable and capable to fulfill a given position.
Laws Regarding Employment Verification
When employers handle employment verification manually/in-house, they sometimes struggle to navigate shifting local, state, and federal regulations that could restrict their access to a candidate’s employment data or lead to a regulatory violation. In general, the information a former employer can share with a prospective employer about a candidate differs in each state. In some cases, past employers are obligated to acquire an employee’s consent before disclosing information to a prospective employer, or must provide a “service letter” that outlines a former employee’s job responsibilities, title, and other details that vary by jurisdiction. In a later section, we’ll describe additional compliance concerns (FCRA and other federal regulations) that could impact an employment verification.
Methods of Employment Verification
Whether your organization completes employment verification manually or with a qualified provider, a number of steps will need to occur to confirm information shared on a candidate’s resume or during interviews. We’ll help you understand this process, highlighting the ways that outsourcing to a provider like NCS can save your organization valuable time and money while reducing stress and delays related to manual verification tasks.
Contacting Previous Employers Manually
Using a manual or in-house process, once an application has been received, an employer must call every workplace noted on a candidate’s resume to verify employment dates, job titles, job responsibilities, and other key details. Of course, this manual process can be majorly delayed by a range of factors, including all of the following:
- A candidate has an extensive work history or has occupied multiple roles in a company or companies.
- The phone number provided by the candidate has changed or is no longer active.
- One or more of the companies where a candidate was employed have dissolved or been acquired by another company.
- The candidate’s former employer uses a third-party verification provider to share information about former employees. In this case, you must contact the provider directly and pay fees to secure necessary employment information.
- The candidate’s former employer requires that you fax your request, and may additionally require signed consent from the candidate/former employee.
- Multiple calls to the former employer(s) do not yield any response, delaying employment verification, reference checks, and the opportunity to hire the candidate before another competing organization.
Outsourcing to a Qualified Provider
When you outsource to a qualified background check provider like NCS, all of these processes are expedited and simplified. NCS can obtain accurate and up-to-date contact information to connect with former employers (or quickly collaborate with their third-party verification provider) to confirm dates of employment, job title(s), qualifications/skills, and – when permitted by state law – job performance, reasons for separation or termination, and other details.
This process extends to professional reference checks, during which NCS can confirm the accuracy of a candidate’s interview answers and job performance when permissible. In some cases, W-2s/pay stubs, or proof of employment letters can be acquired to verify periods of employment and other work-related details.
NCS can also advise your organization while navigating compliance considerations and other regulatory concerns. Whether it’s implementing procedures to acquire candidate consent for pre-employment screening (an FCRA requirement) or remaining compliant with HIPAA, Title VII, or I-9 considerations, we can support this process and provide timely verification to expedite your hiring decisions, return focus to core business tasks, and eliminate a wide range of manual tasks.
Employment Screening Services with NCS
Employment verification provides essential details about a candidate’s job preparedness, as well as the accuracy of their claims during the application and interview process. To support workplace safety, reduce liability, and help your organization quickly hire and onboard top talent, working with a qualified provider is a must.
NCS offers comprehensive background screening services that include employment verification to reduce the risk of workplace incidents, diminished productivity, employee theft, fraud, and regulatory violations. Ready to hire with confidence and bypass time-consuming manual tasks? Start the process today to enjoy peace of mind and support the well-being of your workforce.
Share:
