Employment verification is a process that helps you confirm someone’s job history and details. This information can be helpful for many reasons, including supporting the information on a resume or revealing if a candidate is lying.
It’s essential to understand how to use employment verification information properly. It can help you save time and money and avoid costly mistakes.
Background Checks
The employment verification process is essential to the hiring process, as it helps determine whether a candidate is qualified for a position. It also helps prevent “resume padding” and other attempts by job applicants to fudge their resumes or falsify their work history.
Most employers have their hiring processes, but they often hire a third party to conduct background checks. These agencies are called Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs).
Typically, employers will request criminal record information from a CRA and receive a report copy. This is usually a federal or state criminal report that details any felony and misdemeanor convictions within the last seven years, plus any pending cases.
Employers may also use a social media search to get insights into a candidate’s behavior. These searches are FCRA compliant and give a clearer picture of the person they’re considering for a job.
Hiring the wrong person can result in loss of money, productivity, and even reputation damage. That’s why a thorough background check can be critical in every stage of the hiring process.
However, this can be challenging for busy HR professionals and hiring managers. It requires a lot of time and effort to make multiple calls and send numerous email inquiries to verify a candidate’s past work history. That’s why so many hiring managers and HR pros rely on background check experts like GoodHire to perform thorough, accurate employment verifications efficiently and quickly.
Salary Verification
When you apply for a job, your employer may ask for employment verification information from you. This can include your salary and your job title or position.
Salary verification is essential to the hiring process because it helps your new employer ensure you get a fair salary for your skills and experience. If you don’t provide your old employers with accurate salary numbers, they could think you are dishonest and deny you the position.
Many employers prefer to avoid verifying past salaries because they fear legal issues may arise. They may only provide salary verification if they feel it needs to be simplified or more time-consuming.
One way to avoid the issue is to provide your previous employers with a letter that states your income and employment history. This will allow you to provide the information your new employer needs without alerting them that you are currently seeking another job.
The letters can be written on business-branded stationery or letterhead and should include the business name, address, and contact information. They should also have a statement that the information is true and correct.
A less hands-on approach to employment verification is to use a service like Truv that allows you to connect your payroll account and share your financial information with verifiers without requiring a salary key code. This makes it safer, more convenient, and faster than manual.
Reference Checks
Reference checks are a great way to verify employment verification information. They can also help you determine whether or not a candidate is a good fit for your organization and what to expect from them in the workplace.
The key is to conduct a thorough, objective check that covers all bases and provides useful insights into the candidate. The right questions can provide essential insight into their past performance, personality, and work style.
A good reference check should cover everything from how much overtime a candidate performed to the kind of people they worked with, their job duties, and how they handled them. It should also include a thorough investigation of discrepancies between the candidates’ qualifications and their current resumes.
Make sure you ask only professional references, not personal friends or family members. Avoid asking them about salary history and potential criminal records, as these may be considered confidential in some states.
When contacting references, it’s essential to have a reference check form that clearly defines what you want to know and how much time you want to devote to the call. It can be helpful to have various reference check questions, including open-ended, short-answer, and multiple-choice questions that use a scale from 1-10 to rank skills and abilities.
Criminal Record Checks
A criminal record can reveal a variety of information about a person. These records include felony and misdemeanor convictions, pending cases, and other criminal activity. A criminal background check is an important part of many pre-employment screenings.
If you’re interested in getting a criminal record check for employment, volunteering, or other purposes, the best place to start is with your local police department. These departments can be contacted for questions and inquiries and for obtaining fingerprints for a certified criminal record check.
The records found on a criminal record can be used to determine employment verification information, such as if an applicant has a security clearance, is a subject of an ongoing investigation, or is a potential threat to public safety. They can also be helpful in determining the qualifications of job candidates, including whether they have a history of drug or alcohol abuse.
Employers and consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) in the United States must comply with multiple state laws covering pre-employment background checks. New York City, for example, amended its Fair Chance Act in July 2021 to expand the protection of applicants and employees with certain types of criminal histories in hiring decisions.
A criminal record check can benefit employers, helping them make more informed hiring decisions and mitigate risk. These checks can be completed in a matter of minutes or hours. They can be a part of an overall background check that includes other types of a background screening, such as salary verification, reference checks, and credit reports.
