Everything You Need to Know About the Employment Verification Process

A recent survey at Checkster found that over 78% of the candidates misrepresent themselves on their resumes at the time of hiring. The most frequent lies are related to work skills, job duties, and work experience. Therefore, one of the most time-consuming, complicated, and challenging tasks in the entire process of hiring is vetting a prospective employee. The vetting, also called employee verification, confirms personal information and job history details. 

This exercise turns even more time-consuming when businesses are hiring for senior-level positions. Such candidates have long work history going back decades, leading to verification difficulties. Additionally, recruiters face verification complexities when mass hiring. It is easy for an organisation’s HR to miss the red flags – hiring the wrong candidate is a loss of money, time and effort for both the organisation and the hired candidate. Many personnel in an organisation’s recruitment do not have the time, tools, and skills to manage the complex and time-consuming verification process. 

Importance of Employment Verification

Verification of a prospective employee’s history confirms if the resume details meet the requirement of the vacant position in the organisation. The process also helps validate the achievements, titles, and responsibilities of previous jobs. It aids in hiring qualified candidates by ensuring accurate employment history and thus mitigating the risk of hiring the wrong candidate.

Employment verification roots out the risk Intelligence services of resume padding and falsified history. Employment verification requires a dedicated and focused team. While businesses hire individuals in their recruitment team, it is sometimes not possible for them to verify the details because of the sheer volume of other work commitments. Employers hire employment verification companies to efficiently and thoroughly undertake verification tasks. 

How Do Employment Verification Companies Conduct Employment Verification?

There are many methods, processes, and tools adopted by verification companies to check the veracity of the information provided by the employee. The companies conduct 360-degree evaluation that helps to verify a candidate’s identity, track record, competence and character. 

Candidates caught lying by the employment verification company are instantly disqualified. 

Here is how they conduct the verification process:

Employment History

Many employment verification companies keep a database of employees, allowing them to check the information provided against their database. It will verify timelines, job roles and responsibilities. It is not uncommon to catch employment gaps and exaggerated roles and responsibilities. If unverifiable inconsistencies are spotted in the resume, the company may contact the candidate to make notes for employers and understand the gaps. 

Uncorrelated Resume and Job Application

Candidates often use the same resume when applying for multiple jobs. Every job application requires candidates to reiterate their job history and work experience. The employment verification company compares the candidate’s job application with the submitted resume and cover letter. In case something is missing, or anything drastically different is revealed, the profile is red-flagged. 

Vague Skills and Job Details

A resume should provide detailed summaries of the roles and responsibilities held in the previous employment. The verification experts look for vague and unclear phrases to ascertain the candidate’s percentage of involvement in a listed role. Also, the overuse of buzz words may mean the resume is embellished. The resume creates apprehension in the minds of the verification company’s experts.

Behaviour on Social Media ///platforms

In today’s digital era, the employee verification process involves an overview of social media activities. The aim is to identify posts that can negatively impact the employer’s image in association with the employee. It also helps to assess the personality of the candidate. As per the research, about 43% of the employee verification companies use social media tracking to judge prospective candidates.

Utilising Modern Day Tools

Many employee verification companies use tool to make the process quick and smooth. These tools evaluate competence and operational integrity of a candidate. Most of these tools are especially aligned for senior resource verification as it helps to onboard senior leaders more likely to fit with an organisation’s culture.

Final words

Looking into the past work history of a candidate creates insights into the job stability while helping to assess the personality of the candidate. The help of employment verification company helps organisations hire the correct candidates, leading to long-term employee-employer partnerships while promoting productivity and authenticity.