Category: Verification of Employment

According to cnbc.com, 78% of employees lie during the hiring process.  Many of these falsehoods are on resumes.  Since it is not illegal to lie on a resume, most companies use some form of employment verification to ensure the accuracy of a candidate’s work history.  On the other hand, employers must comply with legal requirements when providing employment information on current or past employees.  

Verification of employment (VOE) requests can come from a number of sources:

• Government agencies
• Lenders
• Collection Agencies
• New employers

In most instances, they are looking for information on employment dates, wages, and the potential of continued employment.  Potential employers may ask for the reason for termination and the possibility of rehiring. 

What Information Should Be Provided?

Information requests fall into two groups:

• Employment Verification
• Income Verification

Each state has rules governing the information that can be released.  For example, some states such as California and New York prohibit employers from releasing salary information to potential employers.  The best option is to ask employees to sign a consent to release information form before releasing employee-specific data.

Federal law prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, age, disability, nation of origin, or genetic profile.  It’s essential that an organization have well-defined policies regarding VOE information to avoid possible violations.

Employment Verification

Potential employers want to verify that an employee worked at the companies listed in their work history.  Typical VOE requests ask for the following:

• Employee Name
• Employee Job Title
• Employment Dates
• Employer’s Address

In some cases, they may ask about job responsibilities or performance. Answering these questions during the hiring process can prove problematic.  It is recommended that employers only provide additional information after consulting with legal experts.

Income Verification

States vary on whether salary information can be provided during the hiring process.  Be sure to check with state regulations before releasing wage or salary information.  Employees may want employers to release income information as part of loan application processing.  Government agencies may need information if employees or former employees are applying for assistance.  Consider establishing a policy that requires employees to provide written consent to release income information.  

Circumstances that may require the release of income data may include:

• Loan Approvals:  Buying or refinancing a home requires income data to ensure that the loan terms can be met.
• Credit Applications:  Granting a person’s credit request depends on credit score as well as the ability to repay.  
• Garnishment:  If an employee receives a court-ordered garnishment such as child support or back taxes, income information will be required to determine the amount of the garnishment.  
• Lease Agreements:  Property managers may require verification of income to ensure the tenants can manage monthly payments.  

 Before releasing information, check with the employee.

When Should Information Be Provided?

The only time an employer must comply with a VOE request is when it comes from a government agency.  These requests will often be very specific and include a reference to a legal statute supporting the request.  The request should also have a comply-by-date.  If it does not, contact the issuing agency for clarification, although it is always advisable to respond to a government request as quickly as possible.

Government Requests

Government agencies may need to verify income to determine child support or alimony payments.  They may request information to help with possible identity theft or confirm fraudulent use of government funds or services.  As long as the information is accurate and given in good faith, an employer should not suffer any adverse effects.

Private Requests

Employers are under no obligation to release information to lenders or other private companies.  However, withholding that information places employees at a disadvantage.  With the number of attempts to steal identities, employers may want to require that employees notify them of potential requests.   Providing employees with a form to date and sign is an easy way to receive notification and signed consent for the release of information.

If contacted by a prospective employer, a current or former company should provide the basic information for employment verification.  Any information beyond the basic should only be provided with the signed consent of the employee.  In some instances, additional information may be needed for individuals working in industries such as education or health care.  Be sure to check with local authorities for guidance.

Third-Party Requests

Requests from third parties such as collection agencies should be ignored; however, employers should check with legal authorities to prepare a policy for handling requests by a third party.

When Should Health and Disability Data Be Provided?

All information regarding an employee’s health or disability status is protected by law.

• The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 makes it illegal to discriminate based on a disability.
• The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 protects a person’s health information from release to unauthorized individuals.

Information related to an employee’s health or disability should never be released without consent. When to Get Help?

As a small employer, you may have a few routine VOE requests in a year — maybe every two or three years.  For larger organizations, the number of VOE requests can be significant, especially in times of high unemployment or a booming housing market.  Given the amount of processing time involved, the cost of in-house VOE can run into the thousands.

It’s not just the direct cost of an individual’s time but also the opportunity cost resulting from the person focusing on VOE responses rather than a solution with more impact on the bottom line.  If you’re interested in seeing how much Quentelle’s solution can save you, check out our savings calculator.  Then, contact us to schedule a demo.  

Trust is one of the most important things between an employer and employee. It’s vital that you, as an employer, be able to trust each member of your team to accurately represent their capabilities and perform at that level. Just as it’s essential that employees can trust their employers to provide a stable, safe workplace and reliable paychecks. However, trust doesn’t come from no-where. It is built during the hiring process. A big part of that is verification of employment (VOC).

When you meet a candidate for the first time, your judgment of them should be a blank slate.  They could be your next all-star team member, or they could be someone with a spoofed resume and a few interview buzz-words to throw around. While interviewers are only human and can be fooled by impressive false employment history mixed into legitimate resumes, verification ensures that you pick the right person every time.

Verification of Employment:

• Increases hiring accuracy and future candidate success
• Creates accountability among the professional workforce
• Gives you a real insight into candidate experiences
• Avoids the risk of misinformed hiring decisions

Why Verification of Employment is Important

There’s no denying that accurate information about job candidates is essential. Knowing a candidate’s past job history can reveal insights into what they can do, what they have experience with and even the work cultures they are familiar with. It can show you, someone who’s risen through the ranks, remained solid in what they do, someone who is brand new with potential, or an old-hand looking for a new home. But inaccurate job histories, therefore, can lead to misunderstandings and even dangerous over-estimation of a new hire’s capabilities if those inaccuracies become successful deceit. This is why VOE is essential for finding good hires, but why is it also so pervasively necessary?

Why Professionals Write False Job Histories

The challenge is that many hiring industry flaws can lead to an inaccurate resume.

1. The Resume Padding Tradition

First, millions of professionals today were taught by their first (and later) job coaches to “pad” resumes a little to make them look better to a new employer. It’s one thing to choose bullet-points over paragraph form or list charity work as past employment. It’s another to fabricate employers, roles, and job duties, but many well-meaning people were misdirected to do this. Resume-padding can vary from mild upgrades in job-title to completely falsified past experiences. Some are trying to cover job gaps or avoid awkward questions. All of these types of resume-padding are extremely common, and professionals are often trained not even to see this as real deception, just actualized ambition.

Resumes padded in this way may indicate a valuable employee who just needs re-coaching in how to accurately write a still-flattering resume.

2. The Rare Con-Artist

Second, there are always a few people who intend to be deceptive. There are those who would rather a high paycheck and eventual failure over legitimately earning a job with their real work history. There are truly deceptive people who are looking to scam a few good paychecks out of a job they’re not qualified for. Most people are earnest and genuinely want a good-fitting job but maybe misled about how to write a resume. But every hiring manager must stay on their toes for the occasional true con-artist coming through the candidate process with a falsified resume and interview buzz-words.

Resumes found to be fully falsified, naturally, are a bad sign for the candidate as a new hire.

3. The Over-Confident

Third, we commonly see candidates who are very confident in their abilities even if their real job history doesn’t reflect the assumed capability. Optimistic and over-confident candidates are more susceptible to resume-padding than most. Those with a less solid grip on professional ethics and those who have been tragically mis-trained in job-seeking are inclined to fabricate the employment experiences that will “win” the job they want. These candidates may approach their resume more like a magazine essay contest, where the most confident interviewer with the best-written fiction may win the job.

Over-confident resume fabrication can be re-coached, depending on the nature and extent of the deception and – often – the age of the candidate. Very young candidates who have misunderstood the process may not be poor hires in the long-run.

4. The Recruiter Resume Deception

The fourth, final, and most frustrating source of falsified job histories is recruiter services. You may have seen this before or have been lucky in your employer-recruiter partnerships. However, the nature of the recruiter industry can lead to some deception. Consider that recruiters (independent and companies) are often paid for a stack of resume recommendations, provided the resumes are well-suited to the roles. Recruiters have been known to use more than a few underhanded tactics to get this commission. In addition to poaching attempts and dummy job listings, some recruiters will also add “keywords” to a candidate’s resume or fill an employment gap with an extended or fake work history. Often, candidates don’t even know that their resumes have been altered before submission to the employer, so falsified resumes from recruiters should result in consultation with the candidate instead of disqualification.

The Right Way to Verify Employment

There are several traditional and technological ways to approach employment verification. The old-fashioned way is to call the employee’s past managers and confirm their employment, role, and performance over the phone. However, with limited time, availability, job politics, and teamwork deception, this approach has a few informational flaws for absolute verification. It’s time to turn to technology.

Today’s hiring managers are looking to the information age and industry software for solutions. For the real report on a candidate’s job history and work experience, you need a service you can trust to provide accurate, discreet resume confirmations. Verification of employment is essential for accurate and successful job hiring. Contact us today to find out more or consult for a quote on your company’s VOC needs.

In 2017, one of the largest data breaches in history occurred, impacting 143 million US consumers. Data breaches are a regular thing, to the point where smaller breaches don’t even make the news anymore. They do, however, impact millions of people every year.

The fear of a data breach is a huge pain point for employers who have an employee needing employment or income verification. Data security improvements, however, can help both companies and employees feel comfortable when verification is needed.

When is Employment or Income Verification Needed?

Most employees rarely need employment or income verification, but when they do the need is significant and urgent. For the most part, verifications are needed to apply for a loan, when changing jobs, and when soliciting government assistance. Some landlords may also request employment and income verification as part of the tenant screening process.

It’s vital for employees that verification is done quickly and securely. The general process is that the lender or other third party will contact the employer and for verifications. This can lead to a potential security risk for your employee’s personal data, and because of this employers may often be reluctant to give any information.

Why Do Companies Outsource Employment Verification?

For small companies, dealing with very occasional inquiries can generally be handled by someone in Payroll or HR without much of an issue. Larger companies, however, typically outsource this function. There are a couple of reasons to do this. The first is that employment verification is a rote task that can be very time-consuming. The other is that a specialist can provide consistent information quickly. In fact, third party administrators have figured out ways to automate the completion of verifications, and report back to the employer on how many requests are coming in.

However, this also brings up reasonable concerns about data breaches. The companies handling this data are obvious targets, due to the number of records they are working with. There are also privacy and compliance concerns.

This means that companies need to choose a provider that is taking steps to secure the data and protect the privacy of the company and its employees at all times.

What Should You Ask Your Vendor?

There are a few things you should ask or check with a potential verification of employment vendor. The first is who is allowed access to their data. In some cases, vendors may allow unlimited access to certain third parties, such as debt collectors.

This is an obvious security loophole; avoid any vendor that gives unlimited access to anyone except government agencies as required by law. While debt collectors may be authorized to request information, nobody should be poking through the database without some checks.

Also ask your vendor what they are doing to comply with various privacy laws. For example, if you have employees in California, the CCPA applies. Make sure that your vendor covers every employee you have, even employees residing overseas. Be honest with a potential vendor about the locations of remote employees and make sure that they can handle your specific situation.

You should also talk to your vendor about improved security practices. For example, it is good practice to minimize the use of Social Security Numbers so they are stored in fewer places. You should also make sure that your own systems are kept patched and up-to-date.

Finally, make sure you know exactly how they are processing any personal data. Check reports regularly to ensure nothing odd is going on. You have a certain shared responsibility with them to ensure that data breaches don’t happen.

Be transparent with your employees and provide them with this information. In the past, employees have been surprised to be involved in a breach when they did not know that their data was being processed by a third party.

How Else Can I Protect My Employees?

First of all, make sure to choose a verification of employment provider who has not recently experienced a major breach or who, if they have, have been very transparent about how they intend to fix the issue.

Remember that whoever you choose will have access to your employees’ most sensitive information and that you hold if not legal, then at least ethical responsibility to protect that information.

Also make sure that your own HR systems are patched and secure and that all employees are trained not to give out sensitive information. If somebody calls asking for verification of employment, train all employees to redirect that person to your VOE vendor rather than giving anything out; an experienced provider will know how to ensure that the person is indeed authorized to get that information. Without that check it’s possible to give out sensitive information to, for example, a stalker.

If there is a breach, you are responsible for informing your employees and giving them advice on  how to prevent identity theft. At the very least, affected employees should freeze their credit report so that inquiries on their credit cannot be made without permission.

What Else Should You Look For?

Look for a company that has a good reputation and is getting good references and reviews. Make sure that they are known for being reliable and providing accurate information to both you and third parties requesting information. A mistake in employment verification can cost your employee a lot, especially if they are trying to purchase a home or take out another large loan.

Also choose a company that has a focus on cybersecurity. It should be one of the top things they talk about, along with accurate reporting. A company that also offers security services may be a good choice. Smaller providers may or may not be better, but can offer customized solutions that also help with payroll and taxes.

If you are looking to outsource verification of employment, one of your primary concerns is going to be the security of the data and the privacy of your valued employees. Quentelle offers the highest levels of security, having developed solutions after the large breach in 2017 designed to ensure that their clients are as protected as possible.

Contact us to find out about our VeriSafeJobs secure, automated verification of employment solution with powerful, accurate reporting, SOC I & II certification, and an easy to understand interface.