Imagine hiring an employee for a top leadership role after a long and elaborate interview process, and later discovering the candidate is underqualified for the desired role.
The hiring decision was made considering the past employment history but you realised it didn’t turn out to be the best one, maybe because of the certain employment gaps that you ignored in the first or false information presented by the candidate.
In the race to seize the best job, the best opportunity for career growth, many candidates tend to lie about their experience, education as well as licensing. It doesn’t necessarily indicate a fishy motive behind it, but it still becomes important to check the candidate’s employment history to protect your company’s efficiency, ROI, and reputation. Employment verification helps you build a solid foundation of efficiency and trustworthy workforce and is a critical step in hiring new employees. It is the most effective way to create, develop, and keep a solid workforce in the first place
Why is employment background verification important?
Conducting employment checks for background verification has been instrumental in hiring the right candidates and preventing any mishaps due to fake employment claims in the resume or during the interview process.
According to AuthBridge’s data analysis, around 15% of candidates presented falsified information on their resumes in 2017. As per a study conducted in 2022 by ResumeLab, it has been found that 93% of people know someone who lied on their resume about their employment history – presenting twisted work titles, exaggerated job responsibilities, work experience.
With the number of candidates providing false employment information and fabricating job titles increasing every year, the stakes of a wrong hire have become much higher. A detailed employment check can be beneficial to catch experience gaps, a discrepancy in skills, and false information before getting a candidate into the system. Moreover, you will get valuable insights into the past responsibilities, work attitude, and job titles of your potential candidates.
Especially when you are going from entry-level hiring to mid/senior-level hiring, employment verification cannot take a backseat.
- Ensuring workplace efficiency: In case the hired candidate lacks a specific skill set or experience for the required role, it directly hampers the overall work efficiency. Strict employment screening can help you hire suitable employees who are qualified for their positions.
- Reducing legal liability: If the candidate is found to have a discrepancy in the information related to previous employment, the employer may be held liable for negligent hiring.
- Improving hiring decisions: Employment checks can help employers make informed hiring decisions as they get a complete picture of a candidate’s work history, experience, past work responsibilities, and work attitude.
- Protecting the company’s reputation: Hiring candidates with falsified information on their resume can damage the company’s reputation.
Top 7 things that you must keep in place for your employment verification process:
- Mandatory Employment Checks For All Employees
For maximum safety and efficiency, your organisation should have a consistent and fair policy for employment verification that checks the past work employment of every candidate irrespective of the position they are applying for.
There should be no bias or relaxing the rules for any candidate even if they may be applying for leadership positions or are well-respected in the industry.
- Compliance With Employment Background Verification Laws
When conducting an employment verification, you may uncover sensitive information which may not be allowed by law to be included in a background check. There are various legal obligations that you should keep in mind while conducting background checks to avoid any unnecessary lawsuits and legal troubles in the future.
Make sure you partner with leading background verification companies for employment checks to stay in line with the mandatory laws and regulations.
- Choose FCRA Compliant Background Checks
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) can help you find out which background checks you can and cannot include when it comes to information on a candidate’s credit. Not performing FCRA-compliant background checks can expose your business to potential litigation.
Similarly, every country might have associated guidelines like Anti-Money Laundering Policy, etc. to be followed during background verification no matter whether you are conducting employment checks, education checks, criminal checks, reference checks, or so on.
- Partner with leading background verification agencies that are data security compliant
When looking for background verification agencies to work with, make sure they adhere to quality and information security standards and most importantly, are data security compliant. Moreover, choose those third parties who have domain expertise in background verification alone, rather than those who offer a plethora of services without specialising in anything.
- Understand ‘one size does not fit all’. Strict checks for higher positions
While it is important to conduct employment verification processes on all candidates without any kind of discrimination, it is also important to understand that one size does not always fit all. Employment verification packages must be tailored to fit each job position. The more important the position is, the more thorough and stringent the background check should be.
- Always take action as per the employment verification results
If you find anything in the employment background verification results that may affect the candidate’s qualification for the job position, make sure to take the necessary action. Don’t just conduct background checks just for the sake of it. Always follow through to mitigate risks for your organization.
- Be transparent with candidates regarding the employment verification results
Whatever the result of your employment verification may be, always be transparent about it with the candidates. You have to inform them about your findings, and if there is anything questionable, allow them to explain and justify themselves. One must ensure that the background verification process is a win-win for both the employer and the employee and that the experience is seamless for both parties.
AuthBridge is India’s leading Background Verification (BGV) Company. Write to us at sales@authbridge.com or visit contact us page for more information.
