Employment verification services explained

Employers of all sizes are often called upon to verify the employment details of past or current team members. A number of situations call for employment verification. For example, a company might need to verify the work history of recruits, while a lender would want to confirm a potential customer’s income when deciding whether to extend a new loan or line of credit.

Since the information required to complete an employment verification varies, employers may not know what details to include, or occasionally, who to contact internally to confirm the details. Third-party verification services exist to remove the confusion from the process and allow employers to focus on more mission-critical tasks.

What is employment verification?

Employment verification is the process of proving an employee’s relationship with an employer and other related details.

Employees often seek to verify employment on their own by providing their resume, paystubs, or signed agreements. However, many requests require a formal confirmation from current or past workplaces, so employees often pass requests on to their employers.

What do employment verification services do?

Employment verification services work directly with companies to complete inbound employment verification requests.

They receive requests directly from the company that asked to verify the employment of a past or current staff member, and they contact all relevant members of an employer’s team to gather the requisite information needed. Once they have the necessary information to complete the request, the employment verification service submits the information directly to the party requesting verification.

Benefits of employment verification services explained

Employment verification requests arise for a number of reasons, and employers may not be sure what information is required to adequately respond. Using an employment verification service presents a number of benefits over companies handling the requests themselves.

Automated Response to requests

The most common method for proving employment is the Proof of Employment letter containing an employee's Job Title, Dates of Employment, and occasionally, Responsibilities. If they haven’t created such letters before, employers must generate the documents ad hoc. Services like Truework offer automated letter generation using a few basic details provided by the employer, guaranteeing a proof of employment letter is complete and delivered quickly.

Ensures the security of employees’ information

Employment verification often requires sensitive information, such as an employee’s salary and earnings history. Sending these details through email or other digital channels can compromise the information, so employment verification services often protect these transmissions with best-in-class encryption.

In fact, security is a major priority for employment verification services, and Equifax knows first hand the damage a leak can cause. Over 145 million customers had sensitive credit and employment information leaked (https://www.cnet.com/news/equifaxs-hack-one-year-later-a-look-back-at-how-it-happened-and-whats-changed/) when the company was hacked in 2017. The reputation of their employment verification service, The Work Number, may never recover.

Many employment verification services take an extra step by requiring employee confirmation before sharing sensitive information with third parties. By placing final control of sensitive information sharing back into the employees’ hands, these services help employees remain in control of the process.

Speeds up response time to requests

Many requests, such as those associated with recruiting or financial transactions, are time-sensitive. Employers who handle employment verification requests on their own may find themselves struggling to make timely responses as they wait to collect the answers from different departments. Employment verification services, on the other hand, often enable “one-click” responses from relevant parties via easy channels like email and text message.

Tracks on-going requests during processing

Employers will often have to handle a number of verification requests at once. Although employment verification services handle the brunt of work for a given request, a simple dashboard provided by the service can help companies manage their pipeline and ensure that they’re taking the necessary steps to complete all of the requests on their plate.

Ensures legal compliance

Employment verification laws vary by state. For example, it’s illegal to share salary information during the hiring process in New York City and the State of California. Third-party services usually tailor their information-sharing to local rules and regulations, thus ensuring compliance.

Responding effectively to employment verification requests

Most employers will be asked to verify employment for current or past team members, but these requests can be a distraction from other, more crucial daily operations. Outsourcing employment verification efforts to third-party services helps employers ensure they’re responding appropriately to all requests while removing the burden of collecting all of the requisite information themselves.