Employment Verification

This article will help you:

• Understand the Employment Verification process
• Decide when to include Employment Verifications in your background check package
• Configure your Employment Verification options
• Understand your candidate's experience

This article is intended for the following user roles: admin, adjudicator, user

Employment Verification typically searches up to three past employers in the past seven years.

Verification Process

Verifying past employment history validates a person’s work experience. It can also be useful in identifying gaps in the candidate’s employment history. Checkr makes three attempts to verify the information a candidate provides about their employment history:

• First Attempt: We check established databases that maintain employment records on millions of Americans.
• Second Attempt: A researcher will contact the employer directly, using the information provided by the candidate.
• Third Attempt:Finally, Checkr will try to contact the listed company by reaching out to someone within the company other than the contact provided.

Notes are made on each of these three attempts, which you can view in real time by looking at the candidate’s report.

If previous employers cannot be verified, Checkr will generate an exception, and request that the candidate upload a W2, a letter from their former HR department on company letterhead, or an old pay stub to the Applicant Portal.

Any significant discrepancies in start date, end dates, and position (titles) will lead to a Consider status for employment verification. You'll see a "warning" icon (⚠) appear next to the information that contains a discrepancy.

Available Employment Verification Options

The following Employment Verification setting options are available. The default setting is noted below and is automatically enabled on your account unless otherwise stated. Please contact Checkr Customer Support if you’d like to change these settings.

• Preferred position matching for collecting candidate’s last three or current employers: Very Strict, Strict (default), or Lenient. This controls how strictly we match the positions we found to the ones that the candidate entered.
• Match start and end date within: 1 (default), 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 months.
• Collect salary information from candidate: Yes (default), or No. Please contact Customer Success if you offer employment in a state that does not allow previous salary collection. 
• Collect contract type from candidate: Yes (default), or No.
• International employment verification enabled (default) or disabled. These verifications will take longer and additional fees apply.

Candidate Experience

Employment Verifications may be run as a standalone Screening.

Candidates will be asked to provide their employment history, including job title, manager, and location, for a client-defined number of years and previous employers.

They will then be presented and asked to acknowledge receipt of applicable forms and notifications, including Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and an Acknowledgment and Authorization for Background Check.

After the candidate consents, Checkr will initiate the verification process.

If previous employers cannot be verified, candidates may also be asked to provide a W2, a letter from their former HR department on company letterhead, or an old pay stub.

If you've applied for a job and are looking for more information on your background check’s status or progress, please log into the Checkr Applicant Portal.