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

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.

Candidates will be asked to provide:

• The name(s) of past employers
• Position(s) held
• City, State
• Start Date (month and year)
• End Dates (month and year)
• Employment Type (temp, contractor, full time, etc.)

Candidates will see this information when they initially authorize the background check.

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: A researcher will contact the employer directly, using the information provided by the candidate. 

• Second Attempt: We check established databases that maintain employment records on millions of Americans.
• 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 Checkr is unable to verify via phone call or email, we will generate an exception and ask the candidate to provide documentation via W-2, 1099, paystubs, a letter from the employer on letterhead, or Schedule C by way of our 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 clients@checkr.com if you’d like to change these settings from the defaults.

• 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, or No (default).
• 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.

Note: Many jurisdictions have banned employers from inquiring about a candidate's salary history. Checkr helps you comply with these laws by not asking for salary information when the candidate has entered a zip code from a major state or city that bans salary history information. However, because this regulatory landscape changes frequently, our default option is not to collect salary information from candidates.