The process of verifying employment history can be extremely simple, or it can be extremely daunting. First, the applicant must provide consent on the job application. After filling in all the questions, a statement at the bottom should read to the effect of:

“I, the undersigned applicant, hereby authorize the company to obtain and verify verbally, in writing, or electronically such information about my background and qualifications for employment as the company, in its sole discretion, deems relevant to its decision whether to hire me for the position I am applying for, including without limitation professional and personal references, employment verifications, educational verifications, license and credentials, criminal records, motor vehicle records, credit reports, and Social Security number verifications.”

If you want a full consent document, you can find it here or Contact Us and we’ll send it to you directly.

Why did we say employment verifications are simple? Well, if you call the previous employer and they don’t answer your call and no follow-up attempt is made, they’re simple. One attempt and you’re done. The only problem here is the full background investigation is not complete. Although the applicant may be the most qualified for the position, often you won’t be able to proceed with hiring until you get the information verified. If, for example, a salary for a previous job looks suspicious, it is absolutely imperative that every attempt to contact the previous employer is made. Once you know that the information is confirmed, you may proceed with either hiring or denying the applicant for the position.

Then, why are employment verifications daunting? Many HR professionals agree; the labor involved outweighs the value. After hearing time after time, “we only verify dates of employment,” you start to feel like you are getting the corporate run-around. Many also feel that inquiring on an applicant’s credit and criminal background is sufficient. We all know that information costs money, however, some HR departments seem to think that a $4.95 criminal background from the #1 result in Google for background checks is good enough. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that is not the case. In a future blog, we will discuss criminal data but in general terms, criminal information that is distributed from state-sanctioned sources is the same for each and every background check company. If you see an advertisement for a 50-state criminal search, you should be concerned as there are states that do not allow their data to be stored in a database.

In all honesty, tasking an HR analyst with background investigations for all job applicants is pretty exhausting. Think of the process that begins with the job application, then the criminal investigation, followed by the drug screening and finally, the employment verification for all the companies the applicant worked at over the past five years.

The employment verification process may vary based on your protocols, but follow the general steps for a given applicant:

1. You have to call previous employer number one, leave a message.

2. Call previous employer number two, leave a message.

3. Call previous employer number three, speak to someone and get transferred to someone else in HR because the first individual is not authorized to provide any information related to previous employees.

Between all of the voicemails, transfers to someone else, and the line, “we only verify dates of employment,” it’s no wonder you are exhausted.

Let’s face it; information is crucial and quality information costs money. No one would disagree with that statement. Searching for the most cost effective vendor may save you money but the old saying goes “penny wise, pound foolish” has a very broad meaning and companies who tend to follow that statement tend to be burnt in the long run. Not saying that’s the case 100% of the time but you get what you pay for and when you see a report for $4.95, it’s probably worth that and not a penny more.

We would like to thank you for visiting and hope you’ll read our first blog entry. Here’s an introduction of our concept and what we have done to make our clients’ lives easier and separate ourselves from the competition. What is VeraTrack? Well, the word VeraTrack comes from a combination of two words; “vera” comes from verification and track comes from tracking and that’s what we do, track verifications. VeraTrack is a relatively simple concept that was developed to assist human resource professionals in verifying previous employment history and work performance for job applicants.
Months of research and speaking to countless people that work in human resources helped uncover a major deficiency in verifying employment history. Those that were interviewed spend an average of 8 hours per 40-hour work week leaving voicemails, exchanging phone calls, and receiving the dreaded response, “we only verify dates of employment”. This response will be discussed in greater detail in a future blog, but for now, let’s just discuss the issue and how VeraTrack can simplify your job.

The VeraTrack Solution
VeraTrack was designed to help HR professionals and hiring agencies effectively verify employment history. The concept was developed to make the process easier and streamlined by taking the majority of the labor off of the person responsible for this step in the background check process and allowing VeraTrack handle the verification from start to finish.

1. The process begins with entering the job applicant’s information into our system and then typing in the previous employer information. Our system has compiled thousands of companies with their respective contact information so if you type in the first few letters, we’ll start searching for the company that matches the letters you typed in and the remaining fields are populated with the appropriate contact information after the correct company is selected.

2. Hire and termination dates are required since most companies will only verify dates of employment. Supervisor name and salary information are requested however not required.

3. To complete the request, your contact information is requested.

4. Now the work starts and you just sit back and wait for our email that the verification is completed.

5. When the verification is Complete, you will receive an email that links you to the request instantaneously.

The automated process to contact previous employers starts with an email requesting they click on a link that directs them to our secure site where they can begin verifying the information. If no response is given within 24 hours, a second email request goes out. A total of 5 emails set apart by 24-hour intervals are sent to the previous employers and if no response is given, the status of the verification is marked “Incomplete.” Every attempt is made to contact the previous employer — one of the main reasons we are so persistent is because we understand the importance of the information and want our clients to have a complete background investigation on their job applicant.

An email is automatically sent to our customer when the final status of the verification is Complete, Incomplete or Pending. We are working on some additional functionality that will place the completed request in a PDF and will be attached to the email informing our customer that the request is completed.

There you have it, the VeraTrack model and how we have taken a complex process and simplified it by using automated processes to make your life easier and much less stressful. From start to finish, the process could take less than 15 minutes as opposed to countless hours playing phone tag. Ask any question on the blog or Contact Us directly for further information on the process or just have a question in general. We look forward to hearing from you and having you as one of our loyal customers who will use VeraTrack for years to come. Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day!