What are The Key Features & Benefits of Automated Employment Verification Solution?

After the pandemic, many big companies, such as TCS, Accenture, KPMG, Infosys, and others, opened doors for potential candidates for job hiring. The hiring was in bulk hence the company had to manage hundreds and thousands of resumes every day. 

Certainly, they need one best candidate for the job role so, evaluating each resume requires analysis of each candidate’s knowledge, skills, and experience to do the job at hand. 

But, can companies evaluate the candidate just through their resumes? Are resumes the best representation of a candidate’s past employment history?

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As an employer, your responsibility is to hire a candidate with requisite knowledge, skill, and experience for the scalability of the business. But how will you ensure that?

You can verify their past work history for the proof of employment but that too has limitations.

Limitations of Employee Verification –

• Turnaround time is extended because of the employer’s availability.
• Candidates withholding permission to contact their current or past employer.
• Costly employment verification when a former employer is an enterprise corporation.
• Current or past employers are not allowed (legally) to offer insights regarding the job performance of the candidate. 
• Employer business is no longer running, which leaves no scope for candidate verification.

So how can you ensure a top-notch employment verification? Below are certain Dos and Don’ts that can be used, especially for background verification.

Tips to Identify Resume Fraud

You will have to conduct a manual review of the resume so that you can pick the point of doubt. For instance –

• Check if there is a sudden change in the job responsibilities and any unexplained gaps. 
• Check inconsistencies between the cover letter contents and resume contents.
• Also, check the technical knowledge of the candidate by asking technical questions, including specific dates about the job, certifications, & more.
• Conduct a quick test concerning job-specific skills claimed by the applicant in their resume. 

This talk was about background checks. Instead of manual checks, brilliant and creative enterpautomated employment verification, automated payroll verification, kpmg background verification timelinerise software development companies have introduced employee verification solutions that can quickly eliminate the challenges and exhaustive time spent on each candidate for the open position. Let’s put some light on the best ways of Employee Verification.

Ways to Process Employment Verification 

There are three ways to conduct verification –

Using A Database

Employers can use a third-party database, such as WorkNumber, that contains information contributed by more than 1.2 million employers, which helps in verifying past employers. The database allows employers to request employment verification directly to gain insights seamlessly in order to work on the upcoming processes quickly.

Manual Verification

This method is the conventional and most common method applied by employers and HR teams to verify the candidates. Under this process, the employers –

• Receives a resume.
• Call each workplace listed on the applicant’s resume for credibility confirmation.
• Obtain confirmation with each company about the candidate’s job title and dates to complete the process.

Collaborating with Third-party Verification Provider

There may be employers that may direct you to a third-party verification provider for detailed information. Usually, third-party providers have a fee that may range from $30 – $75 per inquiry. The process becomes long and expensive hence you can also go for collaborating with a third party to make the process less complex and cost-efficient.

The third-party provider can offer you both employment verification as well as a background check. For background check, ensure that your provider adheres to regulations set out by Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). 

As per the FCRA Act – for pre-employment screening, the employer must inform the applicant of the intention of a background check through a notification, which should include the contact information of the company. 

How Automated Employment Verification Solution Helps

With the assistance of advanced technology, employers can streamline the process of employment verification, saving team time and money.

Standard Timeline  

It is recommended that over 25% of employees require employment verification once a year. However, large organizations send verification requests every day. Companies that still follow the conventional manual verifications have a pay lofty amount on teams as well as invest critical time for this work. For HR managers and employees, this repetitive paperwork and sending faxes is excruciating and a waste of time.

Automating the verification process can quicken the process and reduce the paperwork. Within a few hours, the verification can be completed and eliminate the unnecessary friction between HR and employees. 

Secure and Easy 

The conventional methods, which handled the paperwork, did not ensure the safety and security of the information being exchanged. Hence, early methods had serious privacy concerns, which were automated for enhanced security and privacy with the help of IT professional services providers. 

The technology-integrated automated employment verification software makes it easy for HR’s or employers, as the system can be integrated with their current system.  The automated system can trigger notification emails regarding background verification and complete their verification process. 

However, employers integrating automated verification software must ensure to have a firewall, such as HTTPS, to encrypt data as well as channels. 

Ensure that you share sensitive employee information only after receiving explicit employee approval on the same. 

Cost-effectiveness

Automated software is much more cost-effective compared to conventional methods. As the standards and methods for employment verification change, the economic conditions change. When the budget is cut-down, it also leads to truncated standards and delayed responses to verification requests. All these lead to employee unhappiness, lack of retention, and poor satisfaction with HR.

An automated successful program is no longer dependent on cost. Multiple options are – from in-house automated solutions to outsourcing for free for instant employee verification. The provisions for employment verification are more than ever hence, you can get them under your budget.

More Resources

When you have automated solutions that create secure and reliable sources for immediate fulfillment, with minimal staff time required, you flit your HR and payroll department to more valuable and strategic work. 

The automated verification solution enables instant verification to those who need information verified for the time-sensitive matter. Additionally, you can enjoy all the benefits at no cost to your organization while allowing valuable time for your HR department.

Everything Automated 

An automated system, whether outsourced or integrated, helps employers as well as HR with seamless employment and salary verification. The system also generates a notification for explicit employee permission for verification. Automated web-based systems can also send instant verifications to the verifiers, which are absolutely secure and safe.

Secured Information 

When you outsource the employment verification task, the priority is the security of the information. Automated systems come with security certifications and follow the requisite FCRA for utmost privacy of employee data. Additionally, every verification system has a strong verification policy that ensures compliance and sensitive employee information is protected, which minimizes the risk.

Verification Types

With multiple employment verification software available in the market, many offer types of verification for the employer. However, the most common verification type is Basic Verification. Basic verification offers information regarding employee name, job title, dates of its employment from past to present, and the current status of its employment.

On the other hand, Comprehensive verification offers the basic employee information verification inclusive of the pay frequency and its gross earnings (YTD as well as previous 2-years of earnings).

Frequently Asked Questions About Employment Verification

What information can be extracted from Employment Verification?

Since there are no federal laws implemented to restrict information extraction of the employee. Hence, an employer can retrieve – 

• Reasons for termination.
• Length of employment.
• Knowledge, qualification, and skills.
• Pay level and wage history.
• Professional conduct.
• Job performance.
• Work-related information.
• Disciplinary action.

What is the duration of Employment Verification?

Several factors define the different duration of employment verification. It could take weeks to complete the verification after gathering satisfactory information of the following – 

• The number of applicants being screened.
• Number of jobs each applicant has to verify
• The agility in information retrieval of the applicant’s past information.
• Number of teams working on verification.
• The ease of obtaining correct information about past jobs.

What is the maximum level of background check an employee made?

Only in the past seven years, especially when it comes to the criminal history found in employment verification.

Who legally does employment verification?

Past employers are legalized for employment verification. However, a few states have their laws on type of verification so, depending on the state you live and work in, employment verification takes turns.

It is also not mandatory for the past employer to respond to the verification request unless it is raised from state or federal government agencies.

How to confirm the eligibility of employment?

If the employee is not well-versed with the state or country rules of employment might face criminal fines and penalties. For employment eligibility, an employee must check out the below mentioned –

Form I-9

New hires are liable to fill this form before working in the U.S. The form I-9 demands various documents attested by the employee to support employment authorization, which includes –

• The U.S. Passport
• Native American tribal certificate
• The U.S. Citizen ID card
• Foreign passport with a readable I-551 visa stamp
• Foreign passport with an I-94 form authorizing to work for a specific employer
• Green card/ Permanent resident card
• Birth certificate issued by Department of State 
• Valid Social Security Card

Using E-verify

E-verify is a website operated by the U.S. government for verifying the employment verification of eligible employees. 

The information of a candidate is verified as per Social Security Administration Records and the Department of Homeland Security, ensuring the eligibility of the candidate.

What are the penalties for failing employment eligibility?

Past employers will have to incur severe penalties for failing the employment verification of an employee and hire applicants who are not authorized.

The fines for intentionally recruiting, hiring, or referring unauthorized workers are –

• Civil fines
• Department from future government contracts
• Orders for backpay to the applicant for discrimination
• Criminal fines for any pattern and practice recognized.

To Conclude –

Employers can either go for a third-party system or outsource employment verification to get a background check of employees. Choosing automated systems can reduce efforts and cost for verifying employees with confidentiality. Background verification not just saves time but also saves you from legal penalties and fines while assuring compliance and recruiting the best candidate for the job opening.