What is employment verification, and how can it keep you from falling prey to resume fraud?

There are many ways that candidates can commit resume fraud when applying for jobs: lying about their experience or education, exaggerating duties or management experience, or even omitting details such as their reason for leaving a previous job. The only surefire way to protect your business from fraud is to verify the candidate’s education and employment history. But what is employment verification, and how can you use it to find the best possible candidates for your company? Consider the recent case of a Virginia elementary school principal that resigned when a background check revealed that he had not completed college. The man worked in the school district for five years — two of those years as a principal — and it wasn’t until a background check was conducted during his fifth year that his resume fib was discovered. These kinds of stories are hardly a rarity anymore, as it has become so easy to verify employment history and education. The problem is that too many businesses are skipping that step in favor of saving a couple bucks and getting a candidate in the door immediately. But that tactic can cost your business and the candidate a lot more in the long run. In order to verify a candidate’s employment or education, you should consider hiring a background screening company. Hiring a service whose sole purpose is to conduct background checks takes the pressure off your human resources department, by allowing them to focus on the hiring process instead of spending valuable time trying to get a hold of every candidate’s complete employment or educational history. A screening service like Mind Your Business has the time and resources to devote to tracking down previous employers, even across multiple states or countries. In addition to confirming that the candidate has told the truth about his or her education or employment experiences, background checking companies can also determine if a candidate has a criminal history. While it’s becoming more and more common for states to have ban-the-box laws, some jobs — such as schools, daycares, nursing homes and law enforcement — require candidates to pass all background checks before working with children or the elderly. The Virginia principal should have been required a background check years earlier, but without a screening company, it’s easy for overworked human resources departments or education administrators to get overwhelmed and distracted from its goal of keeping children safe. So what is employment verification? It’s a means of protecting your business, your employees and your finances, by eliminating unqualified candidates immediately from the hiring pool. For more information about education and employment verification services and other good hiring practices, contact Mind Your Business today. photo credit: markgranitz via photopin cc]]>