How to Verify a Candidate's Employment History (and Draft the Request)

To verify employment history, ask the candidate which employers and dates to confirm, get their consent, then ask each past employer's HR team to confirm job title and dates of employment. Many employers will confirm only those facts. Keep the request short, give a deadline, and treat a difference as a question to put to the candidate, not as proof of dishonesty.

What to verify

Verify the facts that matter to the decision: the employer, the job title or titles, the start and end dates, and for senior roles the scope of the role. Do not try to verify everything. Choose the roles that matter most for this hire, usually the most recent and any that the job depends on.

Get consent and the right contact

Tell the candidate which employers you will contact and why, and get their consent. Ask for an HR or payroll contact if they have one, because a general inbox is slower and the line manager may not be the right person to answer. Be careful about contacting a current employer. Many candidates do not want that until an offer is made and conditions are met.

What to ask

Ask for confirmation of job title, dates of employment and, if the employer allows it, whether the person is eligible for rehire. Keep to facts. Companies often have a policy of giving only title and dates because of legal risk, so a short answer is normal and not a bad sign.

A short request template

Subject: Employment verification for [Name]. Hello, [Name] has applied for a [role] at [our company] and told us they worked at [past employer] as [title] from [start] to [end]. Could you please confirm their job title or titles and their dates of employment? Please reply by [date]. Thank you, [your name], [company].

When the answer does not match

Dates that are a month or two off, or a title that was changed internally, are usually honest differences. Ask the candidate to explain and, if useful, to provide a document such as a payslip or contract. A difference is a question first and only a concern if the explanation does not hold.

Track it

Record who you asked, when, the answer and the date it came back. Chase requests that have gone quiet, and keep the result with the candidate's record.

In Rezumz

Rezumz lets you add an employment verification as a check on the candidate, with the contact's name, company, email and phone. It writes the request email for you to copy or open in your email app, and you can mark it in progress when sent, then done or failed with notes and a link to the response. Open and overdue checks are listed in the tracker.