Former Employment Verification
The reasoning behind this is that companies do not want to expose themselves over anything negative that they might “officially” say about former employees.
Because of that, companies may outsource their personnel records to national clearinghouses (i.e., The Work Number, Equifax Verification Services, etc.). These clearinghouses relieve HR departments of constantly responding to former employment verification requests. In addition, it protects them from an employee giving out “too much” information that can be considered derogatory or biased.
HR Managers and background check companies (CRAs) must pay a fee to access those personnel records.
Turnaround time: anywhere from 1 hour to 3 business days. Price: $18 +third-party fees (In the event that employer outsources personnel records to Equifax Verification Services (The Work Number) their third-party fee is $41.25
See also reference checking
The main reason to use a third-party verification company is to insulate the employer from potential bias liability litigation by not having an HR person search on their own. Just look at all the multi-million settlement awards caused by misinformed HR managers thinking they were heroes by saving their company $25.
Sample Former Employment Verification
an employee of the center.
Verified by Ron Gutsey – Director of HR.