Dear Fellow HR Practitioner:
Today you called me for an employment verification. Unfortunately, you did not have the employee’s resume or application and could not tell me when the employee said their last year worked was other than “awhile ago.” I explained to you that this made it difficult for me since our payroll system kicks terminated employees out of the system each year and I have to go into that payroll year to find the employee.
I suggested that maybe I return your call later. You rudely asked “when” and told me you needed the information now. I suggested maybe an hour or two and you grew more annoyed. Then when I graciously continued my search and was able to find the termination year of 1999(!) and years of service you were gruff about the fact that I did not have exact dates immediately available.
Perhaps in the future you should follow these rules when asking for employment verification:
- Have the employee’s name, social security number, and dates they said they were employed available.
- Be gracious for any information you get.
- Understand that it may be difficult to pull information that is over 5 years old.
- Not insist that you need to know the information immediately.
- Not be rude.
Thank you.
June 26, 2008 at 6:54 pm |
My former company has a 1-900# for employers to verify employment. We outsource it. The burden is put on the former employee to give out the 1-900# and any new employer who wants information to call the 1-900#.
It was brilliant.
June 26, 2008 at 6:59 pm |
Laurie – I reached one of those once and it wanted to me to create a login. I decided I didn’t want the information that much!
Really I only get one call a week for employment verification so it’s not a big deal for me to handle them. However, today I had three. Aren’t I lucky?
June 27, 2008 at 8:13 am |
What’s worse is when they call and ask for information from before the company was bought out and under a different name. That was 8 years ago, you think we still have those records? And then they get mad at me.
And I won’t bother with those outsourced vendors. I will not pay to confirm an employment date.
June 28, 2008 at 7:54 am |
I love it! A 1-900#! I wish I’d thought of that!
June 29, 2008 at 4:01 pm |
WHY OH WHY do people think verifying dates of employment from over 5 years ago is necessary? Just call references and call it good. Sheesh.
June 30, 2008 at 4:25 pm |
HR Minion – That’s just it. Sure you can try, just don’t get angry at me when I don’t have the information!
HR Wench – Their excuse was that it was to determine which position the employee would come in at. I felt like just say “Whatever Susie Q says is right.”
June 30, 2008 at 5:17 pm |
One employer doing verifications wanted to ask performance questions and I told them “Not unless we have a release.” They insisted that they had to ask all of the questions on the form even if I was going to refuse every single one of them. I told her that her manager could call me with the authorization if she had a release but that I was not going to waste my time saying no to 25 performance related questions. Sorry HR pros, you aren’t entitled to employment information and you should act like it.
July 1, 2008 at 6:42 pm |
Lance – Maybe they thought you would crack after 10