What Is the Difference Between a Reference Check and Employment Verification?

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A Reference check and an employment verification are two completely different steps in the hiring of an employee.  The stage at which they both take place is basically the only thing that they have in common.  Let’s begin answering the question above by breaking the two actions down with definitions.

Reference Check-  The process of getting information about a person from previous employers, schools, colleges, or other available sources including professional and personal peers.  

Employment Verification:  The practice of verifying the employment eligibility and the past work history of current or potential employees.  http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/employment-verification.html

A reference check is a much broader tool than an employment verification.  It uses varying methods of collecting information from multiple sources which cover many aspects of the prospective employee’s life.  

The most frequently used sources:

  • Former managers in the workplace

  • Former peers in the work space

  • Current outside interest peers

  • Family members

  • Religious group peers

Areas of interest include:

  • Demonstrated work ethic

  • Personality traits

  • Cultural fit

  • Past behaviors as predictors of future behavior

  • Punctuality

In the past, most employers have conducted reference checks themselves. The outdated process consisted of:

  • Collecting the reference information from the candidate

  • Phoning each reference individually and asking a series of questions

  • Documenting responses for record keeping purposes

This process is time consuming and labor intensive. Advances in technology can automate the process for greater efficiency and improved time management.  www.reflynk.com

Employment verification has a narrower focus than reference checks. The sole purpose of employment verifications is to confirm the various aspects of a candidate’s work history, such as:

  • Employment dates

  • Employment positions and responsibilities

  • Salary history (in some cases)

In some cases, the employment verification can include verifying Education Certification or License Certification.

Some of this verification is still done manually, but there are multiple database sources that companies can access to verify information.  In many cases, this can be done in conjunction with a background check.

Reference checks cover a much broader range of sources over a greater number of topics. Employment verifications simply verify information that was given during the application process.  These two time consuming but necessary steps of the hiring process are vital to considering a candidate’s suitability for employment.