What Is Employment Verification?

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What Is Employment Verification?

What Defines Employment Verification?

When you’re taking the chance of hiring someone, you’ll want to know who they are and where they’ve worked, which involves knowing the details of employment verification. Employment verification is used to make sure that your potential hire and their skills and background align with your business’s culture, needs, and trajectory. At Brightwing, our mission is to find your team a perfect match. With our three-stage qualification process, we’ll ensure that your new candidate is prepared to join your team. We take employment verification seriously, so that your business has only the most qualified employees. 

Verification of Employment

The process of verification of employment consists of multiple different parts. When you choose Brightwing, you’re leaving this involved process to us, so you can focus on your business. Verification of employment includes certifying candidates’ past forms of employment to make sure that they are qualified to work for you. It also may include dates of employment, salary information, and job role details. Employment verification can also entail conducting background checks on your prospective candidates. We’ll go into the importance of background checks later on, but for now, let’s explore why employment verification is crucial as you look for new team members. 

Importance of Verification of Employment

At Brightwing, our expert recruiters are highly knowledgeable in their field of specialization. They know what to look for when finding the best candidates for your company. Since our recruiters are experienced in IT, engineering and design, financial services, and operations, they are prepared to look at the fine details of verification of employment for your potential candidates. Unfortunately, sometimes, candidates may falsify information they provide on their resumes or CVs. At Brightwing, our purpose is to make sure that a candidate’s information is correct. 

Employee Verification

When we conduct employee verification, we ensure that your candidates’ credentials are true and up to par. We may contact a candidate’s past employer to double-check that they worked there, and what the details of their past role were. By doing so, employment verification determines how a candidate’s past job experience aligns with your business needs. When you choose Brightwing for employee verification, you can find out details about your candidate before you even meet them. Employee verification can also save your company time and money. Instead of finding out that your new employee falsified their credentials and is unqualified for a job, hiring professional employee verification will save you from having to hire someone again on such short notice. This includes running a background check on your candidates before you hire them.

How Does a Background Check Verify Employment?

Background checks are a crucial part of the employee verification process. A background check can take between 48 hours and five business days, which is a small time to wait to ensure that your business receives a high-quality and skilled candidate. There are many parts that make up the answer to “How does a background check verify employment?”, so let’s go through each one:

Employment History

Checking your candidate’s employment history guarantees that the candidate provided their true qualifications on their application. This also certifies that their past jobs and experience align with what you’re looking for in a potential hire. But how does a background check verify employment? During a background check, we may contact the candidate’s past employers to confirm that they did work there and that they had the role that they provided. This step is vital, after all, we want your candidates to be more than prepared for your company’s needs. 

Education History

As part of a background check, we can confirm the details of your candidate’s education. Details like what college they went to, their GPA, and even transcripts may appear during a background check, to verify that your candidate’s academic training aligns with your job listing. A strong and consistent academic record can indicate success in the corporate world, as well as previous work experience. 

Criminal Records

Background checks also include finding out if your candidate has any prior convictions, either misdemeanors or felonies. Depending on the state, however, there are restrictions on what and how far back an employer can look for prior convictions. At Brightwing, we handle the details of your candidate’s background check so you can continue to focus on your business. We understand the importance of making sure that your candidates are cleared to work for your company.

Credit Reports

Although we won’t see a candidate’s credit score, we can get a number of details from a credit report that can help us determine if they’re suitable for a role. A bad credit report may indicate that the candidate is irresponsible or in financial distress. A credit report can detail debt, open lines of credit, missed payments, and more. For a role that requires good organization, a good credit report can help us find responsible candidates. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it highlights the most common aspects of a background check. By answering “How does a background check verify employment?”, we’ve shown that verification of employment is an important part of the hiring process. By allowing a professional recruiting firm such as Brightwing to conduct background checks, we can finely sift through the details of your candidates’ past experience.  Choosing a professional talent acquisition firm such as Brightwing allows you to focus on your business while we handle the verification of employment. Employment verification ensures that we find you top-notch candidates with skills and experience that match your company’s needs. By confirming their past professional roles, education, and background, we provide your business with candidates ready to handle the job. Our goal is to increase job posting awareness, manage the hiring process, and increase retention rates, all while you focus on your business. At Brightwing, our expert recruiters have training in many different fields and are skilled in the hiring process. Our experts will work with you and your business closely so that we find only the best matches for your job postings and company culture. Share This Post [social-share] More Like This

Why Your Next Best Role Could Be a Contract Position

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Why Your Next Best Role Could Be a Contract Position BY MICK NARUSCH VP, Practice Development It’s no secret that we’re in the middle of a national talent shortage. And, unfortunately, the data seems to indicate that we’re in this for the long haul. According to new research from Korn Ferry, there will likely be 85 million jobs unfilled between now and 2030 due to talent shortages, creating over $8.5 trillion in unrealized revenues during that time period. This is true not only across the board, but also in specific sectors:
  • Automotive. The U.S. will be short approximately 642,000 automotive, diesel, and collision technicians by 2024 if current trends hold, according to a new study by TechForce Foundation.
  • IT & Tech. The latest U.S. labor statistics indicate that IT saw 1.4 million unfilled jobs at the end of 2020, with only 400,000 qualified candidates graduating each year.
  • Financial Services. According to Cerulli Associates, retirement is on the horizon for the majority of wealth advisors, as the average age is 51 and 43% are over the age of 55. In contrast, just 10% of wealth advisors are under the age of 35.
In the past, many of these companies would provide 1-2 year contracting opportunities for new employees, enabling them to get some time working for the company before they commit to a full-time role. However, thanks to these massive talent shortages, many of these companies are skipping the “test” period and offering more full-time hire roles. You may be thinking: That’s great! A full-time role is better than a contractor role, right? Well, it depends. There are certainly plenty of advantages that come with a full-time role. However, there are other unique benefits that happen when you work as a contractor. Here are some of the reasons why you should seriously consider contract work when jumping to your next opportunity.  

Wage & compensation increases.

  Generally speaking, highly skilled contractors can receive greater compensation than those who choose a standard career path. Because employers aren’t on the hook for paying for taxes or benefits, they’ll often offer a more competitive wage. And since contractors have to pay a self-employment tax and cover their own benefits, they’ll demand that higher wage as well. In many industries, especially automotive, engineering, IT, and finance, there’s another factor at play: the temporary nature of contract work. It’s common in these industries for employers to look for experienced leaders with deep expertise and leadership to shepherd temporary (e.g. 12-24 month) projects. However, because they can’t guarantee additional work after that, they’re willing to pay a premium to attract highly competitive talent. Finally, because contracting consists of an hourly rather than full-time wage, there’s a strong possibility that you’ll be working some overtime hours. All in all, the financial bottom line of working as a contractor is very positive for experienced professionals, which is why you should consider it as an option for your next career step.  

Direct hire roles aren’t inherently more stable.

  One of the common objections to contract roles is that there’s a tremendous amount of direct hire opportunity out there that you’re competing against. Many roles seven to eight years ago that were exclusively contractors are now direct hire. For candidates, there’s a clear reason why a direct hire role beats a contractor position: direct hire roles provide career stability, while contractor roles do not. But the numbers just don’t bear that out. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average tenure of a full-time employee in a given job was 4.1 years, as of January 2020. Given the massive hits that companies took post pandemic, we can probably safely assume that this number is much lower now. And according to our own research here at Brightwing, 54% of the professionals we surveyed believe that job security is either rare or a myth entirely. The point is: a full-time, direct hire role isn’t going to provide the long-term security that you’re looking for necessarily. So that should be enough to at least keep the possibility of working as a contractor open.  

Contracting may lead you to your dream company.

  If there’s a certain company that you really want to work for, contracting may be the best way to get your foot in the door. Although many companies are shifting to more direct hire roles, there are still a number of benefits they get from hiring contractors:
  • A test period to make sure that they’ve brought on the right person before making a long-term commitment
  • Fewer costs (training/onboarding, benefits, unemployment, etc.)
  • Flexibility (on both sides of the equation)
  • A development period to see if a candidate can grow into a particular role if they’re short of a few skills
If you rule out contracting roles altogether, you’re probably going to end up missing a great potential opportunity.  

Final thoughts: You’re not in this alone.

  Before we wrap things up, it’s important to note the main reason that people take a full-time role: the benefits. Indeed, although there are plenty of compelling reasons to go out on your own, it’s hard to turn away the health insurance, vision, dental, vacation time, 401k, and more. That’s one of the reasons that Brightwing works to provide that necessary support to our contractors. If you work with us, we provide all of the necessary benefits so your life can remain on solid footing. On top of that, we also have people actively searching on your behalf for new opportunities. So when one contract comes to a close, you’ll have another one teed up and ready to go.

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Mythbusters: 4 Common Misconceptions About Contract Employment

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Mythbusters: 4 Common Misconceptions About Contract Employment BY MICK NARUSCH VP, Practice Development COVID-19 brought a lot of disruption into the job market. But one of the biggest disruptions was shattering the illusion that there’s such a thing as job security.  The economy can take a downturn at any point. When that happens, companies will do whatever they can to stay afloat, and that often means letting go of personnel.  When you realize that, a natural question comes up: why am I staying at this full time gig anyway?  

Contracting in the Modern Economy

  In the modern economy, contract work is just as reputable a career path as traditional employment; not just for the employee, but the employer as well:  
  • Lower costs to train and onboard, as well as fewer fringe benefits
  • The ability to test a candidate in a short time frame before making a full-time offer
  • Flexibility (on both sides of the equation)
  • Willingness to take a risk on a candidate who aspires to a higher position, to see whether they can grow into the role
Unfortunately, the benefits to you, the employee, are often obfuscated by some common myths surrounding contract work. So in this article, we’re going to take the time to do some mythbusting. Let’s take four common misconceptions about contractor employment, and show you what the truth is actually like.   

Myth #1: Contracting is just for entry-level employees.

  A number of companies use contracting or contract-to-hire as a way to test out entry-level employees before offering them a full-time role. Because of this, contracting sometimes has a reputation of being an exclusively entry-level option.  But entry-level contractors make up only a segment of the broader contractor community. In fact, it’s common in many industries like IT, automotive, finance, and more for employers to look for experienced contractors with deep expertise, and even leadership experience.  The major reason for that is: these firms engage in projects that are temporary in nature. They may need an experienced engineer to come in for 12 months to shepherd a project through to conclusion, but can’t guarantee more work after that.  On top of that, experienced contractors generally get paid a higher hourly rate than a full-time employee, plus you have the potential to work overtime. So the financial bottom-line could be really beneficial to you.  This is why it’s important to judge each opportunity by the specific role, company, and day-to-day work you’ll be asked to do, not whether it’s contract or full-time.   

Myth #2: Contract work is inherently unstable.

  This myth stems from the idea that full-time employment provides more job security than a contract position. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case, especially considering that most full-time employment roles are entirely “at-will.”  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average tenure of a full-time employee in a given job was 4.1 years, as of January 2020. Given the massive hits that companies took post pandemic, we can probably safely assume that this number is much lower now.  And according to our own research here at Brightwing, 54% of the professionals we surveyed believe that job security is either rare or a myth entirely.  The point is: a full-time role isn’t going to provide the long-term security that you’re looking for necessarily. So that’s really not a compelling reason to discount it entirely.  On top of that, a lot of big companies use contracting as a way to test potential hires before offering them a full-time role. In those cases, taking a contract position is your surest path to a long-term career at that company.  But even if you don’t end up going into a full-time position, that doesn’t mean that your income is going to be in a constant state of flux. We’ve worked with a number of contractors who’ve spent 20+ years working with Brightwing, whether that’s been with recurring projects at a single employer, or working with a number of employers over those years.  

Myth #3: Contracting won’t move your career forward.

  Because most people refer to full-time employment as “career” positions, there’s an unfair assumption that contracting roles are the opposite. Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, contracting could present an incredible opportunity to enhance your current capabilities:
  • Depth of experience. Contract roles are often more focused and project-specific than full-time roles, allowing you to focus on building skills in one specific area. 
  • Breadth of experience. When you work in a variety of contract roles over time, you can build up different experiences that you wouldn’t get if you stayed in a full-time position.  
  • Repositioning. You may have an array of experience within your particular sector, but maybe you want to take a different role than the one where you currently have experience. Taking a contract position can help you upskill and reposition your career without having to take a step back. 
Most of the time, big brands won’t hire you unless you have experience working for another big brand. If you lack that experience, your entry into that role will almost certainly have to come through a contract position. In that case, jumping on board as a contractor will certainly be a step forward, rather than a step back.   

Myth #4: Contracting means you’re all on your own. 

  This is probably the myth that gets us the most fired up, because it hits close to home.  Just because you take a contract position doesn’t mean that you’re left without anyone to support you. In fact, that’s exactly why Brightwing is here to help.  We serve as a trusted partner to help you become successful in your contracting career:
  • We screen potential opportunities to make sure they’re a good fit
  • We negotiate on your behalf to the client to get you the best possible rate
  • We provide highly competitive benefits, as if you were our full-time employee
  • We are constantly on the lookout for new opportunities before your current contract is up, so you shouldn’t have any gaps
With a trusted partner like Brightwing, you’re bound to be successful in whatever role you take next. All you have to do is go for it. 

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