What Can an Employer Know About My Previous Employment History During a Background Check?
Previous employment history check is required by almost all companies. Let\’s talk more about it shortly.
Business organizations across the country have been badly hit by the economic downturn that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Many small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) have either shut their operations or have scaled them down substantially. As a result, a large number of American workers are suddenly unemployed.
If you are currently job hunting, you may be wondering what kind of details your prospective employer may find out about your previous employment. Can they discover how many jobs you changed and for how long you held a particular job? Can they find out the reasons why you left a particular company? If you are applying for a new job, it makes sense to know what the prospective employers can legally find out about you.
It is Prudent to be Transparent about Your Job History
One of the mistakes many job applicants make is to stretch their dates of past employment in order to cover gaps or misrepresent their job titles and responsibilities beyond their actual role in a previous company. This type of desperate tactic could only backfire because chances are that your employer will hire a professional background check service provider to verify your employment history.
To begin with, they will want to verify whether your previous job descriptions, job titles and your periods of employment at each previous company are in consonance with what you have claimed in your job application or resume. If the state laws allow the employer to check your salary history, they are likely to verify this detail as well.
Background check companies have their network and resources that will enable them to find out from your former employers whether the information you have provided about your past employment is accurate.
What Details Your Past Employer Could Share?
Depending on the information requirements of your new prospective employer, the skills of the background check service provider, and the local laws, it may be possible to obtain detailed information from your past employer about you. However, while the past employer may furnish details of your job performance, they may be more cautious to comment on your personal attributes or qualities in an adverse manner.
Defamation laws usually cover libel and slander, so your former employer should not like to say something that they cannot prove about you and which can be interpreted as a defamatory. Beyond this concern, there is no federal law that limits what your prospective employer may ask about you from a former employer. But some state laws can vary regarding what your employer is legally permitted to inquire about you when considering you for a job.
You should know that a professional background check company may even contact the staff members at your former workplace using informal channels. Some of your former colleagues may choose to share information about you off the record.
Can a Prospective Employer Check Beyond what is on Your Application?
When a prospective employer decides to carry out a background check on your candidacy, they are not limited to seek information only related to what is on your resume or application. They might decide to check your complete employment history as long as obtaining this type of information is in conformance with the state and federal laws.
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