Employment Verification Turnaround Time

If you have ever tried to do any significant number of employment verifications yourself, you know all too well that previous employers do not have someone sitting by the phone anxiously waiting to take your call and provide you with the information you are looking for as quickly as they possibly can. The reality is different.

While the majority of employment verifications can be completed in less than 72 hours, there are several reasons it may take longer.

There may be difficulty identifying what we at Clarifacts call the Established Verifying Contact (EVC). This is the person or department that has the employment records available to them. This is not someone who says, “Yeah, I think she used to work here,” or “That sounds about right,” or “I’m sure whatever he told you is true.”

Once the EVC is identified, there may be problems getting them to respond. Either because they are busy with other work, they are out of the office for any number of reasons, or they simply feel verifications are a low priority. Often times, numerous daily follow-ups are required.

Even if you have an available and cooperative employer, they may have an established procedure as to how and when they complete a previous employment verification request. Some employers indicate they will return the information in a specified amount of time such as 5 to 7 business days. Others may only complete requests on a certain day of the week. And less common, but certainly possible, is that the employer may require a written request along with the applicant’s consent form actually be snail mailed to them. They will then process the request and mail it back.

Given that there are countless companies out there, employment verifications can be somewhat unpredictable.

Helpful Tip: Verify the applicant worked directly for their previous employer and not through a temp agency. Sometimes the applicant will list the organization at which they worked instead of the temp agency they went through to get the position. The temp agency houses those records, not the employer. If the incorrect organization is listed, the applicant will need to be to contacted to get the information for the temp agency, which can cause delays in the back and forth.