What Questions Can An Employer Ask To Verify Employment History?

Employers, as a whole, hire new employees on a regular basis. Thousands of applications are processed each and every day across the country. For obvious reasons, a given employer wants to hire honest, qualified candidates to fill their openings. An employer needs to take certain precautions to ensure they succeed on this front. Every employer should verify the employment history stated on a candidate’s application.

Verifying a candidate’s employment history protects an employer from hiring the wrong person and turning those individuals into employees. By verifying such information, employers may discover how honest a given candidate is being. Hiring managers tend to ask a candidate’s previous employers a variety of questions related to that particular employment period. Individuals applying for a position often wonder what questions can be asked here.

Currently, no federal laws cover what a business can ask a candidate’s previous employers. Some states have implemented laws that cover this information, but these laws lack uniformity or consistency. Most candidates believe prospective employers are limited in what they can ask, and that’s often not the case. In most cases, a previous employer is legally allowed to disclose whatever information they desire to release.

A hiring manager will always inquire about basic details, though. Questions will cover job titles, responsibilities, start and end dates, and other bits of information. From time to time, hiring managers want to delve deeper into a candidate’s employment history. They might ask questions about job performance and reasons for termination. Extra information like this helps a hiring manager form a complete picture of a given candidate.