• How does the referencing process work?

For the majority of our 'Reference' checks, we look to complete an employment verification check.

This means that we mainly look for confirmation from your previous employers that you did indeed work for them during the dates you provided, and that the information you have declared matches what they hold in their records.

When you fill out the required information on your candidate portal, we'll ask you to provide details of a previous employer, including the company's name, email address, business address, telephone number, and a contact name. We require that you provide us with the company's contact details in this section, rather than a contact's personal email or phone number.

Our referencing team uses the information that you provide to us in this section to research your employer and ensure we reach out to the correct company. As a result, we may not contact the individual you provide—instead, we will usually reach out to the HR department of the company (or whoever provides references), as this is likely who will hold your employee records and will confirm your dates of employment.

References for self-employment periods work slightly differently—we aim to obtain a reference from a client you have worked for, your accountant, or a management company. If the contact you provide cannot verify your full self-employment period, we will reach out to you for an additional referee to cover the remaining period.

Once a suitable email address is located through our research, our referencing team will reach out to the employer to request your employment reference. If no response is received after the expected turnaround time, we will then chase every few days for a response for a total of 4 times.

If there is still no response after this date, we will let your prospective employer know.

If your prospective employer has requested a Character Reference Check, the information page on your candidate portal will be formatted differently.

On a Character Reference Check, Verifile will look for information on your work performance. This means that we will reach out to the individual you provide on your candidate portal.

We ask that you provide an individual you have known in a professional capacity, such as a manager or colleague.

RELATED CONTENT

More information regarding our Referencing and Verification Services can be found on our website:
Verifile background screening services.

• What are reference checks and why are they done?

• What are academic qualification checks?

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