Wed, October 21st, 2009 - 5:56 am - By Gordon Basichis
Education Verification Background checks having increasingly become part of every recruiter’s preemployment screening program. Why? Some of it is the obvious, to qualify a job candidate for meeting the threshold requirements for the position. Clearly, you want to be sure your employment candidate had at least the minimum skill sets for consideration.
But there is another factor. More than a few employment candidates will lie about their education background. They may embellish their employment responsibilities but will fib in claiming graduation status when they either went to the school for a number of semesters or never attended at all. Yes, they just make up the school and say they went there, hoping the background checking company will not conduct a thorough education verification. In this economic downturn, with jobs scarce and the recession causing so many layoffs, desperation is increasingly a factor as more candidates apply for fewer jobs.
Sometimes, the college or university may miss the education verification and you need to go back in with additional information. If the employment candidate graduated some years back then the records may not be in the database, and the school registrar’s office has to do some researching.
At Corra Group we try to eliminate any obstacles at the outset. We recommend that recruiters and human resources personnel keep these simple tips in mind when ordering education verification background checks.
1. Get the correct spelling of the candidate’s name.
2. When the candidate is female, sometime they forget that they graduated with their maiden name and not their married name.
3. With International students, sometimes they went to school under their former native name and then “Americanized” it later. If they forget to mention this, or if you forget to ask, it can delay the verification.
4.Of course you need to know the type of degree. I.E.– B.S. or B.A. But listing the major is also helpful. When a candidate has a common name, you don’t want their degree confused with a graduate with a similar name.
5. Ask for the university campus where the employment candidate attended. Not all colleges and universities, centralize their databases and knowing he exact campus can save time in getting the education verification completed.
6. Ask for the date school was started and the date school was completed. Ask for the graduation date. Sometimes students graduate sometime after they have completed the program.
7. With international education verification searches, you may need additional information. With India Education Verification Searches, for example, the student should supply the roll number, seat number, and registration number. Any one or combination they remember is always helpful.
8.If the school can’t find the record at first, it doesn’t necessarily mean the job candidate is lying. It is best to request from the student a copy of his diploma. The diploma copy can often clarify the mystery and assist the registrar’s office in finding the records.
9. And remember, almost every school with require a consent form from its former students, before it can release records. So make sure you get that up front.
10. Finally, sometimes the school will report that the student attended but they cannot verify or will not verify graduation. Often this is because the student owes them money, and the school will not verify until they are paid.
This should be helpful in conducting education verification background checks.