How to Verify Past Employment in India: Steps & Common Red Flags
Any business needs to hire the right people. Today, many candidates exaggerate or fabricate their employment history to get better jobs, especially in India. Therefore, you need employment verification to protect your business from fraud, bad hires, and reputational risk. In this blog, we’ll walk you through the steps to verify past employment and highlight the red flags to watch out for. By the end, you’ll see why a thorough process isn’t optional; it’s a necessity.
What Is Employment Verification?
The process of employment verification (or “past employment verification”) involves employers verifying a candidate’s previous work history, credentials, and claims to make sure the information is accurate.
An employment verification isn’t like a casual reference check (where you call a former boss or colleague). It’s about confirming actual employment through documentation, official HR confirmation, or formal databases. This helps ensure the candidate really worked where they claimed to have worked, held the job they claimed to have held, and has real experience.
Ready to try it? Get a Free Employment Verification Demo.
Get in touch with us if you need help verifying past employment fast, accurately, and easily. Let us handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on growing your business.
Why Does Employment Verification Matter to Employers?
1. Prevent Hiring Fraud & Fake Profiles
- According to a recent report, 13% of employment checks in India failed due to inflated salaries, fabricated work experience, or contract violations.
- Over 56% of Indian hiring managers reported detecting at least one case of “resume fraud” in 2024.
- In a 2025 report from a major background-check platform, many candidates were found to be submitting fake employment documents, including forged experience letters and phony company names.
These numbers show that fake or exaggerated employment histories are common, not rare. Without verification, you risk hiring based on lies.
2. Ensure Quality of Hires & Protect Productivity
Hiring someone with fake credentials could hurt your productivity. It can disrupt your team’s performance if they don’t have the right experience.
By verifying backgrounds, you can make sure your employees have real, relevant experience, so you don’t lose money on dishonest candidates.
3. Guard Against Fraud, Theft & Reputation Risk
An employee with a hidden criminal history or falsified credentials could be a threat to your company’s finances, reputation, or data. A candidate’s employment history is one of the best ways to avoid risky hires and protect sensitive information.
4. Compliance, Trust & Brand Integrity
Companies in IT, BFSI (banking, finance, insurance), and healthcare are increasingly expected to do due diligence. It’s important to maintain compliance standards, build stakeholder trust, and keep your brand intact by hiring verified people.
Step-by-Step Guide to Verifying Past Employment
Check out this step-by-step breakdown of how you (or your HR team) can verify a candidate’s past employment.
Step 1: Get Candidate Consent (Mandatory)
Before verification, get the candidate’s consent. It’s important for compliance and privacy. Here’s what a simple consent form looks like:
- Name and contact info of the candidate
- Candidate’s former employer’s info (company name, address, HR contact)
- Date and signature of the candidate.
Why this matters: In many cases, third-party background check companies (or HR departments) need explicit consent to verify employment history, education, or references legally.
Step 2: Collect Candidate’s Documents
Ask the candidate for all documents supporting their employment claim. Some of these include:
- Offer letter from previous employer
- Experience certificate / relieving letter
- Payslips/salary slips
- It’s optional but helpful to have bank statements (showing salary credits)
- For India, UAN/EPFO records would be useful to match tenure with social security/PF contributions
Document collection helps you keep track of things. When you have more documentation, cross-verification is easier.
Step 3: Contact the Previous Employer/HR Department Directly
Reach out to the previous employer’s HR department once you have the candidate’s consent and supporting documents. Here’s how to verify:
- Via official corporate email (avoid personal Gmail/Yahoo references)
- Through a publicly listed HR contact (company website, LinkedIn, etc.)
- Using HRMS verification portals (if the employer uses one)
- Check tenure, job role, reporting manager, last salary, and reason for leaving.
Direct contact helps confirm that the candidate actually worked there, not just submitted forged documents.
Step 4: Check job details for consistency
Verify by cross-checking:
- Role responsibilities vs. job title (are they in line with company size/level?)
- Payslips, UAN, and relieving letter should match employment tenure (start and end dates)
- Salary details vs payslip/bank statement (if available)
- Name/contact of reporting manager (if possible)
- Reason for leaving (voluntary, resignation, termination).
It’s a red flag if there’s any discrepancy, such as an exaggerated tenure, a mismatched salary, or a missing relieving letter.
Step 5: Use A Third-Party Background Check Company (Faster And More Accurate)
When you’re hiring in bulk (many people at once) or don’t have the time to conduct thorough background checks, using a background verification firm is often the best option. Benefits:
- Faster turnaround time (TAT) vs. manual in-house checks.
- Access to databases and verification tools (like UAN records and HR databases) that may not be directly accessible to you
- Expert checks on documents, identity fraud, forged credentials, and criminal history
Considering how common resume/employment fraud is, a 2023 survey found that 86% of Indian employers encountered employment discrepancies.
Ready to try it? Get a Free Employment Verification Demo.
Get in touch with us if you need help verifying past employment fast, accurately, and easily. Let us handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on growing your business.
The Most Common Red Flags Hr Needs To Watch Out For
When verifying past employment, certain red flags can indicate fraud and misrepresentation. Here are some common ones:
- Employment gaps that don’t match documents: Long unexplained gaps or overlapping tenures.
- Missing, forged, or untraceable resignation letter or experience certificate. Many fake companies only exist on paper.
- Payslips that seem edited or don’t match the bank credit history.
- UAN/PF records that don’t align with claimed tenure (for India). UAN verification is a trusted way to verify employment history.
- Generic email addresses (Gmail, Yahoo), not corporate ones. This could indicate fake references.
- Job titles and responsibilities that seem inflated compared to the size of the previous employer.
- The previous employer is untraceable, the company website is down, or the company is registered as inactive/dissolved.
There’s a strong chance the claimed employment isn’t genuine if you encounter any of these.
Are Employment Verifications Accurate, and What Are Their Limitations?
No background verification process can guarantee 100% accuracy. There are a few caveats:
- Some small employers may not respond to verification requests. In such cases, documents provided by the candidate (such as an offer letter or relieving letter) become key, but they can be forged.
- Documents are becoming more sophisticated with digital editing tools and AI-assisted forgeries, so it’s harder to spot document fraud in 2025.
- Manual verification takes time and resources. You may not be able to do high-volume hiring without a verification partner.
- For private employers in India, background checks aren’t mandatory (though some regulated industries may require them).
Therefore, while employment verification reduces risk, it should be part of a broader hiring due diligence and compliance program.
The Cost and Market Trends of Background Verification
- The background screening market was valued at USD 14.72 billion in 2025 and is expected to grow to USD 25.92 billion by 2030. (Mordor Intelligence)
- The employment/past-employment check remains one of the most dominant checks in this market. (Mordor Intelligence)
- An Indian survey from 2023 found that 86% of employers face discrepancies during background checks.
- Another study found that 13% of employment checks failed due to falsified work experience, salary, or contract details. (AuthBridge)
Clearly, employment verification isn’t a “nice-to-have” anymore; it’s a standard business practice for companies that care about compliance, quality hiring, and long-term success.
Employment Verification for Different Industries
Every industry needs employment verification, but some require even more rigorous verification due to their risk profile or regulatory requirements. Here’s how it impacts various sectors:
- IT/Software: Many IT companies in India have reported falsified experience certificates and exaggerated tenure records due to rapid hiring and remote work.
- Banking, Finance, Insurance (BFSI): High sensitivity to fraud and data security; one study showed employment-verification fraud accounted for 10.9% of all flagged fraud cases.
- Healthcare/Pharma: It’s important to verify credentials, as false claims can compromise compliance, patient safety, and the company’s reputation.
- Gig Economy, Logistics & Delivery Staffing: because these sectors experience high-volume hiring and turnover, they are prone to forged documents and unadvertised employment gaps.
Ready to try it? Get a Free Employment Verification Demo.
Get in touch with us if you need help verifying past employment fast, accurately, and easily. Let us handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on growing your business.
Conclusion
Employment verification is essential in a world where resume fraud, fake job claims, and forged credentials have become increasingly common.
Your hiring risk can be reduced by following a systematic, documented process of securing candidate consent, collecting supporting documents, contacting previous employers, and partnering with a background check company.
In addition to preventing bad hires and fraud, you’ll also build a trustworthy, high-integrity workforce: people with real experience who understand the work and will make a significant difference.
It is essential to incorporate an employment verification process into your hiring process if you wish to hire great talent and protect the company’s reputation.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why is employment verification important?
Employment verification is important because it helps you confirm whether a candidate actually worked where they claimed. It protects your company from hiring someone with fake experience, reduces the risk of fraud, and ensures you hire people who genuinely have the right skills and background.
2. How many days will it take to complete BGV?
Most background checks (BGV) in India take 3–7 working days. If the previous employer takes longer to respond or the case needs extra checks, it may take up to 10–15 days.
3. How does HR verify past employment in India?
HR verifies past employment by checking the documents shared by the candidate (offer letter, relieving letter, payslips), reviewing UAN/EPFO records, and contacting the previous employer’s HR team directly. Some companies also use trusted background verification agencies to speed up the process.
4. What would cause a red flag on a background check?
Red flags include mismatched dates, missing or fake documents, forged payslips, companies that don’t exist, inflated job titles, or UAN records that don’t match the candidate’s claims. Anything that doesn’t align with the candidate’s story is considered a warning sign.
5. What is the difference between a background check and employment verification?
Employment verification is just one part of a background check. It only confirms a candidate’s past jobs.
A background check is more detailed; it includes employment verification, plus education checks, ID checks, Reference checks, criminal record checks, and address verification.
