An employment verification letter serves the purpose of proof of employment to verify that you have been employed with some organization for a certain time period. You may have to submit this letter to your prospective employer, landlord, insurance company, some government office or a bank.
To obtain this letter you formally have to request your current employer. This employment letter proves the status of your current employment, the total time period you have served your current employer, your salary package and several other details depending on the reason of request from the organization where this letter has to be submitted.
The employment letter is fairly simple and straightforward which means obtaining or writing such a letter should be hassle free.
A current or former employee may be asked by the new employer to provide them with an employment verification letter to confirm their salary and other details. This letter will help the new employer for the background check process of the job applicant.
When you are applying for a mortgage or loan, you may be asked to fill an employment verification form which is a prerequisite used by a third party verification to confirm that the individual is capable of making the required payments regularly. Normally your mortgage application may not be considered if you don’t attach this letter as a proof of income.
Also, your landlord may ask you to provide the employment verification letter in case the monthly rent goes beyond a certain limit. In all these cases, your letter of employment proves that you have been truthful about the salary details, employment status as well as your job title.
In some cases, you may directly request your employer to issue an employment verification letter. The company you are working with must have an employment verification form that you can obtain from the human resource department that can be filled by their current and former employees who want to request the verification letter.
Your employer may require you to provide the basic details of your employment through this employment verification request form. Also they may need you to provide them with the reason for obtaining the verification letter. You may be required to list the employment details that you want them to confirm through the employment verification letter.
Details in the employment verification letter
Your employment letter will contain the office address of your employer, name of the organization, your job title, your salary and other employment benefits along with the dates of your employment.
This document will also include your personal details such as your date of birth and your national identity number (SSN / Social Security Number in case of the US citizens) for the purpose of identification. Depending on the laws of the state or country of your residence, the information that employers are permitted to disclose always varies.
There may be cases where the employer may ask the employee to sign a release form before they disclose their personal details to some other organization.
How to request an employment verification letter?
Keeping in mind that your employer may take some time to prepare or process the employment letter, you should submit your request with them as soon as the need arises.
Ask your human resource department if you have to fill the employment request form or it can be obtained without any formal request. You should also confirm if they need you to sign a release form as well.
Also it is necessary to get in touch with the people at the human resource department to show your consent so that they can disclose your personal details to your prospective employer as they normally request verification directly from your current employer.
Depending on the company policies, the human resource department may craft and dispatch the letter to your prospective employer. In some cases, they may also provide your supervisor with some specific format of the employment verification form to fill up and create the employment letter for you.
Regardless of the person who composes the employment letter, the important thing is that it has been signed and stamped before it is dispatched to the other organization.
If you are responsible to compose an employment verification letter for someone and your company uses some printed letterhead, then make sure that this employment letter must be printed on that letterhead.
Since this letter is very important for your current or former colleague, therefore you must ensure that you have included accurate details in the letter. And double check the name of the contact person, contact number and postal address of the organization before you dispatch the letter.
If you need to submit a formal request to your current employer to get an employment verification letter then browse some samples of the request forms to better understand how to properly compose them. Following is the sample letter that you can use to compose your own employment verification request.
Subject: Employment verification letter
Dear Jason,
I am in the process of submitting an application for a mortgage with XYZ (Name of the Lending Company), and they have requested the proof of my employment as well as my income. You are requested to provide them with the details of employment that should include my job title, current salary and dates of employment with ABC (the name of your current employer).
The address of the lender:
XYZ (Name of the lending company),
XXX Broadway,
New York,
NY 10038, United States.
Please be informed that they also accept employment verification through Fax and you can fax them at 000 000 0000. Kindly let me know, if you want me to provide you with any other details that you need to process my employment letter.
Thank you very much!
Susan A. Anthony,
Communication Engineer,
ABC (Name of your current employer)
Requesting an employment letter to check the employment history of a job applicant
You are the recruitment or human resource manager and want to request an employment letter from the current employers of the job applicants who have applied to fill various positions in your organization. So you can prepare a generic format of the letter and then make amendments in accordance with the types of employment and positions in your organization they have applied for.
Here is a sample letter that you can use for your convenience:
(Contact details of the recipient along with date)
Dear Mr./Ms. (name of the recipient),
Mr. (name of the applicant) has applied for the position of (job title offered to the applicant) at (name of your organization) and he/she has mentioned the name of your organization in their employment history. We would like to seek your assistance to verify some of the details that he / she has provided on his / her resume.
We shall be grateful if you can provide us the following details about (applicant’s name) in the form of an employment verification letter:
Dates of the employment:
Title (s) of his / her job:
Weekly / Bi-weekly / Annual Salary of (name of the applicant):
Would you consider rehiring (name of the applicant)?
Would you recommend us hiring (name of the applicant)?
Did (name of the applicant) adhere to the company’s code of conduct?
Are there any other details that you think necessary for us to know about the job performance of (name of the applicant)?
In case, (name of the applicant) is currently employed by your company, has he / she submitted the resignation letter already?
We are thankful to you in advance for sparing some time to send us all these details. Kindly call us or send us an email if you may have any questions.
(Include your complete name, your designation / title and contact details)
Writing an employment letter verification for someone
Now you are part of the human resource department and you are required to write an employment verification letter for someone while responding to the request you have received from another organization.
While writing this letter, it is important for you to pay attention to ensure that the letter must provide accurate information about the person. Also it is necessary to make sure that your letter must adhere to the appropriate format.
You won’t help the recipient by composing a letter that lacks the required details by the organization that has requested this letter.
Follow the formal business letter format:
– Start your letter with your own contact information at the top of the letter. Include the recipient’s contact details if you are provided with.
– Don’t forget to include the date of the issuance of the letter.
– Be sure to include the salutation in the beginning of the letter and better don’t dispatch it unless you put your handwritten signature at the end of the letter.
Keep the employment verification letter concise:
– This letter is not to provide the information about employee’s performance at the workplace to the recipient.
– So keep it to the point and concise.
– You must not provide any other detail beyond what you are requested by the employee.
All requested information must be included in the letter:
– Look at the employment verification request form that you have received from the employee. Make a list of the details they have requested you to provide in the employment letter.
– Include the name of the person, job title and the positions they have been appointed by the company along with the duration of time they have been serving.
– Most of the employment verification letters include the salary package. You may also have to mention how often they are paid the salary such as weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.
– In some cases, you have to mention the number of hours the employee serves every week.
– But if these detail are not requested in the request form then better don’t include them in the letter.
– As a courtesy, consult with the employee to double check if you have included all the details the other organization requires or if they may want to include something else.
Your contact details should come at the end of the letter:
– Offer the recipient to contact you in case they need any additional detail.
– At the end of the letter, you should provide your contact details while encouraging the recipient to get in touch with you for further information.
Always proofread the content of the letter before you dispatch it:
– This letter not only confirms the employment details of the employee of your company but it also depicts the image of your organization that how efficient you guys are to manage your business.
– Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the content of this letter must be flawless. Hence proofread this letter well and edit it if there are any inconsistencies in its content.
– On the other hand, job application, approval of loan, mortgage, housing or insurance of your current / former employee depend on this letter. Hence be considerate and make it flawless and as professional as possible.
Be well aware of the company policies:
– Whether you are the supervisor, team lead, or human resource manager who needs to give a response to the verification request, you are required to be well aware of the company policies.
– You should know that if you are allowed to use the verification form that has been received from prospective employers of an employee working in your organization or you only can respond to them by filling out some specific form which is specified by your organization.
– Be aware of the specific details that you are not permitted to disclose to the other organization.
Avoid giving your own opinion rather just stick to the facts:
– If the policies and procedures of your organization allow you to handle the verification request then only provide the details that can be verified.
– Avoid giving your own opinion about the performance of the employee.
– While filling the verification request form, you have to ensure that you should not write anything which may cause legal issues for yourself or for your employer.
Don’t provide any personal documents of the employee to the other organization:
– Never send the resignation letter, termination letter or anything that can be regarded as personal for the employee.
– Providing the documents that contain personal details of the employee can definitely result in a lawsuit.
Sample of Employment Verification Letter
(Details of the person who is responsible to respond the employment verification request)
Name
Company Name
Postal Address
Date
(Details of the business requesting verification)
Name of the business
Postal Address
Dear Mr. / Ms. (name of the recipient),
Purpose of this letter is to certify the income and employment of (name of the individual). He / she has been serving the (name of the company where the individual has been / is employed) and holds the (title of the job). He / she has been an employee with (name of the company) since (Month Date, 2000). He / she is getting paid currently $00,000 (annual salary) annually and receives $0,000 as bonus.
To provide you with the proof of their income, please find enclosed supporting documents that include Pay Stubs, Wage and Tax Statement. I confirm that provided details are accurate to the best of my knowledge.
Kindly contact me if you have any query regarding the provided information. You can call me at 000 000 0000 or send me an email at hr@yourcompany.com.
Sincerely,
Name (of the person writing this letter)
Title
Is there any chance that a former employer can deny employment verification?
Legally, no organization is bound to respond to an employment verification letter unless federal or state government agencies have requested to do that. Hence it becomes a bit complicated to get your employment letter verified but of course, it is not impossible at all.
Though most employers don’t refuse to provide the employment verification letter but you may bump into an organization that denies doing so. Therefore, it is always in your best interest to maintain a healthy work relationship with any of your employers to avoid such types of refusals in the future.
How can you avoid the refusal from your former employer?
Being polite will always help you a lot. Once your prospective employer or company, that needs verification of your employment, has sent the request to your current or former employer, you may call the human resource department.
If the person you are talking to is currently your colleague then it might not be a big deal to ask them to lend you this favor otherwise you may have to be very courteous to them.
You may also contact your supervisor or manager personally and talk to them about your verification. If you are not working with that organization anymore then you may request them to discuss it with the human resource department on your behalf.
If they aren’t currently employed there then better take an appointment by sending them an email especially if you want to see them in person. Also you may call their contact number and request them to process your employment letter but don’t forget to show your gratitude.
Getting the insider information from the former employer of an applicant
On the other hand, if you are the human resource / recruitment manager and want to get some insider information which is usually not provided through an employment verification letter then chances are that your request will be denied.
For instance, it is important for you to know about the job performance of the applicant and you have to know whether they resigned properly or were fired. As said earlier, this piece of information can be almost impossible for you to obtain in written but still you can get some verbal clues from the company’s resource person if you are polite enough and can play the tactics.
How to verify the employment of the applicant?
While you are in process of verifying the employability of the job applicant, you may ask them “Would your company like to rehire this individual?”. Rarely, you will get the straightforward response in ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
The most obvious answer you are expected to receive is, “yes, if qualified”. And that can bring you a whole host of meanings to consider. You may infer a lot of things from this answer such as:
- They may not be qualified candidate
- They might have been fired by the former employer
- They were a poor performer and were terminated
- Perhaps they have provided the wrong information on their CV
- They ended up in a resignation letter that was awfully negative
- And much more
So better carefully consider each word of the response that you receive from the resource person of the former employer of the job applicant. It will help you a lot to decide whether you should hire that applicant or not.
Conclusion
If you are an employer, you always want to help your employees to live a life in a top-notch state. You want them to get their loans and mortgage applications approved. You want them to live a better life in their dream homes.
You not only want them to have better relationships with you but also with their banks. To put it simply, you want to see them happy and very productive when they are serving your business and for that you always must be willing to make the employment verification process stress-free.
On the other hand, every employee should not only serve their employers honestly but they should maintain a productive relationship with their peers.
End your working relationship with your employer on a very positive note and it will help you a lot in future. Not only make your first impression to last longer but remember that last impressions are forever.
