A job applicant’s education can be an important factor in the hiring process. A strong academic background supports the applicant’s claimed expertise, and it may be the reason why you choose them over the rest.
However, resumés frequently include inaccuracies. You need to verify your applicant’s education to ensure they have the knowledge and skills they claim, protect yourself from possible legal action, and save valuable resources required to find a replacement.
What is an Education Verification?
Education verifications confirm the degrees, diplomas, or certificates of your candidates. Attendance dates, graduation dates, and fields of study are typically verified also.
Why Do Employers Need To Verify Education?
According to a Checkster survey, 78% of candidates misrepresent themselves during the hiring process. Before making a final decision, recruiters, HR managers and hiring managers need to verify all information that is important for the position they’re filling.
Employers need to verify education to ensure their candidates have earned the credentials necessary to perform the job. Uncovering untruthful representations by candidates prior to hiring them can save you a lot of time and avoid embarrassing situations.
Education verifications are especially important if the position you are hiring for needs a professional license (ex. doctor, teacher, etc.), is public facing, or contains an executive title.
- For instance, consider a CEO who claims to have an MBA and it turns out they haven’t even earned their undergraduate degree. Thus, for executives or “positions of trust” and “face of the company”, most employers include an education verification service in their background package.
Orange Tree's education verification process
A request is sent to the candidate to provide their name at the time their degree/diploma was earned, the name of the institution attended, the city/state of the institution, the type of degree and subject studied, and the month/year the degree was earned.
Once we have confirmed the accuracy of the candidate’s information, we request verification records from the National Student Clearinghouse (“NSC”), a reputable degree and enrollment verification database. If the record is not found in this database, our verification team uses other methods for confirming the information.
Orange Tree makes three valid attempts over three days to contact the institution for verification. “Valid attempts” include contacting a confirmed resource. This contact is with an authorized contact in the registrar’s office or similar department.
Orange Tree offers the following add-on services:
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We acquire valid documentation of the degree or diploma from the candidate. While we provide the mechanism for enabling the candidate to easily upload a copy of their credential via our CandidateConnect® portal, the client verifies that it meets their requirements.
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We make additional attempts as defined by our client’s business requirements.
Ready to Get Started with Education Verifications?
As your business evolves, you need a partner in the background industry who will work and grow with you. Orange Tree seeks to earn long-term partnerships that provide employers background screening programs designed for their needs and solely in their best interest.
Schedule a call with us today.
