Introducing work email validation for reference checks
Reference checks are a crucial part of the hiring process, providing essential insights into a candidate's background and reliability. However, the use of personal email addresses for references has been a recurring issue, leading to potential verification difficulties and questioning the reliability of provided contacts. To address this, we’re introducing a new feature: work email validation for reference checks.
This update is all about making sure references remain professional, reliable, and easier for hiring teams to verify. Let’s explore what this change means and how it can benefit your recruitment workflow.
The issue with personal emails in reference checks
When candidates provide personal email addresses for their references, it can lead to complications. Personal emails, such as those ending in @gmail.com or @yahoo.com, don’t inherently verify the professional relationship between the candidate and the reference. This lack of transparency can slow down the verification process, increase the chances of inaccurate or fabricated references, and ultimately reduce trust in the hiring process.
In many instances, using personal emails introduces unnecessary friction, especially when trying to confirm employment history or professional interactions. It leaves hiring teams with extra work and follow-up, which isn’t ideal when timelines are tight.
Our solution: work email address validation toggle
To streamline and secure the reference check process, we’ve implemented a new validation feature that allows HR teams to enable a toggle option to restrict candidates from entering personal email addresses for their references. With this feature enabled, only work email addresses—those tied to a business domain—will be accepted during the reference submission process.
This change ensures that all references provided are genuinely connected to the professional environment of the candidate, making it easier for your team to verify them and improving the overall reliability of the information received.
How this benefits your hiring workflow
- Greater Reliability: By validating that only work email addresses are used, the reference check process becomes more trustworthy. You can be more confident that the contacts provided are genuinely connected to the candidate in a professional capacity.
- Reduced Verification Effort: Hiring teams no longer need to spend extra time following up on personal email addresses or questioning their validity. The use of work emails makes it easier to establish the context and relationship between the candidate and the reference.
- Professional Standards: By maintaining a professional standard for reference checks, you’re fostering a higher level of quality in the hiring process. This helps uphold your company’s standards and ensures that your process is as transparent and robust as possible.
How to use this new feature
When candidates are asked to provide reference details, our system will enforce the requirement for a work email address when the toggle is activated. If a personal email is entered, the candidate will see an error message prompting them to provide a work email instead. This feature is built to be intuitive, guiding candidates to make the correct submission without added confusion.
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FAQs
FAQs
This depends on the industry and type of role you are recruiting for. To determine whether you need reference checks, identity checks, bankruptcy checks, civil background checks, credit checks for employment or any of the other background checks we offer, chat to our team of dedicated account managers.
Many industries have compliance-related employment check requirements. And even if your industry doesn’t, remember that your staff have access to assets and data that must be protected. When you employ a new staff member you need to be certain that they have the best interests of your business at heart. Carrying out comprehensive background checking helps mitigate risk and ensures a safer hiring decision.
Again, this depends on the type of checks you need. Simple identity checks can be carried out in as little as a few hours but a worldwide criminal background check for instance might take several weeks. A simple pre-employment check package takes around a week. Our account managers are specialists and can provide detailed information into which checks you need and how long they will take.
All Veremark checks are carried out online and digitally. This eliminates the need to collect, store and manage paper documents and information making the process faster, more efficient and ensures complete safety of candidate data and documents.
In a competitive marketplace, making the right hiring decisions is key to the success of your company. Employment background checks enables you to understand more about your candidates before making crucial decisions which can have either beneficial or catastrophic effects on your business.
Background checks not only provide useful insights into a candidate’s work history, skills and education, but they can also offer richer detail into someone’s personality and character traits. This gives you a huge advantage when considering who to hire. Background checking also ensures that candidates are legally allowed to carry out certain roles, failed criminal and credit checks could prevent them from working with vulnerable people or in a financial function.
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