Employment verification glossary

Plain-language definitions of the terms used across verifications, reports and consumer rights — written to be accurate, not exhaustive.

UPDATED AUG 2026 · EDUCATIONAL — NOT LEGAL ADVICE

A

Adverse action

A decision unfavorable to the consumer — such as not hiring — made in whole or in part because of a consumer report. When a report contributes to adverse action, a specific notice process applies before and after the decision.

Authorization

The candidate's written permission to obtain a consumer report about them. Authorization is captured before a verification proceeds, and employers are expected to retain it under their own retention schedule.

B

Background check vs employment verification

A background check is a broader consumer report that can cover several record types. Employment verification is the narrower confirmation of work history — employer, dates, title, status — with the source of each value documented. The two are often ordered together but answer different questions.

C

Candidate-provided information

A value supplied by the candidate — for example, the dates they stated on an application. HVR reports attribute candidate-provided and source-provided values separately, so a reviewer always sees who said what.

Consumer report

Information about a consumer, assembled by a consumer reporting agency, used to help decide their eligibility for employment, credit or certain other purposes. An employment verification delivered by HVR is a consumer report, which is what triggers the disclosure, authorization and dispute rights around it.

Related: Compliance resource center

Consumer reporting agency (CRA)

An organization that assembles or evaluates consumer information to furnish consumer reports to third parties. CRAs carry obligations of their own — accuracy procedures, file access, dispute handling — separate from the obligations of the employers who order reports.

D

Database verification

A verification answered from a commercial employment-data database rather than from the employer at the time of the request. The result reflects what a contributor previously sent; origin, freshness and coverage vary, and a non-hit is an absence, not an answer.

Declined field

A field the source chose not to disclose, usually under a stated policy — compensation and reason for leaving are commonly declined. HVR records the decline as the outcome rather than estimating a value or filling it in from elsewhere.

Disclosure

The clear, standalone notice telling a candidate that a consumer report may be obtained about them. It precedes authorization and is provided as its own document, not buried inside an application.

Discrepancy

A documented difference between a candidate-provided value and a source-confirmed value. It is a fact about two records — not a finding of dishonesty — and most trace to payroll-system artifacts like offer date versus first payroll date.

Dispute

A consumer's statement that an item in their report or file is inaccurate or incomplete, with a request to correct it. A dispute starts a reinvestigation, and the outcome is recorded whether or not the information changes.

E

E-Verify

A federal program employers use to confirm a new hire's authorization to work in the United States. It is distinct from employment history verification: E-Verify addresses work authorization, not what a person did at previous employers.

Employer of record

The legal entity that employed the person — the organization whose payroll the person was on. It is not always the company where the work happened: staffing placements, PEO arrangements and subsidiaries can all separate the worksite from the employer of record.

Employment dates

The start and end dates of an employment relationship as the source records them — usually first and last day on payroll. Small differences from a candidate's stated dates are common and usually reflect how the dates were recorded, not what happened.

Employment status

Whether the person is a current or former employee of the source organization, as of the verification date. One of the three fields most employers will confirm when proper authorization exists.

Employment verification

The process of confirming a person's stated work history — employer, dates, title, status — against what the employer of record or its designated source actually recorded. A documented verification shows where each answer came from, how it was obtained, and when.

F

FCRA

The Fair Credit Reporting Act, the federal law governing consumer reports in the United States. It sets the baseline rules for permissible purpose, disclosure, authorization, accuracy, file access and disputes; states may add stricter requirements on top.

File disclosure

A consumer's copy of the information a consumer reporting agency holds about them, including where each item came from. Available on request from HVR's Consumer Center, free of charge.

I

Income verification

Confirmation of a person's compensation, typically requested by lenders or landlords alongside or instead of employment history. Compensation is disclosed at the source's discretion and some jurisdictions restrict requesting it, so this field behaves differently from dates and title.

Instant verification

A marketing term for a database verification: the query returns whatever record a commercial employment-data database already holds, which can be fast. The speed comes from answering out of a stored record — whose freshness and origin vary by contributor.

O

Outreach record

The log of attempts made to reach a source — what was tried, through which channel, and when. HVR shows the outreach record in flight and in the final report, so an unanswered request is documented rather than hidden behind a generic status.

P

Payroll provider

A company that runs payroll on an employer's behalf. Payroll providers often hold the system of record for dates, title and compensation, and may respond to verifications as the employer's designated source.

PEO (professional employer organization)

A firm that co-employs a client company's workforce, handling payroll and HR administration. In a PEO arrangement the employer of record on payroll may differ from the company where the person worked, which is a common and explainable source of discrepancies.

Permissible purpose

A legally recognized reason to obtain a consumer report — employment is one of them. An organization must have a permissible purpose before ordering a report, and certifies it at order time.

Permissible-purpose certification

The ordering organization's formal statement of its permissible purpose for a specific report. HVR captures the certification per order and stores it with the order record.

Related: Compliance resource center

Pre-adverse action notice

The notice sent before a decision becomes final when a consumer report may contribute to adverse action. It includes a copy of the report and a summary of the consumer's rights, with time for the consumer to respond or dispute before the decision is made.

R

Reinvestigation

The process that follows a dispute: the agency re-contacts the source, reviews any evidence the consumer supplied, and records the outcome — corrected, removed, verified as accurate, or unable to verify. If information changes, a corrected report version is issued.

Report version

A retained snapshot of a report as it existed at a point in time. When reinvestigation changes information, a new version is issued and prior versions remain retrievable, so everyone can see what was reported and when.

Request code

The code a verifier receives with an HVR verification request, entered at HVRScreen.com to respond. It identifies the specific authorized request; no verifier account is created.

S

Salary history ban

A state or local rule restricting employers from asking candidates about pay history, relying on it in compensation decisions, or in some places requesting it from former employers. Where a ban applies, HVR hides the compensation field from the request entirely.

Seven-year rule

Shorthand for reporting-age limits that restrict how long certain kinds of information may appear in a consumer report, with thresholds and exceptions that vary by jurisdiction and record type. Whether a limit applies to a specific item is a question for qualified counsel.

Source-provided information

A value confirmed by the employer of record or its designated source in response to the verification request. HVR attributes source-provided values separately from candidate-provided ones, with the method and date of confirmation.

Source-verified verification

A verification confirmed with the employer of record — or its designated payroll or verification source — for the specific request, rather than answered from a stored database record. Each field carries its source, method and verification date; declines are recorded, not estimated.

Staffing employer of record

In a staffing placement, the agency — not the client site — is usually the legal employer. Candidates often name the client company where they worked, which is why staffing history is a frequent and explainable source of employer-name discrepancies.

T

Tenure

The length of an employment relationship, derived from the confirmed start and end dates. Small date drift matters less on a long tenure; a sound review process says how much drift is meaningful for the role.

Third-party verifier

A service an employer designates to answer verification requests on its behalf, instead of its own HR or payroll team responding. When an employer routes requests to a third-party verifier, HVR directs outreach there and records it as the source.

Turnaround time

The elapsed time from order to completed report. Most verifications complete in a few business days, but the range depends on how the source responds — which is why HVR shows per-case status rather than quoting an average as a commitment.

U

Unable to verify

The recorded outcome when no source would or could confirm a field after documented outreach attempts. It is distinct from a decline and from a discrepancy — each outcome means something different for the decision at hand.

V

Verification letter (letter of employment)

A letter from an employer stating that a person works or worked there, sometimes with dates and title. It is employer-issued rather than independently confirmed, so many verifiers treat it as supporting evidence rather than a verification on its own.

Verification of employment (VOE)

Another name for employment verification, common in lending and housing contexts. A VOE confirms employer, dates, title and status; whether compensation is included depends on the purpose, the jurisdiction and the source's disclosure policy.

A definition only goes so far.

Employers, candidates and verifiers each have a direct line — no shared queue.

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