Wrong Job Title on HR File

wa1985

I am in desperate need of advice and really hope someone can help me...!

When I graduated from uni, I took on a role as Sales Advisor for a large well known company in one of their contact centres. My degree was in marketing, !so to gain some extra experience while I waited for an appropriate entry level job to come up, I started to create small marketing campaigns (using the small budget available to me and all SAs) to try to increase the sales in my own region. This worked very well, so my regional manager gave me more budget and asked me to do the same for more areas in the region. This was all done in addition to my regular Sales Advisor work. Again this went well, and eventually about a year later I was asked to start doing this for the entire North region. At this point I was taken off the phones (unless we were very busy) and my manager told me to refer to myself as Sales and Marketing Assistant from then on. My ID badges and email signature were then changed accordingly. I went on to work in that role for approx 2.5 years until I gained a Marketing Executive role elsewhere and I moved on. Since then I have worked in 2 different Marketing Executive roles, and due to this experience I have recently secured a great Assistant Marketing Manager role with a large FS company.

The problem is, the background check company have just called me to say I have failed the background check because my record states I was only ever employed as a Sales Advisor at my first company.!

I never gave this a second thought before, but thinking about it now I was never given a new contract or any extra money for this role (it was my first job and I was -naively - too excited about getting my first marketing break) so it mustn't have been officially changed with HR. I asked them if they could contact my old manager to have him verify this, but apparently company policy forbids anyone outwith HR to give a reference so he !is not allowed to speak to them.!My old internal ID badge is the only proof I can find that I did this role.!

I am now waiting to hear what the new company say, but they are well within their rights to withdraw my offer. Can anyone suggest what I can do here? ID you think they will withdraw my offer based on this? Do you think my internal badge will be enough proof for them?!I have passed the rest of the background check, including my two most recent roles, so is just this one that could ruin it...

I am absolutely gutted and in a panic now, so any advice will be hugely appreciated.

DVardysShadow

Send a photocopy of your ID badge an a brief explanation as you have set it out to us.

LittleVoice

wa1985 wrote: »

I asked them if they could contact my old manager to have him verify this, but apparently company policy forbids anyone outwith HR to give a reference so he !is not allowed to speak to them.!

Who did you ask - the background check company or the original employer? Which company's policy is forbidding your old manager giving a reference - the background check company or the original employer? (It is quite usual for employing organisations to say that only HR - or a director if it's a small company - are allowed to provide references. I just wondered whether that was the case or it was the checking company which wanted only HR to provide the reference.)

And in the end it is the employing company, not the checking company, which makes the decision whether you have "failed" or not.

Do as DVS suggests but, if the checking company don't accept it, speak with the actual new employer.

You are fortunate to still have the ID badge from your first employer. Often one has to hand them back when one leaves.

wa1985

Thanks for your replies.

To clarify, I asked the background check company to call my manager to verify my version of events when they called to tell me I had failed. They said they had originally approached my old manager who advised them to ask HR as he is not permitted to give references for legal reasons (I'm guessing so the company don't get managers saying anything controversial that could lead to a law suit).

The ID badge is only a laminated piece of paper with the company logo, job title and region on it. This was slotted into a space on the wall of your cubicle so everyone knew who you were when they approached you. It is not a 'proper' work ID pass with a photo and everything on it (we didn't have those). Anyway, I will send a photocopy of it over to them to see if that helps matters. I have also emailed my old manager to ask if he can have my employment record amended, but since it was so long ago I'm not sure if they will do it. I'll wait for his reply too...

Thanks again

Sambucus_Nigra

wa1985 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.

To clarify, I asked the background check company to call my manager to verify my version of events when they called to tell me I had failed. They said they had originally approached my old manager who advised them to ask HR as he is not permitted to give references for legal reasons (I'm guessing so the company don't get managers saying anything controversial that could lead to a law suit).

The ID badge is only a laminated piece of paper with the company logo, job title and region on it. This was slotted into a space on the wall of your cubicle so everyone knew who you were when they approached you. It is not a 'proper' work ID pass with a photo and everything on it (we didn't have those). Anyway, I will send a photocopy of it over to them to see if that helps matters. I have also emailed my old manager to ask if he can have my employment record amended, but since it was so long ago I'm not sure if they will do it. I'll wait for his reply too...

Thanks again

If you get a reply then forward it to the background check company.

It's one thing giving a reference but another to just confirm some details; and in this instance I'd be asking the ex manager if he would mind just making a call to confirm this one detail.

And I'd be calling up the recruiting manager to tell them the situation and to ask what I could do to resolve it, bearing in mind the HR file is incorrect and the ex manager is not able to confirm it at present. Chances are that your other references are enough. I mean, they have confirmed that you were there.

wa1985

And yes you're right, I have only 'failed' in the eyes of the background checkers so far. Hopefully the new employer give me a chance to explain my side of things before they make their decision.