How far back do references go?

saunaboy

Hi Everyone,

Just had a great job offer - now they are saying they want to use a third party to do background & reference checks. Fine, but..

Just been in current role for a couple of months.
Was in last company for almost 10 years. Started in Feb 2012. Did super well there.
Company before that ended badly - was bullied by boss who made allegations about me & I left because of it. Just resigned as was too stressed to go through process to defend myself against accusations & felt it was a stitch up. Was younger & unwiser, so I resigned as I had that next job lined up. Bridges a bit burned unfortunately.

I left that awful place in Nov 2011 & took a bit of time off until Feb 2012. I'm worried (probably just paranoid) that any check might just pull up some dirt from that. HR file will likely show all gory details I'd guess - if it still exists.

I assume I just got a "he worked here from X til Y" after I left into the Feb 2012 job. But what if this third party dig a bit more??

Any ideas? Done a bit of research & common Google output seems to be...

1) Current & previous employer. So all good there.
2) 3-5 years. So again all good.
3) not >7 years. Again all good.
4) 10 years. So in this instance I may just about have to mention this old place

All opinion would be great.

74jax

Only your new employer can answer accurately for them. 

saunaboy

What is norm though? Anyone in a position to hazard a guess?

And what details would they ask? Would an employer from 10 years back have any sort of info to make any detailed comment from? As far as I know there are no senior staff or HR from that time remaining.

Would they even have HR file anymore?

Jillanddy

saunaboy said:

What is norm though? Anyone in a position to hazard a guess?

And what details would they ask? Would an employer from 10 years back have any sort of info to make any detailed comment from? As far as I know there are no senior staff or HR from that time remaining.

Would they even have HR file anymore?

There is no norm. Some employers will go back to your school! not many. But it really does depend on the level of checks and the reasons they are doing them. 

My current employer retains employment records for 30 years!

TBagpuss

There is no norm. It's up to individual employers to decide how long to retain paperwork and ho much information to provide if asked.
It's up to individual employers how much research and checking they chose to do, and how much weight to give to it.

However,  I would *expect* that they will attach most weight to checking that what you have told them is accurate - except in the most serious cases, they are probably more concerned that you have not lied to them, or instance by claiming you worked somewhere you didn't, or that you worked different dates than the ones you told them. 

a lot of employers only give factual references, e.g. the dates you worked and what your job title/role was.

Own_Worst_Enermy

3-5 years. Personally.

Recent public sector referencing started from Nov 18, they missed off an insurance company even (which was a guaranteed 10 year reference in its self - perhaps was to evidential you would have gone through some form of background screening with the Insurance company) 

Private sector - a recent application form asking for 5 years employment details and stated they reserved the right to approach any Employer in that 5 year period asked, beyond any whom of the two reference details you specifically wrote on the form.

I want to believe in references but for example, how they will deal with 4billion caught up in furlough fraud alone where the tax records show a longer period in time spent at one employer committing such in recent times, I don't know how will be overcome when your tax records indicate other things entirely. 

General_Grant

Recommended retention periods for personnel files is 6 years after employment is terminated.  But employers may keep for longer.  

It is reasonable to expect that no more than bare bones (possibly just records required for HMRC) would be kept longer than 6 years (considering UK Limitation Act).  Government Departments may keep till the subject is aged 100.

saunaboy

Cheers for replies.

Seems like hopefully I might be worrying over nothing then - they might not go back 10 years (even if they do go TO 10 years I would just say that as it was ended in Nov 2011 the crappy experience was outside of that window). And if they do then there might just be basic p45-type data on file.

Reason I am worried mainly is that it is using a third party service - via some sort of web portal, but guessing that might just be basic outsourcing to save their HR doing it.

saunaboy

So is it reasonable to say that anything over 6 years will be very basic data?

Jillanddy

saunaboy said:

So is it reasonable to say that anything over 6 years will be very basic data?

No. Because nobody can tell you that.

saunaboy

Fair enough. Cheers for response.