A Guide for Employers on Assessing Employment Gaps

What Are Employment Gaps? Common Causes in the Indian Context

Employment Gap is when an individual is not officially working or hired. These gaps occur due to several components, both individual and accidental. To be precise we can categorise it into voluntary and involuntary reasons.

• One of the common factors that compel individuals to take a gap from their workaholic schedule is career breaks due to burnout, for self-reflection and personal growth.
• Some employees endure the distance from the profession due to parenthood or health problems for themselves and others, which appear as sudden strikes.
• A group of people would look upon this period to improve their career prospects by pursuing higher education.
• Another group of people leave their jobs to build their own empire by starting a new venture. Relocation caused by family interests, such as a spouse’s job and énage migration, may cause employment gaps. Few people were ensnared in this situation by unexpected job loss owing to company shutdown, contract issues and non-renewal.

Acceptable Reasons for Employment Gaps

 Amongst the factors that cause absence of the employee from the workplace for a certain period, most of them are legitimate and understandable gaps. For example, some people would take the period as a chance to extend their academic landscape or expand their knowledge and skills through higher education and certificate courses. Accidental health problems might be seen behind these gaps. Some people took a break from their jobs to get out of illness or to undergo medical procedures. Whereas, some people fill these spaces by caring for and nursing their loved ones. New changes in life, such as maternity and paternity are a reason for the void. Due to individual interests and familial situations, people need to leave the job role he is holding. To experiment with freelancing and being involved in short-term gigs. Unexpected shutdown of firms and new innovations like startups penetrate this list.

Every gap is subjective in nature. The weight of this depends upon role, context and industry norms. The sensitivity of the job titles held by the person should be scanned by keeping an eye on the roles. If the gap is for one to six months, it seems to be easily explained. But if it exceeds a year, it should be justified by a clear reason. To cite industry norms on this, employment gaps due to freelancing, upskilling and entrepreneurship, healthcare and academic reasons are accepted as common situations. But for finance and government-connected contexts, stricter explanations are required.

Step-by-Step Process for Verifying Employment Gaps

Before recruitment, along with assessing the documents submitted, the employer needs to draw attention to the gap in the job. It aids in confirming the accuracy and transparency of a profile. Reviewing internal resumes would help us to recognise the undefined timeline gaps between roles he/ she embellished. This also paves the way to notice any incompatibility between the periods, location and job titles. The need for route mapping of the employment history of the applicant is emphasised here. By this, the employer should contact the past employer to confirm the details in the profile. Third-party verification is employed to conduct reference checks, document verification and tenure confirmation. The recruiters could use social media profiles like LinkedIn to ensure the validity of the information detected.

Documents Commonly Used to Validate Gaps

There are certain documents which are generally used by the recruiters to categorise the gap as valid. If the candidate used the period for academic purposes, he/ she could justify themselves by the admission or enrollment letters,  hall tickets, degree or diploma certificate and course completion certificates. On the other hand, for medical and health-related reasons, the employers could ask for medical certificates from the registered doctors, discharge summaries and treatment records. Whereas, maternity and paternity leave were normally approved by the birth certificate of the newborn, leave endorsed letter from the employer and rarely in some cases, hospital discharge papers of the birth. Freelancing will be ratified by the payment receipts, project documentation, and client reference letters. The validity of the reasons concerning company shutdowns is accepted by the recruiters in the exit letters and final settlement proofs. Address change documents and travel documents will ensure the authenticity of the reason for the gap to the employer concerning relocation.

What Employers Should Do When Gaps Can’t Be Verified

When the gaps are left unverified, the administrator would take up a fair and structured approach to handle the situation. Asking for clarification professionally in a conciliatory way will help the employer to get clarity. Evaluation of a candidate’s explanation with reasonability and consistency, along with complication-based judgement, which scrutinises the role’s responsibility and risk level, also smoothens the verification process. Recording the information from the candidate information is essential to move with transparency and to avoid future disputes. Even though the context demands the worst assumptions, try to avoid that and then send all of your focus to the aspirant’s overall integrity, current relevance and skills.

Role of Background Verification Companies in India for Gap Analysis

Turning all the things into reality, an employer would not be able to scan all the details by themselves. So a background verification company aids in identifying, assessing, and validating employment gaps. These companies would develop a chronological timeline of academics and employment, which helps to spot accurately. As a part of document verification, they will examine offer letters, salary slips, education certificates, and, if needed, medical or personal leave documents. They also reach out to past employers to ensure the reliability of the dates of employment, exit, and the known period of gaps. Cross-checking details by analysing government records like EPFO and UAN, public databases, litigation checks and social media profiles was accomplished by the verification process. BGV investigators grade the risks by recording details efficiently in the reports. To strengthen the accuracy of details collected, the firm will contact the candidates directly to clarify the unverified fact and to obtain alternate documentation.