Past employment checks

[movingon]

I have just got to the security check stage and given my last five years of employment.
The form doesn't ask for a name of anyone or contact details of the places you have worked.
Does anyone know whether past employers are contacted and whether it's just the most recent one (if there is more than one)?
Thanks in advance

[yellowbelly]

Hi movingon

I wondered the same thing - my last two employers were large national organizations, and I just filled in the overall generic organization names and roles I held
e.g NASA, rocket scientist

At no point have I been asked for an named/individual line manager reference from those last roles (although I have pre-warned them if required).

Just seems a bit strange, but I'm guessing the pre-employment/security checks that are done look more into your background to assess
whether you can trusted with the mail and are not a potential risk to the public.

YB

[TrueBlueTerrier]

I may be wrong but part of the security checks that prospective employees do is to check your work history for accuracy. The background check is done by a professional company so all they will do is contact a selection of your previous employers at random just to check basic facts such as you were in fact employed there and the dates. Its unlikely they will ask for a reference due to the basic nature of our job, and the fact that most company references are very basic and uninformative anyway.

[movingon]

Cheers guys - that makes sense.
All my previous work is in schools - I'm just hoping someone will be around to verify it - they are all on hols now!
Bit of a change then - rocket scientist to postman !!

[peshwaarinaan]

Hi, I emailed Recruitment and asked them this specific question as I didn't want to put in a difficult situation with my current employer. The response I had was that they don't take up references for front-line roles.