- What reaches them
- The list of mandatory checks, which of them cleared, and which line came back unresolved. The report arrives as a status, not as a person.
- What it means from there
- An unresolved line is an open item on a record that has to be defensible: while the file disagrees with itself, the offer cannot complete.
- What happens next
- Holds the offer at the gate until the record reconciles, and sets in advance which checks are mandatory and what evidence closes each one.
Reference & Background Verification
Third-party or internal verification of past employment records, academic degrees, and professional references.
Barrier B-011 Stage: Post-offer Step in the funnel: #13 Evidence: established
On the canonical path
Checks that are proportionate and answerable — Only the checks the role actually requires. Where a third-party record disagrees with what the candidate said, the discrepancy is put to the candidate before it decides anything.
This entry is one of the ways that commitment stops being kept.
What it looks like
Composite excerpts, written to be typical rather than copied. No particular message, company or person is quoted here.
Employment record 1 of 3: dates confirmed
Employment record 2 of 3: vendor has Mar 2019–Jun 2021, application states Jan 2019–Aug 2021 — DISCREPANCY
Degree: confirmed · References: 2 of 2 returned, both positive
Offer held pending reconciliation.
What to notice: The gate is checking a third-party record against a claim. A mismatch here is usually a document problem with a named remedy, not a finding about honesty.
Barriers before this one
Barriers after this one
Mechanisms operating at this barrier (1)
From each side
The same entry from inside each position that meets it: what reaches them, what it means from there, and what happens next given what they control.
- What reaches them
- A vendor report of cleared and uncleared lines, and an offer flagged as held. The records the vendor queried are not in the recruiter's view.
- What it means from there
- A date mismatch is an item to reconcile before the start date, and the time-to-fill clock is already running against it.
- What happens next
- Writes to the candidate naming the mismatch and the document that would close it, and keeps the start date provisional until it does.
- What reaches them
- An offer already accepted and now marked as held, plus whatever part of the finding is passed on: which record disagrees, and by how much.
- What it means from there
- The offer now turns on paperwork the candidate does not hold — a former employer's payroll dates against their own memory of the same months.
- What happens next
- Retrieves whatever documentation covers the disputed months, and postpones resigning or closing other processes while the hold stands.
Public policy and industry standards
- What reaches them
- Which categories of check are run, and in which jurisdiction. Nothing about the individual file.
- What it means from there
- Verification is the point where an eligibility rule — a licence, a right to work, a limit on what may be asked — becomes a pass or a fail.
- What happens next
- Bounds what may be checked and what an adverse finding obliges the employer to disclose; how a vendor mismatch is reconciled inside that bound is not set here.
ATS vendorNot visible from here
From this position the entry is not visible. That is not a gap in the atlas — it is the finding: the decision is made where nobody in this position can see it.
Hiring managerNot visible from here
From this position the entry is not visible. That is not a gap in the atlas — it is the finding: the decision is made where nobody in this position can see it.
