How to Handle Employees Missing Experience Letters from Previous Jobs? Need Advice!

Dear HR Folks, Hope you are all doing well. I am working in the service industry. A few of our employees have not submitted their experience letters. They have been working with us for the last 4–5 years. Now, when we have asked for the documents, they are unable to submit them to us. They tell us that they don't have those documents.

Request for Suggestions

Now, please can you suggest how I should get the documents?

Further, my company says that if they are unable to submit the documents, then we have to take a letter of undertaking from them. Please SUGGEST!!!

The Necessity of Past Experience Certificates

Why do you need their past experience certificates if they are performing well now? An experience certificate is a yardstick to understand their past work history, but it is not necessary for assessment, especially after 4-5 years. You can request an undertaking if you prefer.

You are correct. But for file completion, we need the employee's entire set of documents. So, I need suggestions on how I can obtain the documents.

You may not get documents, but you can ask such employees in which organizations they were previously working. Jot down the names and even telephone numbers. At random, call a few employers to get verified information on whether they have worked there, for how long, and what their last salaries were. Create a record on your end.

Alternatively, you can create an employment verification form and send it to previous employers, requesting them to fill and return the form. This can also serve as a record.

For your records, note that this is their first employment if no past record is available.

Furthermore, since you are completing their files, kindly ask employees for proof of their date of birth. Only school leaving certificates or birth certificates issued by the district administration will be considered valid.

Good morning! It seems you just woke up after four years. Yawn. There are good employees who have been working for 4-5 years in the same organization, even without experience certificates from previous employment. Do you think they could be cheats or frauds? Just do the paperwork, and now fabricate records as our dear member Sunil Sardar has suggested.

Thank you very much for your suggestions! Could you please provide me with the outline of the Verification form? I need to know what details I am supposed to enter in the form. Once again, I am thankful for your immediate response.

Thank you.

We have an issue with experience letters. The rest of the documents we may get.

So, I am planning to prepare an Antecedent Verification Form to obtain the experience certificates.

Template for Antecedent Verification Form

Please find the below template for your review and suggest any changes if necessary:

I, [Employee Name], employee of [Organization Name], aged ___, residing at __________. I have been working with this company from __ to the present date. At the time of joining the organization, I was unable to submit the following experience letters as I did not have them with me. However, I have worked with the following companies:

Company Name Duration Designation Reason for Non-submission of Documents

1. [Company 1]
2. [Company 2]
3. [Company 3]

HR Manager Name Reporting Manager Name Employee Name
Signature Signature Signature