Reference Ace › Guides › Employment verification in NZ: what employers can actually find out
The reason fake references fail: verification runs on records, not voices.
Dates, job title, and sometimes employment status, checked against payroll records, IRD history, or a background screening company. These are facts with paperwork behind them.
Texture. What you were like to work with, the project that shipped, the would-you-rehire answer. That is what references are for, and what a brief improves.
Fabricate the verifiable part and the whole file is poisoned. Strengthen the human part honestly and the whole file gets stronger. One of these is cheap and safe, the other is neither.
With your consent, yes. Most confirm dates and title through HR and ask a named referee for the rest.
Increasingly, especially in finance, health, government and large corporates. Verification is cheap now.
The Privacy Act 2020 gives you the right to ask for information held about you, including screening results. Worth knowing.
Reference Ace checks real examples of your work, confirms they're yours, and vouches for them to employers by name, always as an independent reviewer and never as a former boss. Got a referee already? We brief them and run the practice check before a real employer calls.
See how it works and pricing