Our entire department was asked for education details by HR.

37 Comments

1. AnonymousOctober 24,2024 at 6:57PM UTC

   My first instinct reading this was wow, really? Even after you already completed a background check? Do you know why they are asking? Or did your company go through a reorg or maybe their system changed and they lost the info? I keep my transcript but you could get yours from your alma mater but it could take a while. That is really odd to me.

2. maria roseOctober 24,2024 at 7:19PM UTC

   The company might just be doing of survey of the educational background of all employees and not asking for proof of a copy of educational records, which means all that is needed is your school’s name and your major ( no dates and copies of diploma and school records) Dates, diploma and records being asked for now, would only be a problem if that information is not true—for example., claim of diploma from a certain school when you didn’t graduate that school but did attend college at an alternative school.— if your job performance is good you have already proven your ability to do the job which no educational qualifications don’t always guarantee..

3. AnonymousOctober 24,2024 at 8:06PM UTC

   No need to freak out. I have been asked to gather this info a few times. Nothing sinister behind it.

4. AnonymousOctober 24,2024 at 8:50PM UTC

   Thanks. I was just hired 8 months ago and they performed a background check with employment verification so I thought the request was strange. I was truthful on everything so that wouldn't be an issue. Just weird.

5. AnonymousOctober 25,2024 at 12:02AM UTC

   To add additional comment to my original response: we've sought this information for a variety of reasons: recruiting efforts - targeting the alma maters of current employees. Showcasing the education of our employees, comp research, etc.

6. AnonymousOctober 24,2024 at 8:35PM UTC

   Accreditation rules change and HR is sometimes required to make sure that their employees have the desired degrees on record. No need to worry as long as you you were truthful in your application.

7. AnonymousOctober 24,2024 at 9:50PM UTC

   Thank you!

8. AnonymousOctober 24,2024 at 9:35PM UTC

   Just share, shouldn't be a red flag unless there's false info. Depending on the profession, education is NOT normally checked/verified. It's an additional cost and to be clear, can create a delay in the process. So, it's typically used for certain careers.

9. AnonymousOctober 24,2024 at 10:09PM UTC

   My company pays for that additional service. I never provide false info. So thats not a concern. But it's never come up in my career so I was surprised.

10. AnonymousOctober 25,2024 at 1:42AM UTC

    As long as you can verify any education you put on your application/resume, there should be no issues with providing this information. It could be as simple as an audit with a licensing agency requiring that people in certain positions hold particular degrees or that some issues have been with people inflating their education before hiring. For example, university accreditation sometimes requires that a certain percentage of the tenure track professors have a PhD (as opposed to a professional doctorate) and be engaged in ongoing research projects.

11. AnonymousOctober 25,2024 at 10:18AM UTC

    Makes sense. Thanks!

12. AnonymousOctober 25,2024 at 3:37AM UTC

    Higher Ed here and my employer did that 10 or 15 years ago. I also recently got feedback from a regulatory agency that we needed to add the school that some of our folks attended (it's related to licensing). I'm theorizing that someone really screwed up so they're doubling down on credentials to make sure it never happens again.

13. GirlBossanova934974October 25,2024 at 12:36PM UTC

    Sounds like someone is doing a CYA exercise. Some employee probably got hired with a slew of phony credentials and got found out a few months later when they couldn't do the job. Now HR is figuring that more phony credentials may be around and needs to be found. In my view, this is the direct result of IGNORING credentials and qualifications during the interview process. Yet another undesirable result of hiring for 'cultural fit'.

14. Katharine AkersOctober 25,2024 at 2:01PM UTC

    My guess is they are making sure their records are current and/or complete. I'd just pass that info along.

15. AnonymousOctober 25,2024 at 2:36PM UTC

    Does sound like CYA on HR's part, but I never give the year I graduated. That info can be used for age discrimination. Does anyone else feel this way and how would you handle this request?

16. AnonymousOctober 25,2024 at 3:29PM UTC

    It can be used for age discrimination, and it is. I too never give my date of graduation. And if I'm applying for a job and their online applicant tracking system (ATS) makes date of graduation a required field, I stop applying and send a "FYI" note to the company's head of HR that their ATS needs fine-tuning because whoever made that field required doesn't understand the law.

17. AnonymousOctober 27,2024 at 4:38PM UTC

    In the recruiting process, there's never a need or legal requirement to give a graduation year, no matter what a recruiter may tell you. Once you have an employment offer in hand verifying degree information still might not be done (it's fallen out of fashion in many industries in the US), but if the company requires a degree verification in order to establish a start date and get you on the payroll then yes, you need to provide the date. Your name, degree and year of graduation is the minimum information that an institution needs to find you in their records.

    If a company wants to discriminate against you at that point, it will require revoking the job offer you've been given and most will not want to go through that unless a candidate has lied about the degree in the first place. It's much more clear cut to revoke an offer based on the candidate's misrepresentation versus a desire to discriminate against them illegally.

    If you're already an employee (as in the case of OP) - too late. As soon as you provided the documents for your I9 when you started, your date of birth is on record with a US employer.

18. AnonymousOctober 25,2024 at 4:13PM UTC

    You have been used as high schooler but didn’t get fair treatment as actual degrees and experience you have achieved

    1)internal hiring fraud , fraud loan such as use high schooler to apply for student loan or personal loan or business loan, usually loan rate is higher than expected known.
    2)low ball, wage suppression what’s on your paystub
    3) employers doesn’t want to pay fair value of resource is a sign of mis accounting, profit on private jet pass through gain and loss not filing taxes
    4)business running parallel in multiple lanes the cheat is stunning, the dent is huge.

19. AnonymousOctober 25,2024 at 4:41PM UTC

    It could be one of many things.

    some good others not so.

    1-coming up with hiring plans to attract others from same university and using your help to help do this

    2-census needed in detail for risk management insurance where they are required to provide details

    3- compliance audit for some type of certification being done by the company

    4- getting ready to terminate those whose credentials are not able to be verified even now

    5- company acquisition that is being done or sale of company and the buyer/seller is asking for this- it's easier to ask people vs looking in paperwork- if they even kept records properly

    So, what to do...ask the HR person and your direct manager for the why. You may not get a specific response but certainly you want to know if your personal information is going to be shared with any third parties in the case of an acquisition or sale.

20. AnonymousOctober 27,2024 at 4:42PM UTC

    I came to respond #5. Having been through multiple due diligence efforts in my career (both acquiring and acquired), this seems like the most obvious reason.

    And if it is, the HR person involved may not know why they're being asked to collect this information. Due diligence is typically an effort led by an extremely small group (for obvious reasons) and even the HR person is very often not disclosed in the early stages.

21. AnonymousOctober 27,2024 at 4:58PM UTC

    I am the OP above your comment, yes, HR is often not in the loop during M&A behavior as they don't want any type of comms going out to the company during this information gathering time. If it does it could affect stock price, valuation and other internal things so it's usually C level and legal only.

22. AnonymousOctober 27,2024 at 5:34PM UTC

    They are being audited and missed these.

23. KoreyOctober 27,2024 at 6:30PM UTC

    Is not necessarily a bad thing so, you really should just ask your HR people. That's not unreasonable. What I can say though is this kind of information is used in succession planning. Go ask.

24. AnonymousOctober 28,2024 at 12:19PM UTC

    I suspect it is an internal reevaluation of the skills that the staff has.

25. JMOctober 28,2024 at 1:30PM UTC

    Maybe...but degrees don't necessariloy equal skills. My BS from 1987 is really not relevant skill-wise to what I do now. It's probably not a big deal, but HR should say why. Why be secretive?

26. Orlagh CostelloOctober 28,2024 at 12:25PM UTC

    Someone got refused a job cos of qualifications and they're covering their arses.

27. Natalie DodsonOctober 28,2024 at 12:37PM UTC

    Could they be preparing a bid for a contract? I agree you could ask HR…

28. Deb AllenOctober 28,2024 at 1:10PM UTC

    Often for larger companies they know there may be one or more that misrepresented on their application, but they need to ask everyone instead of targeting those few to ensure they are not accused of discrimination. I worked for a large corporation that wanted to prove some people were mis-using the healthcare coverage but again, had to have everyone prove their spouses or children were indeed theirs which qualified for coverage instead of reaching out to the few they suspected.

29. Nicolle Joy WilfengerOctober 28,2024 at 2:07PM UTC

    I don't have a University/College education due to lack of money I went straight to the workforce. I do have designations and license. I've been working in my industry since 1992. I'm very open with that fact and so should others be as well.

30. Ruth StevensOctober 28,2024 at 2:35PM UTC

    We had to do that as our HRIS system wasn't originally set up to take education feeds from our background provider. We did request the information so we could ensure our records were updated/current as we looked to roll out a career development module... nothing nefarious.

31. AnonymousOctober 28,2024 at 2:43PM UTC

    UPDATE: OP here, as it turns out our hr department announced layoffs in my department this morning. One of the hr generalists mentioned that education and other certificates were a marker they used to help them profile our department. I'm sad for my colleagues that were laid off. It's such a tough time of year to be job searching.

32. Star7October 29,2024 at 3:39AM UTC

    It just seems so illegal...or ? Bordering discrimination. I would get a free consult from an employment attorney, and have that info in my back pocket. One may see a pattern too, age discrimination. They hide it so well, eh?

33. AnonymousOctober 31,2024 at 1:05AM UTC

    Age discrimination may be a problem, but education and certifications are appropriate qualifiers and not considered protected classes, so I'm unsure what an employment attorney could do. If JDs require certain education levels and licensing, they are within their rights to ask and verify.

34. Star7November 3,2024 at 2:24PM UTC

    What a concept, eh? Keeps them legal.

35. Star7November 3,2024 at 2:24PM UTC

    Yes, THEY get to set the rules, not the staff. They have all the power. I remember once, a few things said, I always retained for a dire situation in case it ever arises: the yellow pages are possible employers, CREATE a job yourself. I know that last one may sound illogical, but. . . .

36. Star7October 29,2024 at 3:37AM UTC

    Ugh...I was temping at a very well known national non profit during the Obama years, and they were down sizing and did similar things to their perm staff. The CFO had to re apply for his job, and others did too. I think that is how they see who they want to keep, and who to let go. It saddens me to read all this when I log on here, because it is so reminiscent of the Obama time period, really did a number on me. I never recovered. I pray for everyone on here.

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