Whether you’re looking for work or simply looking to hire someone, making sure that an employment application is completely filled out with all of the necessary information is crucial to getting the job done right. If you’re in human resources and you want to make sure your company handles all aspects of someone’s history as best as possible, then you’ll want to make a comprehensive employment application. If you’re applying for a job, you’ll want to understand not only why you should include all of the truthful information comprehensively, but why that information is important. Let’s take a look at employment applications from both sides of the table and find out what they’re all about. From the Employer’s Perspective An employer wants to create an employment application that tells them as much information they can know about a prospective employee before the interview process even begins. Why? Because this can be a great way of sorting the best candidates out from the poorest candidates and avoiding unnecessary interviews in the first place. For example, if an employer knows that he wants an employee with at least one year of experience in a certain field, then having the potential job candidates fill out all of their employment history will help them to know which employees they’ll want to interview and call back. There are other issues present in creating an employee application that will come up. Having their basic contact information is important, of course, but other issues like a potential criminal history, referrals and recommendations, and education background help give an overall perspective on the employee that you’re hiring. It’s a great way to get to know someone from a certain vantage point before you even have to interview them - in some cases, the interview process can be as simple as telling them what the job entails and asking them if they’d like to work with you. A good employee application, done right, will help facilitate that. It helps if they’re applying for a simple job, too! (Note: it’s important to make sure that the employee also verifies that all of the information is correct; otherwise, you might not have some legal recourse you could have through this application should the employee not live up to their end of the bargain.) From the Employee’s Perspective From a job application’s point of view, filling out an employee application can feel like a major drag. There’s no personal involvement from the company you’re applying to, so you don’t really have any way of getting real feedback. You can also feel like you’re just adding one piece of paper to the pile of papers if you’re writing out an employee application along with other people in the same room. So why even fill one out? Well, to put your name in the pile, at least. It can be easier than a job interview and can actually yield benefits if you’ve got a good employee application. But what exactly defines a “good” application from your end of the bargain? You’ve got to have referrals, to be sure, but you’ve also got to have the experience and education that shows you’re capable of handling this job. At the very least, using good penmanship and taking the employee application seriously is a way that you can show the potential bosses that you will also take your job seriously.