Pantaiema, are you saying applicants should get their employer to attach tax documents or company registration document etc to prove that the reference letter is not forged. Getting the type of reference letter that normally meets HO requirement is difficult enough from most employer, especially if one is unlucky (in quote) to work in a large organisation where most issues/employee relationship are somehow impersonal. To now demand that an employer attach sensitive document as reference to an employee (who will probably leave on getting HSMP) might be asking for too much as the case may be. Then, most past employer dont really care about you, especially if staff turnover is very high in the company, nobody cares to go and check archive of dusty files for someone who left 5 or 10 years ago.
To Yodiyokun- I know from my personal experience that they do verify, and if one is lucky, the personnel staff (or whatever dept handling such issue in your organisation) would be someone that understand what is needed and would be able to give the appropriate answers. Some people find it quite uncomfortable giving (sometimes too its company policy) such personnel information to outsiders on the phone and that might cause some trouble if BHC called to know infos such as your current level, salary, whether the job is graduate level etc, especially when the verification is not in writing, its on the phone.
As funny as this might sound, available infrastructure do play some role, you can imagine what happens if BHC called the company when most telephone lines are down (this is not a strange happening in Nigeria, we know the state of some basic infrastrutures) but someone from another country e.g UK can not comprehend why a company can not be reached on the phone number on their letter head.
In my case, one of my previous employer switched totally from NITEL line (YODI you can attest to their reliability) to another telephone provider which means you cant reach them unless you are aware beforehand (i wasnt aware too) and as you might guess, it was those NITEL lines that was on the letterhead as at the time my reference was issued in April 2004 and the verification was done sometimes around February 2005. Now, what probably saved me was that the BHC official that made the call asked my Head of Human Resources (HHR)if there are records of my previous employer . My HHR simply faxed them the reference details my organisation received from my previous employers when I was newly employed.
To answer the, 'how do you know' question, there is where Lady Luck must have been related to me
, The Head of HR happened to be my senior manager some years back and he called to ask me why BHC wants info about me and issues concerning my previous experience and what I earn, he said he was curious because the BHC person called several times that day while he wasnt in the office. I told him of my HSMP application and that it might be related to it, since that is the only thing, im aware of, that relates me to the BHC at that point in time. He then called for my file and responded to the enquiries.He even joked about me joining the andrews. It was after this that i called a friend in my former office on his mobile when i couldnt reach him on the office line (of course i want to know whether they asked questions about me there too).It was the guy who now told me that they have changed the lines. Its not everybody that could be that lucky, the wrong person could have answered the phone.Can you imagine what could have happened if they couldnt reach the employer i spent 5 solid years with?