Employers use employment application forms to gather information about potential applicants for a job position. Once applicants have signed and submitted the forms, HR professionals review them to analyze each applicant’s suitability for the position they applied for.
With dedicated sections for documenting personal details, educational history, past work experiences, and professional references, you are in a better position to gauge how well an applicant’s profile matches the needs & requirements of a job.
EA forms also come with a separate section where the applicant authorizes an employer or a third party to run background checks as part of the hiring process.
What We Offer?
Most Employment Application forms contain similar features. Based on our extensive review of templates available out there, we use the following overall structure for ours:
- Personal Information
- Employment Desired
- Education History
- General Information
- Work Experience
- References
- Acknowledgment
- Authorization of Background Checks
- Office Use Only
Now, let’s go over each section of our template in a bit more detail…
What This Employment Application Template Includes
HR managers or employers can use our pre-made, standardized form to systematically analyze the knowledge, capabilities, experiences, and skill set of each applicant.
The more relevant an applicant’s profile is to the nature & requirements of a job, the higher their chances of getting hired.
Section 1: Personal Information
In this section, applicants supply basic information about themselves, such as their name, date of birth, and contact details (Email & postal address).
In case of referrals, the applicants must share the name of the person who referred them to the position. This information helps you during the identification and background verification process. If your company has a reward-based Referral Program, you will need this info to track the success of your program and reward successful referrals.
If the applicant is a US resident, they will also need to identify their nine-digit Social Security Number written in the format 078-05-1120. HR departments need this number for tax reporting and withholding purposes. This step ensures regulatory compliance and prevents a case of identity or tax-related fraud.
Section 2: Employment Desired
In this section, the applicant shall specify the position they are applying for.
Applicants shall also specify an expected date of joining. For vacancies that need to be filled urgently, this information allows employers to filter out candidates who can’t join the workplace soon enough due to a specific notice period requirement under their current employment contracts.
This template also offers flexibility to applicants about whether they have applied for a job position at your company before. If applicable, applicants should also mention the last time they applied for a position in the company. This information can help HR departments analyze how well an applicant has overcome their previous shortcomings.
Section 3: Education History
This section asks for a complete record of the applicant’s past educational or academic qualifications. From high-school choices to graduate majors, educational records help you decide if an applicant has what it takes!
We further divided this section into 3 sub-sections:
- High School
- College
- Trade, Business, or Correspondence School
For each educational degree or diploma awarded, applicants must provide the following information: (i) Name & Location, (ii) Years Attended, and (iii) Name of Degree or Diploma Awarded.
Knowing an applicant’s educational background can help you analyze their suitability for the available role in your company. Based on the information provided in this section, you can choose the ideal candidates for your company by evaluating their skills, coursework, and majors.
Section 4: General Information
This section is ideal for applicants who want to showcase that extra bit of flair. For example, they can use this section to identify a specific subject of study or research work that gives them an edge over other applicants. They can also specify any special training or handy skills that make them a more worthy candidate for the job.
We have also added space for candidates to specify if they served in the military or naval forces. While on the one hand, military experience can signal valuable skills (e.g., logistics, cybersecurity, leadership), it also allows employers (in the US) who do business with the federal government to undertake affirmative action and reporting under the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA). This helps track veteran hiring and ensure non-discriminatory practices.
Section 5: Work History
This section allows applicants to tell you about their past work experiences. For each work experience, applicants must specify the name and address of the company they worked for, dates of employment, their position (role), and their reason for leaving the company (if applicable). Following these leads, you are now all set to run necessary background checks to verify their claims and (hopefully) learn more about their capabilities and shortcomings to further assist you in the hiring process.
Feel free to use our Pre-Employment Background Check Authorization Form to obtain formal consent from applicants. This helps you avoid liability in cases of data privacy violation down the road!
Section 6: References
This section is designed to facilitate reference checks during the employee verification process. Applicants shall provide the names of any individuals willing to act as their references. For each reference, they shall provide their addresses, organizational affiliation, and specify the length of time they have known the applicant.
This information helps in evaluating candidates in a way that goes beyond academic results and the mere number of experience years in the professional world. Strong references enhance a candidate’s credibility and up their chances of getting hired.
Potential references
- Past employers
- Past line managers or direct supervisors
- Former colleagues, peers, or subordinates
- Research supervisors
- Former professors or coaches
Section 7: Acknowledgment & authorization for background check
From a legal point of view, this is the most important part of the form. By adding their signatures to this section, applicants may or may not (depending on which boxes they check):
- Acknowledge that the information they have provided in the form is true & accurate to the best of their knowledge.
- Authorize prospective employers to run necessary background checks for verification purposes.
- Agree to understand the terms of the employment contract as an at-will agreement. Grab our free At-Will Employment Agreement template to enter into contracts that offer both parties the freedom to terminate without incurring any legal liability!
Official use only
Once the candidate has taken the test and undergone interviews, the corresponding authority can review the application and write their remarks, which include their recommendation and details of the interview. By the end of this application form template, you can also add instructions for applicants. These may include instructions on filling out the form or submitting guidelines.
Best Practices to Use This Employment Application Template
Here are some best practices to follow when using our pre-made employment application form:
- Avoid the use of complex language that might confuse the applicants.
- If you end up reformatting the template, make sure that there always remains ample writing space for candidates to record their detailed responses.
- You can add optional sections for applicants, which may request demographic information or any additional qualifications, licenses, or certifications they hold.
- Once the employment application form template is ready from your end, pilot it with a group of existing employees to test its functionality and usability.
- Regularly update the form. This helps you enhance the relevance and accuracy of the collected information.
Note
For your ease, our template is available in multiple file formats, including Microsoft Word for easy offline editing, OpenDocument (ODT or ODS) for compatibility with various word processors, and via Google Docs for cloud-based sharing, editing, and collaboration.
The template is fully editable and can be customized to meet your specific needs and requirements, making it ideal for organizations of any nature, size, or complexity.
Just fill in the appropriate information, upload your company logo, and share the form with applicants. You can customize the sections and subsections, as well as change the fonts, colors, and backgrounds.
Feel free to embed this form into your system or use it standalone – either way, you save yourself hours in research, design, and formatting work!
