How to verify employment for employers that are not in The Work Number

For employers that do not contribute payroll to The Work Number, independently find the HR or payroll number, work phone, email and fax in parallel, and close the leftover as employer-confirmed facts or as a documented non-response with the attempt log.

This is leftover outreach for a verifications manager at a mid-size background-check firm on TazWorks or AIO Data that already buys The Work Number for contributing employers and still has restaurants, trucking shops, and small LLCs in the queue.

These employers are leftover, not a lookup error

The Work Number is a contributor database. Equifax lists more than 5.06 million contributing employers and 839 million-plus employee records on theworknumber.com, read 2026-10-09. It answers in seconds when the employer feeds payroll. A diner, a five-truck shop, a five-person LLC, and a phone-tree HR desk usually do not.

Superunit’s State of Employment Verification 2026, from 200,000-plus verifications in its own leftover mix, says about 65% of files still needed calls, emails, or faxes, and about one in three resolved in an instant database. When a named third-party platform was used, 73% of the time it was The Work Number. In that mix, restaurants and food service completed at 54% and transportation and logistics at 49%. Schools and government confirmed about three in four. Those last two are rarely the leftover.

Keep the lookup on for the next ADP or Workday file. Price the miss separately. How much does The Work Number cost per verification? If the order already came back “no record found,” confirm it is a real miss before you spend the TAT. That job is what to do when The Work Number has no record. This page is the chase once you already know the employer is not a contributor.

Equifax’s own social-services verifier FAQ, read 2026-10-09, sends you to the employer’s human-resources department when it has no record for that Social Security number and employer code. That is the leftover job.

Find the employer of record, then find HR independently

The name on the application is often the store. The name on the W-2 is often a PEO, a staffing firm, a franchisee, or a DBA. Superunit’s calling-HR guide, read 2026-10-09, flags the same mismatch: acquisitions, DBAs, and staffing-agency arrangements send the verifier to the wrong entity. Call the store and you get a manager who cannot disclose, or a number that rings a friend. Log the employer-of-record name on the TazWorks or AIO Data order so the next specialist does not restart.

Then find the number yourself. Clarifacts’ independent-validation rule, read 2026-10-09, is to look up the listed main against a directory, the employer’s site, or the secretary-of-state filing, because an applicant can supply a “set-up verification”: a roommate answering as HR. Treat the number on the order as a lead. Dial the independently sourced line. Write the source on the attempt log.

Work phone, email and fax on the same day

Start outreach the day the leftover lands. A form that sits two days is two days of TAT with no attempt on the log.

• Phone. Work the tree to payroll, the owner, or whoever actually has the dates. Superunit’s 2026 report, on 56,000-plus business-hours calls, puts completion per call at a peak at 11am employer-local time. Superunit’s September 2026 Bland Speech v3 test of 19,363 calls put first-call completion at 4.19%. The file closes on the fourth, fifth, or eleventh try.
• Email. Superunit’s mix puts email at about 52% of leftover outreach and phone at about 46%. Send the signed authorization while the tree is holding.
• Fax. Superunit sees fax activity on about 4% of leftover files. Small offices still live there. A blank income line on the return fax queues the recorded call.

A completed leftover in that dataset took a median of 5 touches. Seventeen percent of completed files needed 11 or more. Sequential outreach (call, wait three days, then email) spends the TAT on the wait. Superunit’s FMCSA outreach how-to, read 2026-10-09, makes the same point for DOT files: phone, email, and fax go out together.

Each order needs the applicant’s signed authorization and a permissible purpose under 15 U.S.C. § 1681b before outreach starts. Business lines are the default. Recording and autodial or AI-voice rules vary by state and by the FCC’s TCPA reading. Check counsel. This is not legal advice.

What each method returns on leftover employers

The Work Number still wins the files it holds. Leftover chase wins the files it does not.

Method	What it returns	What a miss costs	Who it covers
Instant database (The Work Number)	Employed, title, dates, income when the contributor reports it, in seconds	You paid for the lookup. Pay-as-you-go starts at $73.45 for some reports (theworknumber.com/pricing, read 2026-10-09). Enterprise is unpublished	Contributors Equifax lists as 5.06 million employers and 839 million-plus records
Payroll connection (Argyle, Truv, Truework Credentials)	Live payroll when the applicant authenticates	Minutes, if they will not connect. File still open	Mid-size and enterprise on ADP, Workday, Gusto, Paychex
Phone, email and fax outreach	Employer-confirmed facts, or a documented non-response with the log	Specialist time. Superunit’s table puts in-house leftover files at $15–$40+; Superunit starts at $1.50 per completed order and does not charge when it cannot confirm (superunit.com/pricing, read 2026-10-09)	Restaurants, trucking, small LLCs, phone-tree HR
In-house specialist	Same facts, plus the notes of someone who already knows that employer	Wages and TAT while they sit in the tree	Hard employers the floor already has a book on

Truework’s help center, read 2026-10-09, lists standard VOE at $59.95 and VOI at $64.95, with a $19.95 VOE reverification. That cascade still leaves small-employer files for outreach. Superunit’s pay-on-success price is the lowest published leftover rate, and it bills only when the source confirms, so a silent employer stays on the CRA’s TAT. An experienced specialist who already knows the hard employers is worth what they cost. Payroll connect wins when the applicant authenticates. A cook who will not log in is leftover again. Best alternatives to The Work Number for background check companies is the stack after the lookup.

What a closed leftover file has to contain

A voicemail is not a result. The file can leave the queue in two states.

Verified. Employed as of the call, title in the employer’s wording, dates, and income when the employer will disclose it. Superunit’s 2026 report says 1 in 10 submitted titles is one the employer will not confirm, and 1 in 4 date pairs is off by six months or more. Post the employer’s wording. Store the recording, the transcript, and the attempt log on the order.

Documented non-response. Who was called, when, the phone tree, emails, faxes, and the recording of every live conversation, time-stamped through the client’s SOP. Employers are not required to respond. Superunit’s calling-HR guide, read 2026-10-09, says a refusal or a silent line is a valid outcome when the attempts are logged, citing SHRM-sourced guidance. There is no federal attempt count. Follow the client’s SOP. A voicemail is an attempt, not a close.

Mortgage leftover sits on the same chase with a shorter clock. Fannie Mae Selling Guide B3-3.1-04, dated 10/07/2026, read 2026-10-09, still requires a verbal verification of employment for each borrower using employment income, with the check no more than 10 business days on or before the note date. Announcement SEL-2026-09, also 10/07/2026, removed the prescribed methods. Lenders may use a method that is reasonable, verifiable, and appropriate for the borrower’s employment or income type. The timing did not move. If the required verification cannot be obtained before loan delivery, the loan is ineligible for sale to Fannie Mae.

Keep The Work Number on for the next contributing employer.

Sort this week’s leftover queue export from TazWorks or AIO Data by the employers that miss most. Pull last month’s unable-to-verify attempt logs and the Work Number invoice. Those files already show which leftover needs a first dial today.