How We Verify Employers

Job postings are free. Employers and jobs must pass Fun First Jobs’ verification and safety checks before appearing on the site. Some submissions require additional review. Here’s what that involves, and what it doesn’t mean.

What “Verified employer” means

“Verified employer” means we confirmed that the organization controls, or is reasonably associated with, the website or contact information listed for it. It’s about who the organization is and how to reach it. It isn’t a judgment about any particular job or workplace.

How we check organizations

We keep five things separate: confirming an email address; checking that the organization is real and its details line up; checking that the person is connected to it; deciding who can use a hiring group’s account on Fun First Jobs (the group’s owners and administrators decide, with our help when needed); and the safety checks every job goes through. Passing one never skips the others.

• Email confirmation. Every employer account confirms its email address before it can add an organization or submit a job.
• Work email and website domain. The standard path to verification is a confirmed work email at the same domain as the organization’s website, for example name@yourcamp.org for yourcamp.org. When the domains match, the website responds and none of our other checks raise a concern (such as a look-alike web address, a possible duplicate or an earlier problem with the organization), the organization is verified automatically. A match is a strong sign, not proof, so when anything doesn’t line up, our team reviews the organization instead. We can also recognize a domain that belongs to the same organization, such as a parent company, a government agency or a school district, after we confirm the relationship ourselves. An employer saying so isn’t enough.
• Personal email addresses. Employers can use a personal or free email address (such as Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook or iCloud), or one that doesn’t match their website. Those organizations always get additional review by our team before they can be verified. We look at public information about the organization, such as its website, publicly listed contact details and public records, and we may call a publicly listed number. Confirming an email address alone never makes an organization verified.
• Public information. Before an organization is verified automatically, our system checks that its website responds. When an organization needs additional review, our team looks at its public information to see whether its name, website and contact details line up.
• Duplicates and look-alikes. Departments, teams and locations of one organization often share a website, so a shared website alone doesn’t make a duplicate. Our system flags the same hiring group registered twice, the same name on a different website, and web addresses that look confusingly similar to another organization’s.
• Departments, divisions and teams. A department, team or location can have its own hiring group and profile. When it says it’s part of a larger organization, we check that connection. A team that shares the website of that organization’s verified groups is a strong sign; anything that doesn’t line up is reviewed by our team before the team can be verified. If the whole organization already hires on Fun First Jobs, a separate department, team or location set up by someone outside that group is reviewed by our team first. For some large organizations, a hiring group that says it hires for the entire organization is reviewed by our team first; a hiring group for one store, location, department or team follows the usual steps. Because schools and universities also give email addresses to students, a school’s hiring group is usually reviewed by our team too, even when the email matches. If one group’s jobs are paused because of a strike or lockout, our team decides whether that also applies to related groups.
• Requests to join. Knowing an organization’s name or website doesn’t give anyone access to it. A request to join an existing hiring group goes to that group’s owners and administrators, who decide who joins and what they can see. A matching work email is a good sign, not proof. If nobody answers within seven days, the person can ask our team for help, and a request for a group that nobody manages anymore comes to our team directly. Before giving anyone access in those cases, our team confirms the person’s authority using organizational evidence, such as confirmation from the organization’s management or HR department, or its official website or public records, and records how it was confirmed. Nothing is ever approved just because nobody responded, and we never ask for identity documents.

We don’t ask employers for identity documents, and we don’t run background checks on organizations or the people who work there.

Possible verification results

• Verified: the evidence lines up. The organization’s jobs show the Verified employer label.
• Limited: the organization appears legitimate, but the evidence is weaker, for example a personal email address or little public information. Its jobs can still be published once they pass our checks, they get a closer look, and they don’t show the Verified employer label.
• Correction requested: something needs to be corrected first, such as a website address that doesn’t work.
• Declined: we couldn’t confirm the organization or its connection to the account.

Verification isn’t permanent. Organizations verified automatically through a work email are asked to confirm that email again from time to time. If no one confirms it in time, the organization’s published jobs stay up, but the Verified employer label is removed and new jobs wait for our team until the email is confirmed again. We can revoke verification if an organization’s details change or concerns come up, and we can suspend an organization, which takes all of its jobs down at once.

Safety checks on every job

Before a job can appear on Fun First Jobs, it must pass our safety checks. Automated checks look for warning signs: application or training fees, requests for sensitive information, check-cashing or reshipping arrangements, links that go somewhere unexpected, unrealistic pay claims, possible duplicates, unusual age requirements and wording that may be discriminatory. Problems an employer must fix, such as a missing, unsafe or shortened application link, stop a job from being submitted. When a check flags something, the job is held until our team reviews it, and decisions follow our Job Posting Policy.

Jobs from verified employers that pass every check may be published without waiting for a manual review, including an employer’s first job. Jobs that raise a concern, and jobs from employers that aren’t verified yet or need additional review, are held for our team. Being verified isn’t an endorsement or a guarantee, and we can stop an employer’s jobs from publishing automatically at any time. Automated checks can’t catch everything, so we also review reports from job seekers and can take a job down at any time.

Employers who take applications through Fun First Jobs choose questions from our question library or write their own. A question an employer writes appears on applications only after our team approves its exact wording, and questions about protected or sensitive topics, such as age, health, family, religion, finances or ID numbers, aren’t allowed.

Fun First Jobs currently accepts U.S.-based jobs only. On-site and hybrid jobs need a work location in the United States, and remote jobs must be open to applicants located in the United States, either anywhere in the country or in specific states.

After a job is published

• Every job comes down automatically when it ends: at its application deadline, or, for open-until-filled and year-round jobs, if the employer stops confirming that it’s still open (year-round listings end after one year). When the employer marks a job filled, it comes down right away.
• Anyone can report a job or an employer, and our team reviews reports. A single report never removes a job. If several people report a serious concern about the same job, such as a scam or a request for money, we may pause it while we review it. We can take a job or an organization down immediately if we find a problem.

What job seekers should still do

We take reasonable steps to review employers and jobs, and we act on reports. Verification lowers risk, but it can’t remove it. Read each listing carefully, apply the way it describes, and never pay to apply or share bank details or your Social Security number before you’re hired. Our job safety page explains more.

Information for employers

An email address at your organization’s website domain is the standard path to verification, and when everything checks out, your organization can be verified right away. A personal email address works too, but your organization will need additional review first, which can take longer. If we request a correction or mark your organization Limited, we’ll email you the reason, and you can update your organization from your dashboard. Questions? Contact us.