Why implement more robust pre-employment vetting?
An organisation's employees are its greatest asset, often largest cost and pose substantial risks to organisational security and integrity. Finding new employees takes much time and money. Given this investment and potential risk, the question employers must ask themselves is do employment references adequately mitigate the possible risks? Have a look at the graphic below and see what you think.
At Know Your Candidate we believe a substantial portion of this risk can be mitigated and the balance restored by performing additional background checks that supplement the referencing process. Identity Checks, Credit Checks, Criminal Record Checks and Qualification Checks deal in known facts and are obtained from pre-compiled data sources meaning that they can be completed quickly and most importantly prior to the new employee commencing employment. More data leads to better recruitment decisions and the following benefits:
Lower employment costs: improved employee quality / suitability results in lower labour turnover therefore saving money on recruiting, training and employing unsuitable staff
Increased productivity: employment screening can play a big part in ensuring that the correct candidate is selected, resulting in better job performance. Candidates attempting to secure roles beyond their competence are screened out
Increased brand protection and compliance: a structured employment screening programme enables employers to demonstrate to their customers, regulators / industry bodies and insurers that processes have been implemented to reduce the possibility of employee related threats such as fraud and theft
Why outsource your pre-employment vetting?
Your organisation's HR or Security team could conduct more robust employment screening but is it the best possible use of their time? Carrying out more extensive checks is a time consuming task and your HR / Security teams probably have enough to do without giving them the added burden of employment screening. It is widely acknowledged that using a specialist to conduct your background checks will:
Save money and time: your organisation will not need to buy licences or spend time setting up and maintaining relationships with multiple data providers e.g. Credit Reference Agencies / Criminal Records Bureau
Increase efficiency: outsourcing allows you to match your capacity to conduct employment screening to the peaks and troughs in your recruitment activity or put another way, no under used resource in quiet times or stretched resources when recruitment activity is busy
