Everything You Need To Know About Employee Background Checks

In 2013 the CIPD published a guide on pre-employment checks for employers. ^[1] The guide offers advice to HR professionals, stating that it is wise that they check the background of applicants in case they might bring their organisation into disrepute, or cause internal difficulties. It also provides information on the legal risks involved if inappropriate steps are taken or the applicants are not made aware of the checks being carried out on them and given a fair chance to respond to any findings.

Managing director of David Kearns states that, “pre-employment checks are a valuable prevention tool and can verify or highlight discrepancies in the information provided by prospective employees. Potentially saving your organisation a lot of money. It may also be necessary to carry out employment checks on current employees, which again is completely legal and this does not require consent for this research to be carried out.”

Expert Investigations’ past experience of pre-employment checks has identified a range of issues that candidates have falsified within their CV or application form, such as:

• No degree or different degree held
• Lower grades in qualifications than declared
• Undeclared criminal convictions
• Any undeclared business interests
• Whethey you have any undeclared previous employers
• Detrimental information about the individual, their lifestyle and work ethic

We have two decades worth of experience in utilising many lawful methods to carry out thorough background checks for clients, these include utilising some social network sites, credit information and companies house information, this also gives the employer peace of mind of impartiality and that everything is done in a lawful manner.

The Fraud Advisory panel estimate that almost 1 in 7 CV’s contain some sort of discrepancy this highlights that organisations need to be a lot more proactive in vetting their employees to not only ensure they are getting the right candidate for the position but that they are keeping their businesses safe from potential fraudulent activity.

[1] https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/emp-law/recruitment/pre-employment-checks-guide