Will pre-employment screening inspire more sincere employees?

It is extremely important to make sure that the people you hire are not only right for your company and ensure that they are unlikely to expose your business to unnecessary risks, which is why pre-employment screening should be an essential part of your recruitment process.

By conducting pre-employment screening, you can inspire more since employees , deter unsuitable options, and ensure you’re able to hire the best person for the job.

The risks of hiring the wrong person

From wasted resource and high staff turnover, to damaging your company’s reputation and being the victim of crime, the risks of hiring someone who has not been properly vetted can be devastating for a business.

Poor Work – someone who has been insincere in their recruitment process is more likely to struggle enormously in their new position. This can mean that the quality of work that they produce may not be to the standard that you expected.

Higher onboarding costs – imagine hiring a new team member, only to find out they’re not as qualified as they said they were. Do you let them go and have to undergo the recruitment process again, using more resource? Or do you try to train them up to meet the demands of the role? Either way, your costs are going to be higher than you originally planned.

An unhappy team – overwhelmed team members who are not suited to their role are often unhappy in their job, which has a knock-on effect to the rest of the team. As well as this, a weak link within the office can cause problems for their colleagues, leading to frustration, reduced morale, and even a higher staff turnover.

Bad publicity – everyone has a past and a life outside of work, however, it’s important to ensure that the people you hire are not going to bring attention to the business for unwanted reasons. Extreme political affiliations that are not in keeping with your brand, or outstanding accusations against an employee can cast your company in a light you’d rather not be seen in.

Fraud – criminal activity can be devastating to a business, and when you’ve hired someone who isn’t as honest as they appear you risk exposing your company to theft, embezzlement, fraud, and other crimes.

How does pre-employment screening encourage honest employees?

The benefits of pre-employment screening mean that you’re able to ensure that your candidate’s credentials meet their claims. This means that you can identify security risks, verify an applicant’s experience and qualifications, and rule out the risk of their employment leading to adverse media or damage to your company’s reputation.

As well as confirming the sincerity of an employee, simply having these checks as part of your recruitment process can deter unsuitable employees, meaning your recruitment team can spend less time sifting through applications inappropriate to your needs, or waste onboarding resource on dishonest applicants before incongruities are exposed.

With pre-employment screening, honest, qualified, and experienced applicants can be identified more easily, helping you to hire the best person for the job.

Top checks to inspire sincere applicants

The sorts of pre-employment screening checks that you can undertake are varied, with different vetting checks available depending on your industry and the level of responsibility your new hire will be granted. Every check is there to ensure your company is secure and that you’re able to hire the most suitable candidate, but there are a few that can help you to ensure your new employees are sincere.

Referencing/work history – some applicants might want to embellish their previous experience or conceal situations that reflect badly on them and might affect your judgement of their suitability. Ensuring candidates’ work histories are verified and getting appropriate references can help to identify honest and experienced applicants.

Education/qualification checks – diploma mills and qualification certificate forgeries make misrepresentation of experience and education relatively easy and cheap (a fake degree certificate can cost as little as £50). It’s important to carry out checks around this not only to ensure your hires are qualified as they’ve stated, but also to indicate the honesty of your team.

Crime prevention – To ensure the security of your business and team, it’s important to screen your candidates for activity that could pose a threat to your company. This includes Anti-Money Laundering checks, CIFAS checks to flag up any recorded instances of fraud, FCA checks which highlights if a candidate has been barred from holding certain positions in FCA regulated companies, and police checks, which are essential for roles that deal with vulnerable people.

Adverse media – Checking to see if a candidate has been the focus of negative public attention, including any information relating to links with organised crime, financial terrorism, drug trafficking, financial threat, money laundering etc. is important to ensure that hiring them will not reflect badly on the company. These checks take into account traditional media sources as well online sources like social media, chat rooms and forums.

How can we help?

At NVS we can ensure that your company is fully compliant with any vetting process you require.

If you would like any further information please contact our sales staff by emailing [email protected]