The secret of a successful company or business is its employees. However, hiring dedicated software development team is not a task to be taken lightly. Selecting a candidate without a thorough background check can be risky for the enterprise’s business, employees and clients. For this, the company or business needs to adopt a safe hiring process that involves background vetting. This is also referred to as pre-employment or background screening.
We consider some areas of the background-checking process that can reduce the risk of employing unsuitable employees.
ID Verification
Verifying the identity helps any business or company to reduce employment risk in two ways. The first way it helps to ensure that the candidate getting hired is authentic and the individual they claim to be. Apart from that, the documents used for verification are of use to engage background checks as per the requirement of the sector your company or business belongs to.
From April of this year, UK companies and organisations have access to IDVT (identity document validation technology) to hire suitable employees and remain compliant. The benefit of this process is it prevents hiring unsuitable candidates while also assisting in speeding up the process at lower costs.
DBS Checks
Hiring a new employee that you know nothing about can be risky for the business or even the safety of the staff or clients. That is why it is essential to carry out a DBS check on all prospective and current employees. This is recommended for even those sectors that are not mandated legally to carry out checks. Getting employee criminal record checks ensures that your business is protected from any kind of financial, legal and reputational damage.
The three kinds of criminal record checks include Basic, Standard and Enhanced:
Basic: These are generalised and can be used for any kind of employment. The check comprises any cautions and unspent convictions found in the PNC as per the ROA 1974 guidelines.
Standard: It is a much more detailed check that features warnings, cautions, convictions and reprimands as those found on the PNC.
Enhanced: Similar to a standard check, the enhanced DBS check includes searching the Barred List for children and vulnerable adults to ensure the employee is not restricted to working with these groups.
Credentials
These would include both qualifications and references. Through a background check, an employer can get valuable information about the employee that would be crucial to deciding to have them join or decline them for a vacancy. However, since both DBS checks and the Right to Work are extremely important, any business or company must have a well-defined process to check for references and qualifications.
At times various kinds of fake credentials, fraudulent references and fake educational certificates slip through the net in the screening process without being detected. It could lead to employing underqualified employees that could damage the enterprise. This makes it critical that there be a process in place that assesses and verifies all qualifications and references thoroughly so that nothing is missed.
Rescreening
The process of rescreening is vital both for those businesses that are legally required to do so as per employment guidelines and also for other organisations and businesses across the UK. The reason is within a given period there can be major changes in an individual’s life. From having drivers that may incur penalty points in the past 12 months to having an employee engage in a violent altercation, there are a lot of things that can change since the time they were employed.
Therefore, having a rescreening process is crucial for all employees. Generally, in any organisation, it is the responsibility of the human resources department to carry out the rescreening every 12 months. However, subject to the industry more frequent checks may be necessitated.
