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Background Checks

by Steve Kaelble

HireRight EMEA Special Edition


Background Checks For Dummies®, HireRight EMEA Special EditionPublished by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, www.wiley.com

This edition first published 2016

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Introduction

A talented team of employees can be the spark that makes a good company stellar. But any one of those employees

also has the potential to slam the brakes on that rise to great-ness. You can’t run a company without people, so how can you increase your odds of hiring the best of the best?

A background check program is a way to gain confidence that the people you’re thinking about hiring really do have all the great qualifications they claim to have, and that there’s not some skeleton possibly lurking in a closet somewhere. Background checks can help to facilitate a safer workplace, staffed by qualified employees.

Background Checks For Dummies, HireRight EMEA Special Edition, establishes the benefits of background checks, explains how they work and what they can cover, offers some food for thought when setting up your organisation’s screen-ing program and its policies, and helps to identify pitfalls that can derail a successful venture.

Foolish AssumptionsBecause this book caught your eye, I’m going to go out on a limb and make some assumptions about you, the reader:

✓ You are responsible for hiring at your organisation, per-haps as a hiring manager or a human resources recruiter.

✓ You feel like the hiring process is a bit of a leap of faith, and you’d like some help steering clear of potential hiring mistakes.

✓ You’re busy enough that you’d benefit from some assistance.

Background Checks For Dummies, HireRight EMEA Special Edition 2


Icons Used in This BookCheck the margins of this book, and you’ll find some helpful icons. How are they helpful? They let you know the adjacent paragraph is making a key point.

Next to the Tip icon is a piece of advice that will help your program of background checks be successful.

Pay close attention to the paragraphs marked with the Remember icon — they’re extra‐important.

Hiring is important business, and the Warning icon alerts you to ways things might go awry if you’re not careful.

Beyond the BookThis book is focused on screening in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA, for short), and the information provided here is geared toward a wide audience of readers. It’s impor-tant to remember that the laws and regulations governing screening within EMEA will differ by country. Beyond that, certain industries such as healthcare and financial services (among others) may have regulatory screening requirements for employers that are not covered here. Only so much infor-mation can fit into this slim volume, so if you need more infor-mation on background checks, please visit www.hireright.com/emea.

Please also remember that this e‐book has been prepared for your reading pleasure and should not be considered legal advice. You should use the topics covered in this book to discuss your organisation’s screening requirements with your legal counsel.

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The Background on Employment Background

ChecksIn This Chapter

▶▶ Learning the basics of background checks

▶▶ Perusing the menu of screening services

▶▶ Understanding the need for background checks

▶▶ Realising who benefits

Y our organisation’s people are your most important resource. Excellent employees can make a good business

great. But less‐than‐stellar employees can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. You’ve got performance management and review processes in place to track how employees are doing and help them improve, but the truth is, you’re better off if you avoid hiring those who might not be a good fit for your organisation.

This chapter outlines one way to help achieve that goal: the employment background check. It spells out what a back-ground check is, what might be included in one, and why it can be incredibly valuable for your organisation.

Chapter 1



What Is an Employment Background Check?

This book focuses on employment background checks, but that’s a term that can cover a lot of ground. Numerous sub-sets of screening services may be included in an employment background check. Which ones you choose will depend on a whole host of variables, including what kind of role you’re hiring for, where in the corporate hierarchy that role falls, and your organisation’s level of risk tolerance. Beyond that, you should be mindful of the laws and regulations affecting your organisation.

When you’re in the process of hiring and sorting through a group of potential candidates, you clearly want to be as thor-ough and careful as possible. But if your organisation is like most, you may not have the expertise and resources to dive deeply into each candidate’s background.

Fortunately, you’re not in this alone. You can contract with a background check company to handle the screening, allow-ing you to focus your attention on the other attributes of the hiring process. Pick the right screening company, and you’ll have a partner who will get a background check performed to meet your screening requirements — whether you’re seeking to fill a job in your own location or on the other side of the world.

What Are Some Possible Components of a Background Check?

When you’re planning a background check, there’s quite a menu of services from which to choose. The selection may vary among background check vendors. Here’s a sampling of that menu from which you’ll likely be choosing:

✓ Criminal record checks: If your potential hire has a criminal conviction, you may want to know about it.

Chapter 1: The Background on Employment Background Checks 5


Evaluating a candidate’s criminal past is something that could be helpful to your organisation.

✓ Motor vehicle records: This could be important screen-ing information for your organisation for any job that includes getting behind the wheel of a vehicle. A motor vehicle records check may include accidents and driving violations.

✓ Identity checks: Is your applicant really who he or she claims? That’s a pretty basic question that really goes to the heart of integrity. And in this day and age of iden-tity theft, it’s not crazy to be concerned about mistaken or stolen identities. An identity check may include government‐issued identification, passport information, or past addresses.

✓ Verifications: Your applicant has filled out a form or sub-mitted a CV. So, how do you know everything is accurate? A background check may include verifying educational degrees, professional qualifications, employment history, and references.

✓ Employment financial integrity check: You may want a picture of the candidate’s credit history, through a personal financial integrity check and a search for bank-ruptcy records or other liens or civil judgments. Such screenings are commonly requested for employees in financial or high‐security positions, or otherwise as the job responsibilities dictate, but they may or may not be allowed by law, so as always, you’ll want to check with your legal counsel.

✓ Extended workforce screenings: Background checks don’t have to be only for your traditional employees. You may work with temporary employees or vendors, consul-tants, interns, and perhaps even volunteers. They may not be regular employees, but they’re part of the team, and potentially part of the risk equation, because they could have the same level of access to employees, cus-tomers, facilities, or intellectual property.

✓ Executive screenings: If you’re hiring for an upper‐level position, your screening needs will likely be more exten-sive and comprehensive because of the importance and influence of the role.



Why Do Employers Need Background Checks?

When you’re hiring, you expect to add employees who will perform as their CV and interview led you to believe. Did you know that nearly two‐thirds of all employment applications in EMEA contain inaccuracies? In fact, one survey found that the vast majority of employers have come across candidates who have misrepresented information on their applications, or just downright lied. And of the background checks conducted in EMEA by HireRight during one recent period, 63 per cent contained falsehoods.

You expect that your employees will be trustworthy, always keeping the organisation’s best interests at heart — and not serving their own interests through theft, fraud, or other bad acts. Whether employees are walking off with inventory or funnelling company funds into their own accounts, theft is costly — sometimes devastatingly so.

Also, when you go through the trouble of hiring someone, you expect that person to be qualified, skilled, and likely to stay on the job. After all, turnover is expensive — replacing a person can cost one‐third of that person’s annual salary, and sometimes quite a bit more. Yet the Harvard Business Review reports that four‐fifths of employee turnover is tied to bad hiring decisions.

Indeed, background checks can play a key role in making better hiring decisions. In another recent study, 86 per cent of employers reported coming across dishonest job applicants. How do you think those employers found out about the fic-tion? Most often through background screenings. And though some of those fibs may have been discovered anyway, 49 per cent of the respondents said screening uncovered red flags that otherwise never would’ve been noticed, at least not until something undesirable happened.

In fact, in some cases, candidates with a less‐than‐desirable past will eliminate themselves when they find out you’re doing background checks. Evidence suggests that candidates with imperfect backgrounds will sometimes deliberately focus their job searches on those companies that they know are not conducting checks.

Chapter 1: The Background on Employment Background Checks 7


The issue of workplace safety may be important to your organisation as well. When you’re going through the hiring process, you expect to assemble a team of employees who are rational, law‐abiding, well‐adjusted people. But workplace vio-lence in which an employee attacks a co‐worker or customer is a reality. These incidents may lead to lawsuits that result in hefty awards or settlements for the victims of workplace violence.

Protecting workers from workplace dangers is clearly the right thing to do, but beyond that, it may be required by law.

Many countries have workplace health and safety acts in place that require companies to establish safe and healthy work environments. The employer may be able to avoid a claim of negligent hiring if it can prove it has practiced due diligence in the hiring process, including verifying the accu-racy of applications, checking backgrounds and references, interviewing thoroughly, and other safeguards.

One more reason to consider background checks is less tangi-ble but just as critical: your corporate reputation. It’s a matter of thinking the unthinkable. If your employee does some-thing terrible — harming a customer or another employee through violence or drunk driving while on company time, stealing from customers, cutting corners in unethical ways — it’s likely to damage how potential customers view your company.

If your corporate reputation is tarnished, the cost of lost busi-ness may be even more painful than the damages of whatever incident caused the trouble. Sullied reputations have sent many companies to an early demise. Again, there’s no such thing as a crystal ball, but you may want to consider how much your organisation values its reputation, and what you need to do to minimise the risk of reputation damage.

Who Can Benefit from Background Checks?

The bottom line is, when they’re done properly, background checks can help ensure the integrity, fairness, and consis-tency of the hiring process. That’s good for those doing the



hiring, of course, but it also benefits honest candidates who are playing by the rules and giving employers an accurate picture of themselves and their qualifications.

A well‐designed program of background screening helps to facilitate a level playing field for those who truly deserve to be in the game. It helps those doing the hiring to make their decisions in a more consistent manner, and that added level of fairness is a plus for candidates.

Also reaping the benefits of a screening program are existing employees. By proactively steering clear of candidates who at worst could be violent or at least might not be as qualified as they imply, those already on the payroll may be in a safer workplace, and also less likely to have to carry the load of a less‐than‐stellar hire.

Customers may benefit as well, because they’re interacting with employees whose histories you’ve vetted and approved. This can be vital in all settings, but if you’re in an industry that employs individuals who enter customers’ homes, and those entrusted with customers’ investments or other valu-ables, you may want to be particularly mindful of implement-ing a thorough screening program.


How Background Checks Work

In This Chapter▶▶ Checking all the sources

▶▶ Finding the right background check for your situation

▶▶ Understanding the process and timeline

▶▶ Counting the costs

▶▶ Taking a global view

T hese days, vast amounts of information are at your finger-tips, through Internet searches. The things you can find

out seem absolutely limitless. But that power can be a little bit misleading, because you still need to know where to look for credible information, how to gain the right kind of access, and how to interpret the volumes of data you find. It’s not as simple as it might seem.

This chapter explores the complexity of background checking. It outlines the many sources of information that you may want to consider when shaping your background screening program, and points out that your background screening needs may vary quite a bit depending on many fac-tors, such as your industry, your hiring situation, and your organisation’s level of risk tolerance. The chapter also details the general processes and typical timeframes for complet-ing various background check elements, and explores the potential costs.

Chapter 2



Drawing on Multiple Sources of Information

The process of checking out someone’s background looks pretty simple in the movies and on TV. Investigators plug a name into a database and retrieve a long list of relevant infor-mation about the person being checked — work history, crim-inal records, current and past addresses, financial details, names and addresses of relatives and significant others, records of cars owned, and so forth.

Of course, you can’t always expect to find reality portrayed accurately on TV. The actual process of background checking is much more complex, and probably wouldn’t make for scin-tillating entertainment. If background checks were as easy to conduct as they appear in dramatic depiction, there would be no need to enlist the help of specialists.

Here’s the reality: There are many sources of information that you may want to consider when conducting a background check. Here is a brief rundown of the types of data sources:

✓ Criminal records: If a candidate has a criminal past, it’s best to review that record with the adjudicating court. A candidate with a criminal history may prefer that you not find out, and may have moved around or taken other steps to obscure his or her past. There’s no single button you can push to find criminal history, so you might want to consider searching all jurisdictions associated with the individual’s national ID, including the places that the candidate has lived, worked, and attended school.

✓ Civil filings: Similarly, pertinent information related to civil actions or bankruptcy filings can be stored across multiple jurisdictions and in various systems. Whoever is doing the background check needs to know where to look.

✓ Financial integrity: If your organisation finds a need to review a candidate’s financial integrity, you’ll need to engage a background check vendor who can pull the candidate’s financial integrity from a major credit bureau. This is probably something that you can’t accomplish on your own.

Chapter 2: How Background Checks Work 11


✓ Educational institution records: Educational history is a common place where applicants may try to stretch the truth. Verifying the veracity of a candidate’s claims may require validation from the conferring institution or with a national repository.

✓ Qualification and certification records: Qualification and certification for various occupations can take place at any issuing institution. It may require some digging to verify a candidate’s claims in this area.

✓ Employment verification: Most employers would agree that it’s vital to know whether a candidate is being upfront when it comes to past places of employment. Checking employment history typically involves making direct contact with those employers and working with the candidate to track down payslips, tax forms, or other documents to help verify past employment.

Will technology ever evolve to match the way background checking appears on TV and in the movies? That will likely continue to be dramatic license or science fiction for at least the near future. With data stored in so many places, in so many forms and formats, with so many different means of access, it’s likely to remain a complex business for quite some time. Fortunately for employers, background checking com-panies are well versed in the protocols necessary to secure a background check that meets your organisation’s screening needs.

Recognising That One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Consistency is important when conducting background checks, but that doesn’t mean there’s just one kind of back-ground check. Not at all. The list of factors that can help organisations determine the type and scope of the back-ground check that’s right for them is long.

To begin with, background checks can vary tremendously by location and industry. This has to do with both laws and regulations. What’s legal in one country may not be allowed in another. The screenings required by regulations for one industry may be prohibited for employers in other industries.



Your organisation’s compliance with the various laws and reg-ulations that affect it should provide insights into the types of screening that are allowed, prohibited, and required by regulation. This is where a discussion with your legal counsel is certainly warranted.

You should be familiar with the requirements and restrictions in your home jurisdiction. If you run a small, local company, that may be all that matters, and that can be complicated enough. But if you operate offices in multiple countries, you’ll want experts familiar with each area in which you’re operating.

There are variations with industry type that may apply to your organisation. Following are some examples relating to education and financial services that demonstrate how the relevance of certain background searches can vary by industry.

Employers hiring for positions in education may request searches of professional qualifications and criminal histo-ries, along with educational background, among other items. A check for a candidate for a financial services position has a higher likelihood of delving into that candidate’s financial integrity, for fairly obvious reasons.

The concept of proportionality is another factor that keeps one size from fitting all with respect to background checks. Simply put, not all jobs carry the same level of risk and not all employers have the same level of risk tolerance. The complex-ity of a background check is likely to increase in proportion to the risk associated with that particular role. An executive‐level screening will likely go into much greater depth in terms of cross‐referencing and analysing the candidate’s experience, whereas a front‐line factory worker probably won’t need nearly as detailed a check.

Again, this is for your organisation to decide, depending upon its risk tolerance. Certain organisations are more risk averse and will want a stringent screening program designed to elicit as much candidate information as needed for their evaluation. Other organisations may be more relaxed in their approach to screening, and willing to take on more risk as a result, while still evaluating the candidate for hire.



Understanding the Background Check Process and Timeline

Just as there’s no “one‐size‐fits‐all” background check, there’s a wide variation in the timeline of the check, depending on what you’re checking. Generally speaking, a typical check in EMEA may take two to three weeks, but some aspects of the process can take longer, depending on individual circum-stances.

Here are some examples of the variations and how they might impact the timing:

✓ Identity document check: This check uses a passport or ID copy and can take up to 48 hours. It checks the details on a UK driver’s licence or a passport or some kind of national ID card, to ensure the ID is valid. It also involves an applicant’s history of addresses based on where the candidate has established credit.

✓ Financial integrity check: A financial integrity check depends upon the country in which the check is being conducted. In the UK, a check is typically completed within 24 to 48 hours. It involves a search of credit bureau records and is designed to provide an overview of the candidate’s financial integrity.

✓ Employment verification: This kind of check can be more complicated and take longer. It involves contacting personnel or human resources departments at relevant past employers, and may also require verifying periods of self‐employment with the cooperation of the candidate. Consequently, it could take two to three business days, or even longer if there are international jobs to check or if the checks involve financial regulators. In some cases a signed release form from the applicant may be required, because some past employers won’t share information without it.

✓ Academic verification: Confirming the academic accom-plishments of a candidate typically involves contact with various schools and universities, which takes a bit of time — two to three business days for a typical report. If there are international educational listings on the applicant’s record, it could add a couple of days to



the timeframe. Most institutions will confirm when the candidate was a student and what degrees were earned, though some will require a release form before sharing that kind of information.

✓ Professional qualifications verification: Professional qualifications may include trade organisation member-ships, as well as certifications. It can take an average of two days or so to complete this kind of work.

✓ Global watch list checks: Searches of watch lists cover-ing potential terrorists, known fraud practitioners, and people facing regulatory sanctions, are generally avail-able. This kind of check can be done in as little as a day or two.

✓ Criminal checks: The timeframe varies significantly, depending on where you’re doing the hiring. In EMEA, a criminal check can take anywhere from 3 to 30 busi-ness days, with the majority taking 10 to 20 days. This depends on the authorities involved and the process that they follow conducting the check before returning the results. The process may include manual record checking, liaising with authorities across the country, or in‐depth research when multiple matches are identified. The processes can vary hugely based on the information required, how long it takes, how the result is obtained, and what level of detail is provided.

How do you obtain a background check? It depends upon which background check company you choose, of course, but getting started can be as easy as logging into an online portal. When you’ve specified the services you want, your candidate often will be required to participate in the process as well, using the same portal to submit pertinent information for verification. It’s important that the candidate provides all requested information promptly, to ensure there are as few delays in the process as possible.

A background check company with an online portal, such as HireRight, should allow you to use the portal to track your in‐progress checks and ascertain their progress. When a check is complete, it’ll provide a report detailing the informa-tion uncovered, pointing out any discrepancies it has spotted between the information provided by the candidate and the data verified.



The details about a candidate that are included in a back-ground check report are quite specific and useful, but there’s also a general, overarching element that is often the most important bit of information of all: honesty. The background check will reveal just how honest and upfront the applicant was in answering questions on the application. Isn’t that one of the most important things you want to know about a candidate?

Considering the Cost of a Background Check

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the cost is one of the many factors that’s highly variable. But that’s no surprise really, considering that you’re ordering off a menu. As with any restaurant, the bill depends on how hungry you were when you walked in and what you ordered. The price can also vary by country.

So, if the primary purpose of the check is to find addresses, the cost may be a few pounds. A truly extensive background check could run into the hundreds of pounds. The cost varies depending upon the type of check being run and the location. Typically, a global watch list check would cost £21, a five‐year employment history verification £63, and a UK criminal check £42.

When considering the cost of background checks, it’s worth pointing out the potential cost of not doing adequate back-ground checking. It’s scary how much it can cost should a bad apple make it onto your payroll — or perhaps not even a bad apple, but simply a person who is not as qualified as he or she seems.

In that regard, the cost of background screening is kind of like the price of surveying a new property. After all, you’re making a long‐term investment. You wouldn’t buy a house before car-rying out a thorough survey, so why would you hire someone you know nothing about? Background checks help provide peace of mind, knowing you’ve made a sound investment in the future.



Remembering That the Process Varies from Place to Place

This point is mentioned in various places in this book, but it’s worth highlighting right here and now: Cultural and legal differences around the world have a tremendous impact on background checks and the way information is accessed. Various screenings and other services are legal in some places and illegal in others. Certain checks are required in some places, optional in others, forbidden altogether in some locations, and some background check practices are simply not culturally acceptable in some countries in EMEA.

If you’re conducting checks in various places around the world, you’ll want to find experts who are familiar with specific places in which you’re operating. This is a complex business, and in background checking, one size definitely does not fit all.


Planning the Screening Policy and Process

In This Chapter▶▶ Writing your organisation’s policy

▶▶ Deciding the details about background checks

▶▶ Keeping candidates in the loop

▶▶ Complying with the law

B ackground checks are serious business, intended to help uncover risks and prevent the inadvertent hiring of

people who may pose problems later. But they need to be con-ducted carefully, properly, fairly, and consistently. In order to help institute a successful screening program, an organisation should set up processes and draft policies related to back-ground screening.

This chapter explores the need for a policy on background checks, discusses what employers might consider including in a policy, outlines what an employer chooses to communicate with candidates, and offers insights on an employer’s respon-sibility to always stay within the law.

Setting a Policy on Background Checks

Consistency is an incredibly important word when it comes to the business of employee and candidate screening. It’s vital to have a consistent approach, one that will be both effective and fair to everyone involved.

Chapter 3



There are many different considerations that you’ll want to keep in mind as you create and implement a screening policy. You may want to define who will be screened, when screen-ings will be used, and how results will be interpreted. You may also want your policy to clearly state what you’ll do when you decide to disqualify a candidate. In the absence of a writ-ten policy, it would be easy to inadvertently be inconsistent, which is not only unfair, but could be legally unwise.

Your company is unique, so your policy will be, too. Drafting your policy requires careful thought about the jobs within your organisation and the risks associated with those jobs. Your policy may set forth different rules for different roles, and your policy will need to comply with the various local and national laws governing the use of screenings for employment purposes, so your legal counsel should be involved in the poli-cymaking process.

Deciding When and Whom to Check, and for What

Your policy on background checks should be very specific in spelling out who gets checked and what information is cov-ered. Will you be checking criminal histories, driving records, financial integrity, past employment, educational background?

Which of these areas you choose may depend on the following:

✓ The needs of your business

✓ The details of the position you’re hiring

✓ The relevancy of a particular check to the candidate’s ability to do the job

✓ What the applicable laws either require or prohibit

You may want to cover other factors in your policy as well. You’ll need to consider not only whom to screen for what, but also when in the recruitment and hiring process to conduct the screening. When it comes to criminal records checks, it’s sometimes better (if not required) to wait a bit.

Chapter 3: Planning the Screening Policy and Process 19


Holding off on the criminal records check until later in the hiring process allows you to get to know the candidate’s pluses before you’re exposed to a potential red flag that could be seen as potentially discriminatory. This gives even can-didates with a record the chance to be heard, the chance to make their case.

The question of what to look for in a background check, and what to do with the information you learn, can be tricky. Consider criminal history. What should you do when a back-ground check uncovers a candidate with criminal history? Depending on your industry and where you’re hiring, you may be required to conduct an individualised assessment of a candidate, and not just summarily reject someone with a conviction.

The truth is, your criteria for how to proceed will likely vary, depending on the job and your industry. There may be cases in which you would avoid hiring a cashier convicted of shop-lifting in the past, but hiring an assembly line worker with that history may seem acceptable. It’s your responsibility to consider the proportionality between the job and the candi-date’s history. There’s likely to be a difference between the screening an employer will want to deploy for a delivery truck driver, a home healthcare nurse, and a bank cashier.

As you make the determination, a few things to consider include the nature and gravity of the offence, the nature of the job, and how long it has been since the crime was committed or the sentence was completed. Here’s where a written policy is really important, because even though the restrictions may vary, you should apply these variations with consistency.

Some companies create a hiring matrix, which is essentially a chart that spells out when it’s okay to hire and when it isn’t, based on the nature and timing of the crime and the type of job being filled. However, it’s important to remember that even when using a hiring matrix, an individualised assessment of your candidate’s background is widely considered a best practice.

Another background check area that may be important — but also can be an area where you’ll want to do your homework — is the financial integrity check. As with other areas of focus, it’s vital to consider how relevant the applicant’s credit history is



with respect to the job role. Financial trouble could be a dis-qualifier for some roles, but not for others. And the time that has passed since negative information appeared on a credit report is worth considering, too.

Keep in mind that checking financial integrity is sometimes prohibited, and even if it’s not, it still may require you to comply with credit reporting laws. Again, you’ll want to dis-cuss this with your legal counsel as you develop your policy and screening program.

Your policy should spell out what types of roles demand a more comprehensive check. Generally speaking, for many employers, the higher up the corporate structure, the more broad the check. An executive‐level screening will cover a lot more than your basic criminal history, employment verifica-tion, and check of educational background. It may include personal interviews with references, a search through news media and social media to look for reputational red flags, and an examination of business affiliations and past dealings to gauge both competence and potential conflicts of interest.

Other things to consider when creating a background screen-ing policy: When might you need to do a screening or back-ground check for an existing employee, as opposed to a potential new hire? Are there roles that need regular reviews? Will you order a check in cases where there is probable cause to believe something is awry? What are the parameters that will cause you to act? Again, consistency is critical, which is why you’re writing the policy.

Communicating with CandidatesThe process of background checking may seem to have a secret‐agent feel to it, but you’re better off if it’s not a secret. It’s good practice to keep potential candidates informed of what kinds of checks will take place, and in fact, remember that disclosure and authorisation to conduct a background check are required by law.

Also, the screening process is often much smoother when you have the cooperation of the candidate. In many cases, the candidate is providing information that the background check verifies, and in others, candidate‐provided information will

Chapter 3: Planning the Screening Policy and Process 21


help the background check vendor look in the right places for information. In EMEA, candidate cooperation is vital, as addi-tional consent forms or specific information or documents may be needed to comply with the requirements of a checks process.

Keeping candidates in the loop also helps them to understand what’s in it for them and how the process is conducted with fairness in mind. There’s comfort in knowing that an employer is dedicated to creating a safe workplace, one staffed by quali-fied people, and also in knowing that a recruitment process is less likely to be tainted by the presence of candidates who aren’t quite what they claim to be.

Last but certainly not least, candidate communications of one type or another are often required by law. Depending on the jurisdiction and industry, a candidate may be required to provide an employer with verbal or written permission to conduct certain kinds of checks and screenings. And if such checks turn up issues with the candidate, it’s mandated that the candidate be informed of the problem and given the chance to correct erroneous information, make clarifica-tions, and even make a case for himself or herself before the employer decides to disqualify the candidate from hire.

Complying with the LawThe whole point of conducting background checks is to mitigate risk — risk of violence or other safety issues, risk of theft or fraud, risk of unqualified employees, risk of repu-tation damage, and so on. But it’s vital to know the laws governing the process, or you’re liable to create new risks unintentionally.

First and foremost, you must ensure that your background check program is in compliance with all laws and regulations that are in force in all places where you’re conducting the checks and screenings. That’s no small feat, given the wide variations from one place to another.

In most cases, you can’t just decide you’re not going to hire anyone with a criminal record, or any criminal conviction, for that matter. Any policies along those lines should be directly related to the specific job and the ability to do that job properly.



There is a distinction between criminal charges and criminal convictions. That’s a reminder of the whole “innocent until proven guilty” consideration. You’ll want to be mindful of this when you’re evaluating an arrest or a criminal charge versus a conviction. And if a candidate is about to be rejected due to a criminal conviction or a financial matter uncovered in a credit report, or any other information included on his or her background report, he or she must be informed and given the opportunity to correct erroneous information.

And that’s just a small sampling of the requirements that could affect your organisation’s screening policy. There are plenty of other requirements across the different countries in EMEA, and lots more in other countries. You’ll want to make sure you have the guidance of your legal counsel as you draft and implement your policy.


Getting Started with Background Checks

In This Chapter▶▶ Deciding whether to get help

▶▶ Choosing a vendor

▶▶ Preparing your candidates

▶▶ Keeping track of the process

B ackground checks may be a vital tool for your organisa-tion, but they can seem a bit scary — and not just for

the person being checked. It may seem like an ominous path on which to walk, one marked by hurdles and legal require-ments. But not venturing down the path is pretty scary, too. The good news is, the way forward is a lot friendlier if you have a good guide who can shine some light on the path.

This chapter focuses on the first steps down that path, includ-ing determining whether you can handle the task internally, and how to pick a vendor if you choose to outsource. It details a few thoughts you should consider when preparing your candidates for background checks, and spotlights an online model as reference for tracking the process.

Determining Whether You Can Do This Yourself

You’ve probably concluded that conducting background checks is a complicated business. That is to say, it’s

Chapter 4



complicated for whoever is doing the checks, but it doesn’t have to be a hassle for you.

Just as you’d likely call an asphalt paving company to repair your company’s car park, or an IT‐focused marketing com-pany to design your company’s website, you may decide that it’s best to leave background checks to the experts. How do you make that determination?

Consider both resources and know‐how. Background checks can be time‐consuming, especially if you’re verifying employ-ment and educational history, because that can entail one phone call after another after another, many of which require a lot of follow‐up. That has the potential to fill up the work-days of a lot of people.

But the question of know‐how is even more pertinent. Background checks are not just a matter of typing a name into your favourite search engine.

Finding the Right VendorIf you’ve decided to engage a third‐party resource to pro-vide background check solutions to your organisation, your next steps are to evaluate and pick a vendor that meets your organisation’s needs. Here are some things to consider and questions to ask of potential vendors:

✓ What’s on the menu? Does the vendor offer options that are customisable to your needs? Does it offer set screen-ing packages to ensure consistency in approach, and to be certain that best guidance is followed?

✓ How broad are the choices? Will the same vendor be able to do both a quick verification of someone’s national ID and an in‐depth, executive‐level analysis and verification?

✓ Is the vendor global? Does the vendor operate in all parts of the world where you have operations, as well as other places you may have hiring needs? Is there local expertise covering each area, so that the searches you request are appropriately filled? Does the vendor have multilingual capabilities? You also need to consider whether you’ll be hiring candidates with international

Chapter 4: Getting Started with Background Checks 25


backgrounds, because this will require global knowledge from your vendor.

✓ How connected is the vendor? Are its systems inte-grated with those of criminal record bodies and financial integrity check agencies?

✓ How fast is the turnaround? Will connected systems translate into speedy service? Will you be able to quickly identify potentially adverse findings?

✓ Is data privacy addressed? Does the vendor identify its data privacy policy? Will the vendor comply with appli-cable laws relating to retaining and purging data?

✓ Is it easy to use? Will you be able to simply go online to order and manage your background checks? Is the pro-cess to order a background check easy to follow? How about the report itself — is it easy to understand?

✓ How’s the customer service? Are there multiple chan-nels to reach the vendor? When simply going online isn’t sufficient, is there a person you can easily reach for hands‐on care and assistance?

✓ How’s the candidate experience? Will the potential vendor treat candidates with care and respect? Is the vendor a good reflection of your employer brand?

Informing and Preparing Candidates for Screenings

The best way to attract and keep outstanding employees is to create an exceptional candidate experience. That’s no secret. Just remember the importance of first impressions, whether you’re on a first date, making first contact with a potential client, or first getting to know a potential employee.

Candidates should be well informed and prepared for back-ground checks. It’s a process, a sometimes complicated process, and it’s in everyone’s best interest if job candidates fully understand what’s going on.

Providing comprehensive information and being ready to answer candidates’ questions will help reduce anxiety — and let’s face it, even the most squeaky‐clean candidate may be



a little uncomfortable with the thought of having someone comb through his or her personal information. It also helps candidates feel that they’re being treated fairly, and that’s important not only for making a positive first impression, but also for helping to alleviate concerns from candidates who don’t get the job so that they’re less likely to feel like they’ve gotten a bad deal.

Background checks don’t have to be a totally passive activity for candidates. It’s possible for them to prepare, and it’s wise to help them do so. How can they prepare? You may want to consider advising candidates to do the following:

✓ Ensure that their CVs are up‐to‐date, with full and accu-rate contact information so that they can easily refer to this information when completing their background check request.

✓ Get started on researching their own histories, including things that you may want to verify such as employment dates, job titles, and salaries.

✓ Gather diplomas and transcripts backing up their edu-cational experiences, and make files of payslips or tax forms from past employers.

✓ Make lists of pertinent personal details, such as past addresses and current driver’s licence numbers.

To help candidates prepare and understand the process, you may want to make sure they have access to a comprehensive set of frequently asked questions. Put it all in writing — on paper and online — and you’ll not only help your candidates feel better about the process, but also save yourself some time and trouble by proactively providing the answers.

Integrating with Applicant Tracking Systems

Applicant tracking systems (ATSs) can provide much‐needed automation to the recruitment and hiring process, with valu-able features such as development of job requisitions, posting of job openings on identified websites, CV screening, desig-nated communications with applicants, interview scheduling,

Chapter 4: Getting Started with Background Checks 27


and much more. These features help recruiters better identify the most qualified candidates and reduce time‐to‐hire.

Your screening process needs to be just as smooth and effi-cient so you can hire and onboard talent as quickly as pos-sible. Integrating your background screening solution with an ATS can help. The integrated solution can allow you to initi-ate background checks from within the ATS, provide status updates, and allow you to monitor and manage the overall screening program.

A good online system not only provides real‐time status infor-mation, but also offers the ability to either view or download the complete, final reports. And the right applicant tracking system should be able to fully integrate with your own HR information systems and internal tracking applications.

For More InformationFor further information, please visit the HireRight website or get in touch by telephone or email:

www.hireright.com/emea T: 01273 320160 E: [email protected]


mailto:[email protected]


www.hireright.com/emea/why-hireright

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