In the world we live in today employee background check uk do form an essential element of the recruitment process but if you’ve never done them before you may be wondering what’s involved.

In this article, we’re outlining for you a quick overview of what is included and what you need to do as an Human Resource manager to make your background checking efficient and of course compliant.

We will cover

What is a background check?

What is included in employee background checks?

Why should businesses use background checks?

What is a background check?

A background check can include many different elements including but not limited to an identity check, police record check, qualifications check or work reference check.

Here we offer a variety of different levels of employee background checks for our clients. Different companies and business sectors all have different needs so will choose from a menu of items depending upon the role they are recruiting for.

For many employers, a background check can be as simple as an ID and address check but for others, there will be a need to have much more extensive tests, especially if they are in a regulated industry like finance or security. However, it is important to remember that there have been cases of false background checks being reported due to common names or misspellings. If this is the case, then employers will need to look into this and employees may want to speak to a background check lawyer Denver firm or a similar firm in their area, so they can get this issue rectified as it may have caused them to miss out on jobs due to the false report.

So, whilst it is impossible to say exactly what is in a particular check for your business, we can outline some general hints.

What is included in employee background checks?

If you are required to do a background check on a potential employee then you can choose to include any of a number of things including;

ID checks – is the person sitting in front of you who they say they are?

Qualifications checks – Do they really have the qualifications or the grades that they claim? Did they really go to that prestigious university?

DBS checks – do they have a criminal record?

Reference checks – Do they work where they said they did? Were their roles and responsibilities what they say they were? Does the individual they gave as a referee really exist?

Address checks – Were they living where they said they were?

Gap analysis – What were they doing during gaps in employment?

Media checks – have they been published in print or on TV? Did they say anything embarrassing for your company?

Social media checks – What does their social media profile look like? Are they connected to people that may harm your reputation?

Why should businesses use background checks?

There are two main reasons that a business should use background checks; risk reduction and compliance.

Compliance is possibly the easiest to explain in that if you are in a regulated industry then you’ll know about it.

Often the regulator will state explicitly what checks need to be done. But unfortunately, sometimes they tend to be a bit woolly in their requirements in that they will say you need to do checks but won’t specify which ones.

A good example of the former would be the security industry where things like DBS checks, gap analysis, and address checks are clearly mandated.

However, even if a business isn’t in a regulated industry they may choose to carry out background checks as a method of reducing the risk of hires, especially if they are in key positions.

There are risks when you are recruiting positions where the person is in control of money or assets such as a financial director/controller role.

So, as a business HR, it could be your duty to do a background check while recruiting. And for that, you can conduct national police check nsw through various service providers available in your close vicinity.

But there are also risks when you are recruiting someone into a position of power and influence. Imagine for example recruiting a CEO who it turns out had lied about their qualifications. It could even be that a certain person has lied about their background or forged a recommendation letter.

If you have these doubts about a certain candidate, then you could have them take a consensual lie detector test as part of the background check or screening process. This would enable you to learn the truth and clear all doubts about the candidate.

So in some cases, a business may decide that a certain level of background checking is appropriate for certain roles.