Employment Screening Checks

Checks are normally regarded in two ways, a necessary minimum to appease insurance or audit requirements or as a risk mitigation programme to enhance the recruiting process.

Risk mitigation will involve more checks, but achieve greater benefits and has always been found to be self funding. The savings that can be calculated are in hiring, training, dismissal and absenteeism.

Both approaches are equally correct and are normally defined by requirements and corporate culture. See self funding.

There is also a secondary benefit in undertaking a group of checks.

Unsuitable candidates empirically fail in more than one area and there is a high correlation between searches. Removal of a particular check will have a deleterious effect on the overall search, over and beyond the obvious area of lost data.

The turnaround time quoted is ten working days.

There are many checks that can be carried out including the following:-

Criminal

Criminal checks are undertaken if the applicant is eligible. Eligibility will differ between countries. In the UK we will need proof of residency for the last twelve months. All criminal checks are undertaken with the appropriate government body. If you do not receive a certificate then you can guarantee the check has not been done properly.

UK: Disclosure Scotland (All levels)

France: Casier judiciaire national

Netherlands: Ministerie van Justitie

For most countries there is a procedure resulting in a written document, a copy of which will be sent to the client. Again the content of each document/certificate will vary. The minimum is validation that the applicant has no criminal record but no further details are provided. In other cases a list of criminal offences are given. These are normally limited by the local convention of ‘Spent Offences’.

Turnaround times also vary and there is little control over the time taken. In most European countries criminal checks have to be done by candidate and not third party. We can easily guide each applicant through this process.

Recommendation: All applicants undergo a criminal check and this is repeated every two years.

Credit

A credit check is made on each name and address pair, and on any new addresses that come to light. New addresses are often found as a result of credit or financial applications.

EB use a selection of credit providers and will use a second confirming check in any instance of negative information. We take the credit rating and adapt it to show as a percentage in order to make it easily comparable against the general body of data. Levels of ratings can be adapted to reflect the locality as necessary. In the UK there is a criminal and civil court system, with the latter handling all forms of credit issues. The most common being a County Court Judgement (CCJ). This is not the case in other countries and aspects of the civil court are handled as part of the criminal check procedure.

Recommendation: All applicants undergo a credit check and this is repeated for existing and new addresses every twelve months

Driving

The driving licence (DL) is used in many ways:

Identification
Address check
Criminal Offence history (driving related)

The DL is useful in corroborating other checks and not simply driving related checks.

Recommendation: A driving licence check is optional unless applicants will be involved with company transport. NB if a driver is used to transport personnel an enhanced disclosure is required.

Educational

In most cases the check is done on the highest educational level. This may be added to in certain circumstances. We always write to the relevant registrar initially after validation of the educational institute. We maintain a list of institutes offering qualifications which are deemed unsuitable. Each reference request asks for the information specifically required by the client or uses our standard request. In most cases educational institutes require proof of our right of enquiry.

Recommendation: Necessary when education at a higher level has been undertaken and is deemed relevant to the position sought.

Professional

In all cases the check is done on the highest professional level. This may be added to in certain circumstances. We always write to the relevant professional body initially after validation of the qualification. Each reference request asks for the information specifically required by the client or uses our standard request. In the case where the professional body requires a fee we will only pay this after consultation with the client.

Recommendation: Should be done for all applicants for positions where the professional qualification is pertinent.

Employment

We verify the correct source for the reference and endeavour to obtain a written reply. The client can supply us with a list of questions or edit our template request.

We will make at least three attempts to obtain a reference, often far more. All references are aimed to be initially requested within four hours of receiving the correct data. This in turn means that the details of the request and any progress to date can also be seen on the status link after four hours.

Recommendation: All applicants should have employment history checked for a minimum of five years. This check reveals the most information on a candidate.

Residential

Verification of residential history is done using the electoral roll, credit checks and driving licence. This is done for all residences supplied or found. It is an offence to not furnish details for the electoral roll for all UK citizens eligible. This does not invalidate the opt out function.

Recommendation: All applicants for all addresses supplied or found.

Eligibility

A mandatory requirement under the Asylum Act, this is a function that legally should be done for all hires in the UK, irrespective of nationality. However the detailed knowledge of visa types and the acceptable documentary evidence is time consuming and onerous to keep up to date. It is a task that fits well into background checking and is now routinely being included. EB check all documents against the Home Office documentation (purple book) and contact the Home Office directly as necessary.

Mandatory for all employees and applicants.

Media

The media check uncovers additional information on a candidate that may not be revealed in the context of any other searches. The search is done on local and international media and also the internet.

Only relevant information is mentioned in our report. For example participation in a local fete would not be mentioned but animal rights activity would be. Further investigation is taken if an initial search is positive.

Recommendation: Useful for all applicants.

Terrorist/Money laundering

The check is undertaken for all candidates, all aliases and maiden names.

Recommendation: All applicants.

Sanctions, peps and watchlists

Check against global lists of government sanctions, law enforcement watchlists and extensive PEP databases, including:
Australian Reserve Bank Businesses
Australian Reserve Bank Individuals
HM Treasury Sanctions
Commodity Futures Trading Commission List of Regulatory and Self-Regulatory Authorities
Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) Debarred Parties
FBI Fugitives 10 Most Wanted, Most Wanted Terrorists and Monthly Most Wanted
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network Special Alert List
Foreign Agent Registrations
International Police Most Wanted
Office of Foreign Assets Control
OFAC – Enhanced Sanctioned Countries Office of Controller of Currency of Unauthorised Banks
OSFI – Canada
Palestinian Legislative Council
Politically Exposed Persons
State Department Terrorist Exclusions
Terrorists Inside of European Union
Terrorists Outside of European Union
United Nations Named Terrorists
US Bureau of Industry and Security – Unverified Entity List
US Bureau of Industry and Security – Denied Entity List
US Bureau of Industry and Security – Denied Person List
World Bank Ineligible Firms

Recommendation: All applicants.

Intelligence Analytics

This provides an in depth analysis using worldwide government, police and financial databases to supplement basic employment and criminal checks. Results are normally provided in a traffic light system or percentage grading. This will create a purpose made information and intelligence system capable of meeting the need of quickly and accurately checking an individual or company background.

Recommendation: All applicants.