Negosentro.com | Know Before You Recruit: 2020 Employment Screening Trends | Employment screening checks are becoming increasingly complex which poses a real challenge to recruiting agents. Background checks go way beyond a routine national police check and there’s a lot of pressure to verify job applicants’ social media profiles to make sure they will fit not only the job description but also the company’s culture. Yet, how to do this without infringing privacy laws and putting the company at risk of a lawsuit?
Qualification Checks
In recent years, recruiting personnel have been under increased pressure to step up their qualifications and work history checks, following the Myer case, where a man hired for a senior management position was found to have grossly falsified his employment record on the first day on the job. While forgery on such level is quite uncommon, candidates do tend to lie on their resume or at least embellish them a little.
The job of the recruiting agent is in some cases complicated by the fact that other businesses refuse to offer references on former employees. In such cases, recruiters have to rely on their instincts and press the applicant on certain parts of their resumes where they spot inconsistencies.
Police Checks
Ordering a national police check on a job applicant is a must even if the candidate seems perfectly honest and above suspicion. For first time employees, the necessity of undergoing a background check might come as a surprise, in which case recruiters need to emphasize this is a standard procedure and is in no way directed against a particular individual.
To prevent any discrimination or profiling accusations, the solution is for a company to have a standard level of background checks in place for any type of job.
Any business can easily obtain a national police check on a potential employee through an accredited Australian body which can provide a legal police check, including criminal history. The procedure is 100% online and the results come back within 1 to 3 business days, so it doesn’t cause unnecessary delays in the hiring procedure. Employers need to be very thorough in obtaining a police check regardless if the employee is going to work in a state like Victoria (VIC) and will need a state based police check like a national police check victoria, or if the prospective employee is to work with vulnerable people or around children.
Social Media Checks
Over the past few years, checking a candidate’s social media profiles has become increasingly popular, but it is a very delicate issue. A recent survey of over 1,000 hiring managers discovered that two-thirds of them had checked job applicants’ social media profiles and found reasons to pass on a certain individual based on the content they found. Recruiting managers discovered discriminatory comments, indications of alcohol or drug problems, people lying about their qualifications, bad-mouthing previous employers or sharing confidential information. Not surprisingly, a third of the managers in the survey said they’d passed on a candidate after discovering disturbing information on a candidate’s social media. However, from a legal point of view using such a screening method is highly questionable and can lead to a lawsuit. One way of avoiding such problems is finding an accredited agency that does this sort of checks and only passes on what is actionable.
