Assessing your employment checks procedure can be a resource-heavy task.
And oftentimes, it requires involvement from various sectors of your business, including HR, operations, directors, to name a few.
In this quick guide, we look at 5 ways you can assess your employment background check process, and what you can do to ensure compliance.
1) Are your staff onboard?
It is integral that all staff involved with HR, operations, onboarding, and recruitment are:
- Kept up to date with the latest governmental and legislative changes to employment checks
- Are equipped with tools, software, and a framework to compliantly complete checks
- Are trained in dealing with onboarding and vetting candidates and existing staff members
To ensure your staff are performing employment checks compliantly, ask yourself:
- Do you regularly review your vetting process to accommodate governmental and legislative changes? And what are you doing to update staff on these changes?
- Do your staff have the appropriate tools to perform background checks efficiently and compliantly?
- Is there a training procedure which is maintained, regularly updated, and audited?
2) How are you processing personal data?
How you process the data of an applicant, new starter, and existing employee varies considerably. For applicants, the process is relatively straightforward. For new starters and existing employees, more consideration and processes need to be put in place.
Employment checks cannot be done with processing personal data. And a misstep could lead to serious ramifications. Therefore, a thorough process is required to maintain compliance.
Ask yourself:
- Have you obtained the candidate’s consent to process their personal data?
- Have you informed the candidate how their data will be processed?
- What is your filing and dating procedure? Is it digitised? And is it in line with current laws and regulations?
- How long do you retain personal data? (Whether they are candidates, employees, or former employees)
- What regular employment checks are you performing?
3) Does your vetting process consider all 10 employment checks?
In total, there are 10 types of background checks that all UK employers have implemented into their vetting and recruitment processes. Some of the checks are required by law (e.g., right to work). Other checks are required by law in certain sectors (e.g., DBS enhanced in the healthcare sector).
The checks you implement will depend entirely on the type of role you are hiring for. The key here is to ensure the checks are proportionate to the role and follow current laws and regulations.
The ten checks are:
- Right to work
- Criminal Record (DBS)
- Employment References
- Educational References
- Credit check
- DVLA check
- Social media screening
- Medical checks
- International sanctions
- Sanctions checks (also known as a sanction search)
We discuss these 10 checks in more detail here.
4) How are you preventing discrimination?
Many UK organisations inadvertently discriminate candidates during the background check process. Basing an employment background check process on, for example, someone’s ethnicity is an act of discrimination. And the legal and reputational ramifications can bring any company to its knees with litigation.
The simplest way to prevent discrimination is to implement the same vetting process for each candidate that, at no point, makes a note of their race, gender, or ethnic origin.
5) Are you performing regular employment checks?
It is often assumed that most background checks are performed once, which is enough to achieve compliance, which is not true. To ensure compliance, all staff must have regular employment checks. For example, this could be a regular driving licence check or a DBS enhanced check (if they are working with vulnerable adults or children).
Ask yourself:
- How often do you perform background checks on your staff? Once a year? Bi-annually?
- What checks are required for the role in question?
- What procedure do you have in place if something comes up? E.g., a recently discovered conviction, points on a driving licence.
Takeaway
Effective and compliant vetting all comes down to skilled staff, data processing procedures, consideration of all 10 background checks, non-discriminatory policies, and regular checks.
The key to success with employment checks is constant auditing, amendment, and training, to increase efficiency and avoid the costly trap of non-compliance.
Tools for employment checks
Employment Check App
One issue many companies come across is obtaining their candidate’s data and employment checks efficiently and compliantly. This is where Employment Check App comes in.
Employment Check App allows candidates to supply their data and documents to employers with ease.
In addition, candidates can complete background checks with instant results. These checks include:
- DBS basic
- Right to work
- Credit check
- Sanctions check
This allows the employer to screen and onboard their candidates, without the need for extensive HR/recruitment processes and resources.
Employment Check Pro
This is for employers, HR professionals, and anyone handling employment checks.
Employment Check Pro is packed with hundreds of features to help your organisation screen and onboard candidates with ease.
Not only can it be configured to your sector, but it can also be tailored to your requirements and processes.
Fully bespoke and built for you.
To learn more visit /pro
Or to book a demo, fill in the form below and our new business team will get back to you to arrange a time and day that suits you.
Further Reading
What To Do When Your Candidate Fails A Background Check
Dos and Don’ts for Background Screening