How Can Background Screening Help You Recruit Post-Pandemic?
Unfortunately, over the course of this year, we have seen the unemployment rate rise. Between August and October, there were a record 370,000 redundancies made. This would have been a significantly higher number had it not been for the furlough scheme.
But what does this mean for your recruitment practice?
Well, more and more people are going to have gaps in their employment record. Considering this is usually a worrying feature of a CV, it’s something that hiring managers are going to be seeing far more commonly. In the changing recruitment landscape, background screening solutions can provide that extra layer of confidence and security.
Gaps on CV’s
Seeing large gaps in someone’s employment history can raise alarm bells. Missing periods of time can be an indicator of many things, from taking time out to raise your family, all the way through to a custodial sentence. Over the next few years, lost time between 2020-2021 is going to be a typical sight.
We all empathise with people who have suffered employment difficulties due to the pandemic. It has been a hard year even if you’ve not lost your job. It would make sense for hiring managers to adopt a more understanding approach to gaps in occupational history.
However, these gaps being common means some unscrupulous characters may try to take advantage of this. To some people, the pandemic will present as a ready-made excuse to explain away discrepancies on their employment record.
Anyone willing to do this would, at best be a bad culture fit for your business. At worst, they could end up costing you a lot of time and money.
How can background screening help?
One of the most common concerns about background screening is the cost. However, the benefits of having a robust screening process in place significantly outweigh the costs. A 2019 study by the University of Portsmouth reveals employment fraud in the UK costs employers an estimated £24 billion, each year!
Incorporating background screening can help mitigate this. Sometimes even without the need to carry out any checks!
People who commit employment fraud are far less likely to apply for a role where background screening is standard practice. Knowing that a company screens it’s new recruits is often enough to deter people from applying.
However, bad candidates will always try to fly under the radar, so you need to know what tools are available to help. Different background screening solutions are relevant depending on what your organisation does. Below are some of the most common types of check that you can use to aid you against employment fraud:
DBS Checks
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) are the UK government body that processes criminal record checks. They receive over 4 million DBS Check applications every year and issue certificates that allow employers to make informed recruitment decisions. There are 3 types of DBS Check:
Basic - A Basic DBS Check will search an individual’s criminal history, showing any unspent convictions or conditional cautions the applicant may have.
Standard - A Standard DBS Check will search an applicant’s criminal history for cautions, warnings and reprimands as well as spent and unspent convictions.
Enhanced - An Enhanced DBS Check shows all of the above as well as any relevant police notes and a check of the Child or Adult’s Barred Lists (if eligible).
The Basic DBS Check is one of the most commonly conducted background checks in the UK. On average, a result is received in 48 hours or less, meaning you aren’t having to wait around. Most employers only carry out this type of criminal record check, as the Standard and Enhanced come with extra criteria that need to be met.
If you need the Standard and Enhanced DBS Check, please get in touch. The legislation can be complicated at the best of times, which is why we always have our team of advisors on hand to help!
Other Background Checks
With so many candidates looking for work and many businesses close to their financial limits, it is vital that you are making decisions with all the available information. It’s not just criminal record checks, there are plenty of other types of pre-employment screening solutions on offer to help.
Below are our top 3 screening products that can aid you in post-Covid recruitment:
Occupational History Checks - These checks reveal a complete history of an applicant's work history, including all periods of employment, self-employment, unemployment etc. These checks are essential for any senior hires and cover up to six or ten year’s worth of occupational history.
Media Checks - These checks provide selected results based on a search using an online search engine and media feeds against the candidate's full name. This will reveal any negative information that has been publicly reported on the individual. Particularly useful for positions in the public eye.
Adverse Financial Checks – These checks search against publicly available data to reveal any adverse information. This data includes 6 million County Court Judgements (CCJs), bankruptcies, voluntary arrangements, decrees in Scotland and administration orders. Unsurprisingly, these checks are highly valued by those in the financial services sector but are of value to any positions where people will be managing large sums of money.
As you can see, there is far more information available to you as an employer than you may first realise. In such a strange recruitment landscape, the more information you have, the better your chances of making a successful hire.
For more information about anything in this article, or, how our screening solutions can help you, get in touch! You can give us a call on 01254 355688 or drop us an email at letstalk@personnelchecks.co.uk