Why you should really start thinking about continuous background screening

Pre-employment screening (PES) has become a common term in recent years, particularly in large corporations. However, it can cause organisations to become complacent. While it's logical to run background checks on staff before they start work, the focus on ‘pre-employment’ can lead people to believe that screening is a tick box exercise. 

According to research, from the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, over 75% of malicious acts against businesses were carried out by employees whose loyalty had changed after becoming employed. When these statistics are considered, PES is clearly only one part of a successful background screening process. 

According to global recruitment specialists, HireRight, only 11% of organisations currently rescreen their employees. This is generally in regulated industries such as finance. This means employers are potentially blind to any damaging offense committed by an employee. 

What is Continuous Background Screening? 

Continuous Background Screening (CBS) services attempt to mitigate risk for employers by making relevant information available as soon as possible. This allows decision-makers within an organisation to respond swiftly to any potential threats.  

Currently, CBS normally consists of manually rescreening candidates at specific intervals in their employment. This is generally done on an annual basis but can vary between employers. Some regulated industries, such as healthcare, already mandate continuous screening in certain instances. 

According to the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA), there has been a growing interest in CBS as the technology becomes more accessible. Some of these emerging technologies hope to automate current processes but these services rely on complementary technologies, like digital identity. 

Continuous Background Screening in the UK 

A quick Google search of ‘Continuous Background Screening UK’ brings up a huge list of companies marketing themselves as PES specialists. This isn’t much of a surprise considering the lower incidence of CBS in the UK. CBS is far more prevalent in the US, where background screening is more widespread 

The most common checks carried out continuously in the UK are DBS Checks (formerly CRB Checks). The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS), the UK Government body that process these checks, recognised the need for CBS. This led to the launch of the DBS Update Service in June 2013. 

The DBS Update Service

The Update Service allows candidates who have been the subject of a DBS Check to pay a nominal fee (£13p.a.) to register the details of that check. The DBS will then keep this information relating to this DBS Check updated if any new information.  

Employees on the Update Service can provide a reference code to their employer so that they can view this information through an online portal. Employers can then run status checks on these individuals to assess whether their criminal history has changed. 

The DBS are investing a lot of time and effort into perfecting the Update Service. It has the potential to revolutionise the way in which organisations manage their DBS checking process. New compliance technologies, the likes of which Personnel Checks are developing, hope to be able to integrate with the Update Service in the future helping drive further efficiencies. 

We strongly recommend that any organisation that needs to carry out DBS checks for compliance purposes encourage staff to sign up to this service. It saves all parties involved both time and money. While you cannot mandate that you staff sign up to the Update Service, educating them of the savings can often be enough. 

We are currently developing our own web app that allows automated status checks of the DBS Update Service to be carried. This tool is currently being rolled out with our sister company TaxiPlus with great success and we hope to be able to offer this to our clients by the start of the new financial year.  

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