Introduction

We know from experience that employers often do minimal efforts in the process of hiring new staff and hereafter becoming aware of the tremendous consequences of bad hiring decisions. Employment background and educational information are standard sections of hiring applications. They are so standard that a lot of companies will assume that the applicant is telling the truth when filling it out and consequently fail to verify the information. Often employers do not ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information submitted in a Curriculum Vitae. This while a significant proportion of applicants exaggerates and/or withholds information regarding negative aspects, or even lie about their former work experiences. Many times applicants will falsify small parts of their background, like the time and duration of where they worked, just to make their application more appealing or to raise fewer questions. This regularly leads to unpleasant surprises for the employer, where they come to the conclusion that they would not have hired that person had they known the information in advance

The directives of the Central Bank on Sound Business Operations applies to  regulated financial institutions, insurance companies, insurance brokers, money transfer companies, trust service providers, electronic money institutions and supervised company pension funds.  As part of “Integrity risk management”, having and implementing an employment screening policy is mandatory (Know Your Employee). Employment background screening is an effective risk management tool that has been proven to significantly reduce the risk of a bad hire.

Training

This one day course explains the key principles of (pre)-employment screenings. The search for relevant information about a job applicant in this context  will be outlined e.g. the verification of credentials of those you are seeking to grant access to your sites and information by confirming an applicant’s identity, nationality and immigration status, and to verify their declared skills and employment history. It may also raise concerns about the integrity and reliability of an applicant, for example:

• involvement in illegal activities;
• false or unsubstantiated claims on the CV or application form;
• unsubstantiated qualifications;
• unexplained gaps in employment history;
• adverse references;
• questionable documentation e.g. lack of supporting paperwork or concern that documents are not genuine; or
• evasiveness or unwillingness to provide information on the part of the candidate.

Other stages of the recruitment process also give opportunities to screen candidates. Interviews, in particular, will help to form an opinion of their character. Financial information can provide assurance that there are no significant credit or debt problems that could place the organization in a vulnerable position.

In addition, during the course we will outline that screening is a topic of continuous interest through the employment process. For example, screening is also mandatory while selecting personnel for an internal function, the so-called in-employment screening. Furthermore the importance of having a “Screening Policy” will also be addressed. A screening policy needs to be developed on a risk-focused approach to determine when pre-employment background screening is considered appropriate or when the level of screening should be increased, based upon the position and responsibilities associated with a particular position.  Also this policy should address appropriate actions when pre-employment or subsequent due diligence detects information contrary to what the applicant or employee provided .