PERSONAL VETTING If finding the right candidates is crucial to the success and growth of any organisation, hiring the wrong individual can be a costly mistake. At best, it wastes time, money and energy; at worst, it can lay the company open to criminal activity and put its reputation and client relationships at very serious risk.
Staff are the backbone of any business, yet employers often have a tendency to adopt a highly cavalier approach to checking the veracity of the employment history, credentials and references claimed by candidates. Fraudulent claims of job applicants are often accepted as one of recruitment’s occupational hazards, but a recent survey by the screening service Powerchex found that at least one in every 200 successful job applications in financial services was falsified to conceal a criminal conviction.
The best advice to offer any employer is never hire until you’re sure. Using a professional vetting service is a proven means of running checks on candidates if the company does not have the resources and personnel to do so itself. Always chase references and check qualifications as a matter of course, and make verifying the candidate’s right to work in the UK an absolute priority. Investigate any claims that the candidate makes regarding employment abroad: over-stating, exaggerating or falsifying information about working overseas is one of the most common areas of ‘CV abuse’.
If you hire illegal immigrants, even mistakenly, you risk laying your company open to prosecution. As far as possible, check whether potential employees were ever fired for sexual harassment or violent behaviour. Be vigilant regarding recruiting potential ‘moles’ from competitors, especially in security-sensitive areas of your
business: inter-company espionage does happen and organised crime syndicates do place insiders within companies.
Above all, make sure you have the procedures in place at HR level to deal properly with vetting before, during and following recruitment.
A recent FSA report found that few firms repeat vetting to identify changes in an individual’s circumstances that might make them more susceptible to financial crime. Ensure, too, that all sub- contractors and agency staff are covered by the same protocols.
Visit the ‘recruiting right’ section of the Institute of Directors web site at
www.iod.com for further advice and information about applying a thorough and rigorous recruitment process.
07
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24