Last year, the revelation that a psychiatrist who was not qualified had deceived the NHS with a fabricated degree for years sent shockwaves throughout the industry. Roger Bescoby highlights this.
The news, which revealed a glaring mistake with potentially fatal results, once again highlighted the importance of doing due diligence before hiring new talent.
If businesses fail to perform comprehensive checks during the pre-employment stage, they risk facing a number of negative consequences. These include financial losses and damage to their reputation. Recently, the number of requests for pre-employment screening has increased, especially since social media brought past and current attitudes and behaviors into public view. In addition, with the sophistication of fraudsters on the rise, pre-employment screenings are a vital step for businesses to ensure they have peace of mind in today’s crowded labour market.
Dodging due diligence can have serious consequences
Falsified qualifications and insufficient checks can severely damage a company’s operations, reputation, and integrity. False qualifications can lead businesses to hire unqualified candidates. This can result in subpar performances, mistakes, and errors that can be catastrophic. Businesses are exposed to legal and compliance risk. If, for example, an employee is hired with fake qualifications to fill a job that requires certifications or licenses from the industry, then this will put your business in violation of regulations. This could lead to fines or even loss of licenses.
Insufficient checks, or hiring people with false credentials, can also have intangible consequences, including a loss of trust from consumers, clients and stakeholders, eroding professionalism and integrity over time. The time, effort and resources spent on training and onboarding individuals who are not qualified can deplete budgets. Organisations may also incur additional costs for rehiring or retraining unqualified employees, as well as correcting performance issues.
New approaches to protecting your business
Businesses should use innovative and robust pre-employment screening procedures to protect themselves against fraudulent credentials and qualifications. This includes thorough CV and qualification checking, reference checks and international verification.
There are many agencies that specialize in background checks. These include criminal records, employment histories, education verifications, and references checks. Private investigators, for example, often hire analysts who are experts in social media analysis, which is regarded as a rich source of information to be used before hiring. They can use their expertise to identify discrepancies and red flags within a candidate’s background. This provides businesses with accurate information that allows them to make informed decisions.
Businesses can also use a variety of new products, including Social Media Check Plus. This is a unique product that allows businesses to conduct integrated social media searches. The tool, once a prospective employee has given consent, uses an algorithm-based auditing solution to flag content on public and private profiles that is related to extremism and hate speech. It also flags violent images, possible nudity and profanity. These tools are becoming more and more important as social media continues to grow and evolve. They will give employers peace of mind, and ensure that employees’ pasts do not jeopardize carefully curated careers.
It is important that companies confirm the knowledge of the law regarding employment and data privacy before hiring private investigators to conduct pre-employment screening. Remember that reputable operators are members of industry associations, such as The Association of British Investigators whose Code of Conduct has been recognized by The Law Society. It is important to remember that reputable operators adhere to industry associations such as the Association of British Investigators, whose Code of Conduct is recognised by The Law Society.
Outside help
Businesses can find it difficult to conduct pre-employment screenings in-house due to the time and resources required. Specialist organisations can provide a thorough screening process that allows businesses to identify potential issues and risks that would otherwise go unnoticed by standard HR procedures.
This process can be outsourced to free up resources and allow businesses to concentrate on their core business operations.
Ensure that any firms you hire are bound to professional ethics and confidentiality standards. This means they must be able to handle sensitive information with discretion, and maintain confidentiality during the screening process. It is important to maintain the integrity of your business throughout this process.
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Roger Bescoby Director of Compliance & Development is at Conflict International.
