Common findings in pre-employment screening

It’s no secret that many businesses find the recruitment process to be both crucial and challenging. Studies have shown that bad hiring can have both monetary and intangible consequences for a company.

Given this, it is essential for companies to do background screenings on potential employees before making any hiring decisions. Furthermore, a comprehensive pre-employment background screening may be required if the individual is applying for a strategic position or the company operates in a high-risk sector.

“Comprehensive” in this case can include checking references, records, or supporting documents tailored to the needs of the company. Examples include criminal checks, medical document checks, reputation checks, professional credential checks, and others.

Findings in background screening

Many fraud cases have been discovered when conducting background checks on prospective employees. These cases with various modus operandis are interesting to study as references.

Several cases were found wherein the candidates were honest about their educational background with proven certificates of authenticity, but falsified and altered information in other supporting documents.

One example is the case in which the candidate forged their payslips. After examining the salary slip documents, it was revealed that the candidate had only worked at the previous company for a few months and the salary slip was not issued by the company.

In another case, a candidate claimed to have attended driving safety training. However, after verification of the attached certificate, the results proved invalid. For companies in the travel and expedition service industry, negligence in checking such documents can pose a safety risk to consumers and other employees.

Another interesting case to consider is the case of the dismissal of an employee due to the falsification of PCR test results while working at his previous company. At the time, the employee used fake test results to obtain permission for sick leave lasting one month. This finding became a red flag for companies that are considering recruiting him.

In a different, seemingly more serious case, there was once a candidate who had an unfinished debt with the company and was later terminated from his employment contract due to a violation.

These cases emphasize that the falsification or alteration of even the slightest information and proven invalid claims puts prospective employees’ integrity into question. If they could commit such violations in their previous company, what’s stopping them from doing the same in their future workplaces?

The challenges of mass hiring

Given that the process requires high levels of competence and accuracy, pre-employment background screening is not an easy job that can be done by anyone—especially if the company is recruiting in large volumes.

Pre-employment background screening is becoming increasingly challenging and requires professionals to carry it out.

In the pre-employment background screening, it is also necessary to carry out a reference check to examine the candidate’s work performance history. A prospective employee’s resume may look fine, but then new, important information may be discovered that isn’t listed. This of course requires accuracy in checking references and identification.

The accuracy of identifying a large number of candidates and the pressure to meet recruitment deadlines are challenges that HR practitioners need to navigate in these situations. Collaborating with experienced and trusted third parties to conduct pre-employment background screening can be the solution to these challenges.

Integrity Asia has more than two decades of experience in providing compliance services, one of which is pre-employment and continuous background screenings.

With leading technology, Prisma ™ is here to meet the demands of clients in managing inspection requests safely and quickly, to generate automatic reports.

In addition, Prisma™ has developed the Applicant Portal to simplify and bring transparency to the examination process, where clients can invite candidates to submit and upload their own personal information.

To find out more about compliance services and other consulting services, please feel free to contact us.

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