Pre Employment Screening

Once upon a time, pre-employment screening was reserved for new employees with financial responsibilities, as well as those who work with children and vulnerable individuals. But today, with approximately 85% of job applicants lying on their CVs, companies are seeing the benefits of conducting employee background checks on all new hires.

In other words, pre-employment screening helps companies to remove assumptions and gain confidence in their recruitment process. Ultimately, the process aims to ensure workplace safety, as well as preventing fraud and theft.

Candidate consent

The process of pre-employment screening usually starts with HR stating the requirement of background checks to candidates on the application form and/or during the interview process. When a decision is made to hire the candidates, HR will then proceed to obtain pre-employment screening consent in writing from the candidates.

In most cases, pre-employment screening should be completed prior to the candidates receiving a formal offer. If the candidates are required to start work immediately, they can also receive an offer with conditional to satisfactory checks. Regardless, new hires must be made aware that successful employment is dependent on the results of pre-employment screening checks.

In the event that the candidate objects to pre-employment screening, HR will need to review the reasons given by the candidate and decide if they can be a contributory factor in determining the viability of the candidate.

What pre-employment screening can reveal

In the UK, most people have heard of the three types of DBS (Disclosure & Barring) checks which are:

• Basic – this checks a potential employee’s unspent convictions and conditional cautions from the Police National Computer database.
• Standard – this checks a potential employee’s spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings.
• Enhanced – this covers the information available in Standard DBS, plus any information held by police. This may also include barred list checks to determine if the individual has been barred from doing a role previously.

Why use Blackhawk Intelligence’s pre-employment screening services

1. In most companies, HR and the managers involved in the recruitment process do not conduct employee background checks. This is to ensure that no discrimination (perceived or otherwise) is taking place. The best practice is for companies to outsource the pre-employment screening and employee background check process to an independent and professional team like Blackhawk Intelligence.
2. Our employee background check specialists work to the best of our ability to gather information and create a pre-employment report that is informative and useful to you. Our intelligence-gathering process involves a combination of multi-language open-source research and targeted human source enquiries.
3. Open-source research refers to the use of electronic and physical corporate registries, print and electronic media archives, litigation databases, credit reference databases, global regulatory and compliance databases and the Internet. Employment and educational verifications are conducted directly with relevant employers and educational institutions.
4. Targeted human source enquiries are conducted with a wide range of individuals who are in a position to comment authoritatively on a candidate’s personal and professional reputation. These generally include former colleagues, former business partners and industry peers.
5. We verify, analyse and cross-reference before giving you the final report. Our work is outstanding with no hidden charges.
6. We are discreet and respect confidentiality.

International pre-employment screening

In London, foreign talent is a key asset to many companies, bringing in expertise and diversity. But in some instances, foreign talent can also pose a threat to your company if you cannot verify their identity and employment history in other countries accurately.

At Blackhawk Intelligence, we understand that it can be a challenge to conduct international pre-employment screening as some information like criminal records are not readily available in some countries. This is why we have an extensive network of investigators and intelligence experts worldwide. These well-placed investigators excel at finding out information from local sources where the foreign talent has lived or worked.

Give us a call on +44 (0)20 8108 9317 if international employee background checks are a concern pertaining to your multi-national C-level executives.

Data protection

In the UK, the Data Protection Act 2018 and lately GDPR, allows an individual to control how their personal information is used by organisations, businesses or the government. In other words, when conducting pre-employing screening or employee background checks, the information must be:

• used fairly, lawfully and transparently
• used for specified, explicit purposes
• used in a way that is adequate, relevant and limited to only what is necessary
• accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date
• kept for no longer than is necessary
• handled in a way that ensures appropriate security, including protection against unlawful or unauthorised processing, access, loss, destruction or damage

At Blackhawk Intelligence, our pre-employment screening specialists follow strict guidelines and have strong work ethics. We act diligently and respect confidentiality.

We do not hold a candidate’s data for any other purposes except to include it in a report to you. After that, we destroy the data accordingly. You can be assured that the methods we use in employee background checks are lawful and accurate.

Working with Blackhawk Intelligence to find the right employees

Save time, money and potential stress that can come with hiring the wrong person by engaging our pre-employment screening checks to verify candidates carefully.

At Blackhawk Intelligence, we have the experience and resources necessary to assist you in authenticating a candidate’s identity, qualifications, references, previous employment, credit history, professional membership, corporate affiliation, legal proceedings and criminal record.

Contact us today on +44 (0)20 8108 9317 to find out how we can help you.

Case example 1

Company A advertised for a creative director and asked each applicant to send in their portfolio. One candidate stood out because his portfolio contained many excellent pieces of work. But during the pre-employment screening process, it became clear that this candidate did not have the work experience he claimed he had. Also, he took other people’s work and passed them off as his own. This candidate did not just tell a few white lies on the CV; he was a fraudster.

Case example 2

Company B successfully recruited a sales director. But during the pre-employment screening process, it became apparent that this candidate did not dedicate three years in his employment gap to care for an elderly relative as claimed – he was actually employed by a company during that time but was let go due to fraud. This piece of information was withheld on purpose by the candidate. Assuming employee background checks did not take place, then this piece of information is likely to remain hidden.

To find out more or to arrange a confidential consultation about how we can assist with candidate pre-employment screening, please contact Blackhawk Intelligence on +44 (0)20 8108 9317.