Personnel screening isn’t just about weeding out untrustworthy individuals or high-risk workers or to reduce the likelihood of counter-productive workplace behaviours from manifesting. For both employee and employer, the goal of pre employment screening is to find a good match for both parties in order to ensure a positive, productive working relationship for everyone. With the right pre-employment screening solution in place, you can set the foundation for long-term success – for both you and your staff.
Some HR managers worry that an employment integrity check might be too intrusive or that it runs the risk of reducing the pool of talent in the shortlisting process disproportionately.
Research states that around 1 in 1500 people who apply for a working with children check (WWCC) are awarded an adverse decision and are therefore considered unsuitable to work with children. Would you say that you have run the risk of reducing the talent pool in your recruitment process, when you balance the decision with safety and reputation concerns?
Research also says that around 1:1000 Baseline national security clearance applications are awarded an adverse finding. If this ratio was applied to your recruitment process, would you say that you reduced the talent pool or protected the organisation’s assets, people, reputation?
Both examples are “basic checks” that detect extreme and obvious behaviour of people that should not be allowed to enter service with your organisation. Having a screening regime in place protects and enhances your workforce.
The “CL0 – The Basic Assessment” can be characterised as a basic check, too. But this time a one-on-one interview is conducted – not just a database check. It is an entry level character assessment that reduces organisational risks: reputational risks, data breaches, violence and other hostile acts in the workplace.
Other research has noted that by simply adding in your job advertisement that “shortlisted candidates may need to go through a background check” will increase the quality of candidates by at least 20%. Why? Because those who are have glaringly dishonest pasts, or currently involved in illegal activity won’t apply for fear of being found out.
It also serves to demonstrate to your candidates that your company cares about the well-being and safety of incoming and existing staff. Due diligence and duty of care are important concepts.
A Glassdoor survey reports that small businesses that take the time to invest in a good candidate screening process improve the quality of their hires by 70%.
By adding a multi-dimensional check to your ID verification or your WWCC application or your Police Records Check process, you usher in a two-pronged advantage: increase quality of your candidates by 70% and reduce the organisational risk substantially.
Do you need help getting started with pre-employment screening and assessments? Cleard.Life offers a four tiers of screening solutions to help Australian organisations make even better hiring decisions.
