Sales Lesson: Screening - The Importance Of An Independent Approach

By Anne Beitel

Before presenting candidates to their clients for consideration, recruitment agencies will frequently carry out a number of candidate background checks to ensure no irregularities exist. However, this approach is open to accusations of partiality, whereas an independent approach to screening offers the surety of an objective process and the removal of potential conflicts of interest.

Linking the recruitment fee to the successful placement ensures "pay for performance" and good value for money for clients of recruitment businesses. However, by conducting their own pre-employment screening of candidates, some recruitment agencies are placing themselves in a very difficult position. Agencies will of course be motivated to ensure that they can accomplish the placement and provide a candidate who is able not only to meet the needs of the business, but can make a positive impact. If something which could potentially damage their chance of completing such a placement were to present itself through the background checks, could the agency be trusted to in fact disclose the information and therefore risk the chance of them losing their all important fee? Of course it isn't always the case that agencies would behave unethically, but it certainly places them in a conflicted situation.

The ramifications of ignoring for instance, where someone has deliberately misrepresented themselves by way of their CV cannot be underestimated. Regardless of the position in question, employing inadequately trained or under experienced staff can be costly, not only creating disharmony amongst the team but lowering morale as others have to cover for another's weaknesses. In the worst case of misrepresentation the organisation's reputation can be brought in to question; data security threatened and even fraudulent behaviour encountered. Following a survey of 3,800 CV's in early 2008, The Risk Advisory Group highlighted that the number of candidates submitting multiple lies had increased with discrepancies becoming more serious and particularly prominent in employment and academic dates, fictitious professional qualifications, omitted CCJ's and undeclared directorships.

With so much at stake, it is vital for clients or their recruitment agencies to engage independent, expert advisors to conduct the checks required and therefore reduce the risk of employing an unsuitable individual. Many companies have thorough in-house vetting procedures for permanent employees, but what if the hire is of a senior interim executive? Validation of every candidate's CV must receive a thorough, consistent and relevant set of background checks. When placing an interim executive it is essential that the following areas are systematically inspected:

  1. Current credit history/bankruptcy checks
  2. Date of birth
  3. Electoral Roll Check
  4. CCJ's
  5. Academic Information
  6. Disqualified Director Search
  7. Previous Employment History
  8. Professional Qualifications and Memberships
  9. Search past and present litigation (seven years minimum)
  10. Last three job references

Why are these areas of specific importance? It is fair to say that there are some cases where a candidate may simply have made an honest error and the purpose of the screening process is not to penalise simple mistakes but to establish an overall picture. For example, in a career lasting 30 years it is possible to get start and end dates of early appointments confused by a couple of months, however a period where dates have been massaged to cover an underlying issue may warrant further investigation.

Dishonesty in a CV is likely to be an indication of one of three things - firstly, lack of confidence or desperation and therefore wanting to appear better qualified for the position than they really believe themselves to be; secondly, to hide unattractive behavioural traits such as career job-hopping and thirdly, an attempt to cover evidence of a more sinister nature such as a criminal conviction.

Once the checks have been conducted the findings should be made available in a written report which is shared with the client. This will help to enhance the working relationship between client and agency by increasing confidence and trust and ensuring that the right candidate is hired.

It's important to note however, that clients may already have a significant amount of faith in their own rigorous processes and therefore the checks conducted by recruitment agencies can often be seen as a backup measure or, alternatively, simply superfluous to requirements.

Although what can often happen is that organisations get caught up in the urgency of bringing someone on board quickly in order to minimise the business exposure, especially if the person has left unexpectedly. In this situation it is important to ensure that supplementary processes are in place via the recruitment agency so that background checks can still be carried out.

Informing candidates of these independent background checks at the earliest opportunity can in fact help to deter them from making any possible fabrications and therefore limit the risk to the business. There is no doubt that an inappropriately hired employee can lead to poor judgment, bad decisions and ineffective leadership, resulting in lost sales, contracts and possible litigation - certainly not what businesses need or want at a time of such financial uncertainty.

2010 Pre-employment Screeners Conference - Clearwater Registration

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2010 Pre-employment Screeners in Human Resources Conference - Clearwater Registration

Exhibitors Participants

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