Five employment screening questions HR teams should ask before the new year

Before 2027, HR teams should review whether their screening policies still reflect the risks of each role, whether suppliers are meeting expectations, which employees need rescreening and whether employee records are complete. You should also examine what this year's screening results reveal about your current approach.

These five employment screening questions will help you identify gaps, address outstanding issues and make informed decisions about your screening programme for the year ahead.

1. Does our screening policy still reflect the risks of each role?

Your screening policy may have been appropriate when it was written. But how much has your organisation changed since then?

New markets, different hiring practices and changes to employee responsibilities can all affect which checks are necessary.

For example, an employee who joined in an administrative role may now manage supplier payments. Their original screening package may no longer reflect the level of financial responsibility they hold.

Start by comparing your current screening requirements with the roles people actually perform.

Consider whether checks are being applied consistently across departments, whether contractors with sensitive access are covered and whether your policy accounts for different legal requirements across countries.

Our 2026 Veremark Screening Benchmark, based on an analysis of close to half a million background checks completed in 2025, found substantial differences in screening depth. Capital Markets organisations averaged 13.1 checks per hire, compared with 2.5 in Business Services.

Those differences reflect varying risk profiles. They also show why you should understand the purpose of each check before deciding whether your existing approach is sufficient.

We recommend using role-based screening thresholds to establish which checks are appropriate for different levels of responsibility and access.

The review should result in an updated policy that hiring managers can follow without having to interpret requirements themselves.

2. Is our background screening supplier delivering what we need?

An annual supplier review should go beyond comparing costs and average turnaround times.

You need to know whether your provider is consistently completing the right checks, communicating delays and giving your team enough information to make defensible hiring decisions.

Look at the past year's screening activity. How often were checks completed within agreed service levels? Which countries or check types experienced the longest delays? How many cases required manual intervention?

Pay particular attention to cases where screening became complicated.

A provider may complete straightforward identity checks quickly while taking considerably longer to verify employment histories involving multiple countries. Your overall turnaround average may conceal that difference.

You should also examine how effectively your supplier handles discrepancies. Can your team see where a check is delayed? Are escalation processes clear? Can you retrieve the evidence needed for an internal audit?

Candidate experience deserves attention too. Repeated document requests or unexplained delays can create unnecessary work for recruiters and uncertainty for candidates.

Our guide to evaluating a background screening provider covers the operational and compliance questions worth raising during a supplier review.

Ask your provider to explain its performance against agreed measures and identify what will change next year. If the same problems have appeared in consecutive reviews, assign clear deadlines for resolving them.

3. Which employees need rescreening in 2027?

For many organisations, screening ends once somebody starts work.

That creates a gap when an employee's responsibilities or circumstances change.

The 2026 Veremark Screening Benchmark highlights industry data indicating that 81% of employers have no form of post-hire screening.

This deserves attention during your annual review.

An employee may have been screened five years ago for a relatively low-risk position. Since then, they might have gained access to financial systems, moved into a regulated function or taken responsibility for sensitive customer information.

Their original checks may no longer provide the assurance you need.

Review which roles require periodic checks under applicable regulations and which changes should trigger an additional assessment.

Professional registrations, time-limited right-to-work permissions and relevant licences may also require follow-up verification. The timing and type of checks will depend on the role and jurisdiction.

We recommend keeping a clear record of the screening completed for each relevant employee, when any further checks are due and which events require reassessment.

For example, a promotion into a role with authority to approve large payments could trigger a review of whether additional checks are justified.

Your rescreening policy should define these triggers and identify who is responsible for acting on them.

Any repeat screening must also have a lawful basis and remain proportionate to the risks involved.

4. Are there gaps in our employee screening records?

Having a screening policy provides limited assurance if you cannot demonstrate that the required checks were completed.

Employee records can become fragmented when organisations change screening providers, migrate HR systems or recruit through different business units.

A completed check may exist in a supplier portal without appearing in the employee's central record. Another may have been started but never formally closed.

The scale of compliance problems is worth considering. In Checkr's 2026 State of Screening Compliance Report, 42% of surveyed HR leaders at organisations with at least 1,000 employees reported experiencing a background screening compliance error in the previous 12 months.

Before the year ends, compare your employee roster with screening records and the requirements attached to each role.

Identify employees whose records are missing evidence of required checks, cases that remain marked as pending and any exceptions where someone started work before screening was completed.

Each exception should have a documented reason, an authorised decision-maker and an agreed resolution.

You should also check that records are being retained appropriately.

The UK's Information Commissioner's Office advises employers to retain information collected for vetting only as long as necessary. In many cases, retaining the outcome and decision is more appropriate than keeping the underlying sensitive material indefinitely.

A useful year-end outcome is a reconciled record showing what checks were required, what was completed and which outstanding issues have an owner.

5. What have this year's screening results taught us?

Screening results can tell you where your hiring risks are concentrated and whether your existing checks are identifying relevant discrepancies.

Our 2026 Screening Benchmark found that education verification flagged discrepancies in 21.1% of completed checks, while employment verification flagged them in 15.3%.

Database checks, which accounted for 58% of screening volume, collectively flagged discrepancies less than 1% of the time.

These findings raise a useful question for your annual review: are you investing in the checks that address the risks associated with your roles?

Examine your own screening results by check type, business unit and location.

Look for recurring discrepancies, particularly where qualifications or employment histories cannot be verified. Consider whether certain screening packages need adjustment.

You should also review how findings were resolved.

A discrepancy does not automatically indicate dishonesty. Employment dates can differ because of administrative errors, and qualifications may be recorded under different institutional names.

Your process should allow candidates to explain inconsistencies before decisions are made. The ICO's guidance supports giving candidates this opportunity and documenting the final decision.

Where your records show repeated problems with the same check or supplier, investigate the cause. Where a check consistently produces little relevant information, reassess whether it remains justified for that role.

The results should inform your screening requirements for 2027.

Make your annual screening review count

An annual screening review should leave you with specific decisions and named owners.

Update policies where responsibilities have changed. Agree measurable improvements with your supplier. Schedule necessary rescreening and resolve gaps in employee records. Use discrepancy data to decide whether your current checks are appropriate.

These employment screening questions are most useful when the answers lead to changes you can verify.

Before January, you should know which gaps require immediate action, who is responsible for closing them and how you will measure progress during 2027.

That gives your HR team a clearer basis for managing screening throughout the next year.