How Criminal Record Checks are Helping HR Teams in their Hiring Process

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What is a Criminal Record Check?

A criminal record check is a background check that can be conducted on an individual to determine the person's criminal history. The information is obtained from a number of sources including law enforcement agencies, court records and intelligence databases.

pre employment criminal background check
Pre employment criminal background check

Criminal record checks are necessary for many different purposes in the workplace. They are necessary for pre-employment, international criminal record checks, and hiring. These checks enable companies to be sure that the person they are hiring is a good fit for their company and does not have any criminal charges on their record.

Should Companies Consider Conducting Pre Employment Criminal Background Checks before Hiring? 

The answer is yes because they allow companies to reduce the risk of hiring employees committing crimes on the job, which can lead to serious liability issues. A criminal record check is also important for a company's image and brand as it enables them to avoid bad publicity and negative press coverage when an employee commits a crime on the job. Lastly, it helps companies avoid the potential for expensive lawsuits by ensuring that they are hiring people with clean records.

pre employment criminal record checks
Pre employment criminal record checks

How International Criminal Record Checks are Changing the Way Companies do Background Checks?

Background checks for pre-employment are a growing trend in Europe, America, and Asia. Companies in these regions use these checks to ensure that their employees have no criminal records that could jeopardize their safety or lead to legal issues. Companies are also becoming more reliant on international background checking companies because they make the checking process a lot easier for them.

international criminal background check
International criminal background check

How Modern Background Checks are Uncovering New Criminals and How this Can Change Workplace Safety

Background checks have been around for a long time. The first background check was done by the US government in 1790. However, in the modern era, background checks are becoming more sophisticated due to technological advancements. Background checks can now use algorithms and software to generate a list of all the people who have had any contact with any criminal activity in the past few years and able to uncover new criminals that weren't previously known.

international criminal history check
International criminal history check

They have also become more common as employers try to protect their employees from potential risks such fraud, theft, and other illegal activities that may occur within the company.

The use of automated background software has made the process of background checking very efficient because it can now provide more accurate information in a faster way. Employers are now more confident about hiring new employees and can be assured that their safety is not at risk. 

Do Large IT Companies Typically do Criminal Background Checks for New Hires?

Background checks for new hires are a common practice in the tech industry. It is due to the high-demand for qualified candidates and the fear of hiring someone with a criminal record. The size of a company can greatly affect how thorough their background check process is. For example, some smaller companies may only conduct a cursory search on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, while larger companies may conduct more in-depth searches to find any possible connections to criminal activity or past employment.

How to Find a Good Background Checking Company to Conduct Criminal Checks for Your Business?

Background checks have become an integral part of every company's hiring process and are a necessity to protect your business from any potential risks, but they can be time-consuming and disruptive to your daily workflow. Background check companies can perform this task for you, saving you valuable time and ensuring that your business is protected from any potential risks. They cover a wide variety of industries, from financial services to recruitment and tech firms. 

pre employment international criminal record checks
Pre employment international criminal record checks

However, before you hire one you should consider whether they can deliver the following:

  1. Determine what kind of companies they screen, in terms of sector specialisms, company sizes, and across countries around the world?
  2. Check the strength of their business model, and their financial integrity?
  3. Check their website carefully and identify what their reviews and case studies like?
  4. Analyze if they have a good reputation, with strong data security & privacy protocols?
  5. Look at the experience level of their employees, and the values of the leadership?
  6. Verify that their background screening software connects with other platforms?
  7. Have they an automated and rapid background checking process?
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FAQs

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FAQs

What background check do I need?

This depends on the industry and type of role you are recruiting for. To determine whether you need reference checks, identity checks, bankruptcy checks, civil background checks, credit checks for employment or any of the other background checks we offer, chat to our team of dedicated account managers.

Why should employers check the background of potential employees?

Many industries have compliance-related employment check requirements. And even if your industry doesn’t, remember that your staff have access to assets and data that must be protected. When you employ a new staff member you need to be certain that they have the best interests of your business at heart. Carrying out comprehensive background checking helps mitigate risk and ensures a safer hiring decision.

How long do background checks take?

Again, this depends on the type of checks you need. Simple identity checks can be carried out in as little as a few hours but a worldwide criminal background check for instance might take several weeks. A simple pre-employment check package takes around a week. Our account managers are specialists and can provide detailed information into which checks you need and how long they will take.

Can you do a background check online?

All Veremark checks are carried out online and digitally. This eliminates the need to collect, store and manage paper documents and information making the process faster, more efficient and ensures complete safety of candidate data and documents.

What are the benefits of a background check?

In a competitive marketplace, making the right hiring decisions is key to the success of your company. Employment background checks enables you to understand more about your candidates before making crucial decisions which can have either beneficial or catastrophic effects on your business.

What does a background check show?

Background checks not only provide useful insights into a candidate’s work history, skills and education, but they can also offer richer detail into someone’s personality and character traits. This gives you a huge advantage when considering who to hire. Background checking also ensures that candidates are legally allowed to carry out certain roles, failed criminal and credit checks could prevent them from working with vulnerable people or in a financial function.

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State of Hiring and Background Checks Discrepancies

Veremark’s 2022 Annual Report is based on the background check data collected from over 100,000 checks from companies and professionals across 6 countries and 5 key industries last year.

This report focuses on the state of hiring and background check discrepancies and is an essential guide to all recruiters and HR professionals conducting hires, background checks and onboarding in 2022.

In this report, we discuss:  

  • What areas and factors can Background Checks discover?  
  • Where did the findings come from by country and sector?
  • Discrepancies by top 5 sectors
    • Fintech and Financial Services      
    • HR, Staffing and Recruiting      
    • Technology and Software      
    • Professional Services      
    • Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
  • Discrepancies by top 6 countries
    • Estonia      
    • Singapore      
    • United Kingdom      
    • Australia & New Zealand      
    • India      
    • Philippines
Get your own copy!