Pre Employment Checks
Failing To Carry Out Pre Employment Checks Is The Number One Recruitment Mistake
I receive many phone calls each month from business owners who have a staffing problem and when I dig down it ultimately turns out the pre employment checks were never carried out.
The reason pre-employment checks are so important is they enable you to double check that your squeaky clean new recruit is WHO THEY SAY THEY ARE!!!
Some time ago I was working with a business supporting them to recruitment a Marketing professional. We interviewed a small selection of candidates and two stood out from the others. We brought them back for a second interview where we asked them to bring some examples of their work and asked them to complete a short exercise for us. The business owner then made his choice and we offered the job.
Everything seemed fine. The new recruit accepted the role and returned all the new starter documents except the information about previous employers that we could contact for references. I chased this up a few times and became a little suspicious.
Ultimately, I phoned the existing employer and asked to speak to the Marketing Coordinator, the role title our candidate had given us. Surprisingly our candidate didn’t answer the phone so I asked the person who did a few simple questions.
It turned out our ideal candidate was in fact the Personal Assistant to the Head of the Department and the work they’d shown us at the second interview was not their own.
The sad thing is that the business owner was quite happy to recruit someone who could grow in to the role. So had the candidate been honest with us from the beginning they would probably have still been offered the job, although at a lower salary. As it was the business owner no longer felt he could trust the candidate and therefore decided to withdraw the offer.
Verify Qualifications
If you advertise a qualification as essential during the recruitment process then you must verify that the successful candidate does indeed hold that qualification.
Imagine if you recruited someone into a driving role. You wouldn’t let them out in your company vehicle without checking their driving licence first! Other qualifications are equally important.
Talk to Previous Employers
I don’t mean everyone for the last 15 years but I always like to follow up at least with the most recent and one previous to that. References from previous employers are also important even if they just clarify that your candidate has told you the truth about where, when and in what position they were employed.
A subscription to my Library of Essential HR Documents provides a ‘Ready To Go HR Department’ that offers simple step by step advice to common HR problems. I like breaking down processes into simple easy to follow steps and have check-lists and templates for absolutely every HR situation you can think of. My easy-to-follow flow charts, meeting scripts, check-lists and template letters ensure everything is done properly, efficiently and compliantly in a professional, friendly and knowledgeable way.
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The References for Ex-employees folder provides guidance and resources to help you provide references for ex employees. I also provide a template letter to help you provide a basic response to a request for a reference.
