Why Pre Employment Checks Matter
Failing To Carry Out Pre Employment Checks Is The Number One Recruitment Mistake
I receive at least one phone call each month from a business owner who is having problems with a relatively new employee, and when I dig down, there are two main problems: the employees history wasn’t investigated and no probation review meetings have taken place.
This page was first published on 22 June 2018. The latest update was 22 December 2025
Pre employment checks are a simple but essential step in protecting your business and ensuring you make informed recruitment decisions. Many SME owner-managers, say they are a waste of time but pre-employment checks protect your business by reducing the risk of a setting on a problem employee and avoid the costs that a problem employee brings to your business.
Benefits of Pre Employment Checks for SME owner-Managers
Pre employment check help you confirm that a candidate is who they say they are and is legally entitled to work for you. Failing to carry out the correct checks can expose SMEs to
- Fines for employing someone without the right to work
- Health and safety risks
- Reputational damage
- Employment disputes later down the line
Even in micro and small businesses, these risks apply in exactly the same way as they do to larger organisations.
Checking references from previous employers and qualifications provide valuable insight into a candidate’s experience, reliability, and suitability for the role. While no check can guarantee performance, they help identify red flags early and avoid avoidable issues once employment has started. For SMEs, where teams are small and roles are often broad, this extra reassurance is particularly important.
Importance of Legal Compliance
Some checks are legal requirements, regardless of business size. For example:
- Right to work checks must be carried out correctly for all employees
- Certain roles may require qualification or background checks such as financial services and healtchare
- Data protection rules apply to how candidate information is handled
Getting this wrong can result in penalties that small businesses are often less able to absorb.
Top Tips To Introducing A Simple but Consistent Process
One of the most common pitfalls in SMEs is carrying out checks informally or inconsistently. Applying checks to some candidates but not others can increase the risk of discrimination claims. Having a simple, consistent approach to pre-employment checks helps demonstrate fairness and professionalism.
Pre-employment checks do not need to be complex. A proportionate SME approach usually includes:
Verify The Right To Work In The UK
Employers must verify that all employees have the legal right to work in the UK, as employing someone without this right is a criminal offence and can result in significant fines. The fines increased to up to £60,000 per illegal worker from early 2024.
Read more about the: Right To Work In The UK
Request References From Previous Employers
Taking up references is also a vital part of the recruitment process. References help confirm the accuracy of a candidate’s employment history and provide insight into their reliability, conduct, and reasons for leaving. Despite this, many SMEs fail to carry out adequate checks, often leading to avoidable employee issues.
I don’t mean contact every employer for the last 15 years but I always like to follow up with at least the most recent employer and one previous to that. That should provide enough information for you to confirm that your candidate has told you the truth about where, when and in what position they were employed. They can also provide useful information about the persons character, reliability and punctuality.
What information can you hope to receive from the previous employer?
- Confirmation of Details: it is useful to verify the basic details of the potential employee’s employment history, such as: the period of employment, their position within the business, role title and their salary on leaving etc.
- Reliability and Punctuality: it is important to determine whether the potential employee is hard working, reliable and timely.
- Reason for Leaving: did the employee leave of their own accord? Does their version of the reason for leaving correspond with that given by the potential employee?
- Relations with Clients, Customers and Colleagues: you will need to find out whether the applicant works well with their associates, this is especially important if they will be working within a team.
The failure of a previous employer to provide a reference covering anything other than very basic information should not be seen as an indication of a problem with the prospective employee. Any reluctance regarding the provision of a reference or any aspect of one should be followed up by telephone and treated with caution.
Top Tip for SME Owner-managers: focus on recent employment, obtain the candidate’s consent, and ensure data protection requirements are met. Reference requests should be clear, relevant to the role, and fact-based. Any inconsistencies or reluctance to provide information should be followed up carefully, and candidates must be given the opportunity to explain discrepancies.
Effective right-to-work checks and proportionate reference checking help SMEs reduce risk, make informed decisions, and ensure compliance with legal obligations.
Requirements of General Data Protection Regualtions
Before verifying a candidate’s details, you should explain the process to them and obtain their consent.
Verifying 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.
Keeping clear records
These steps take little time but can prevent significant problems later.
A Final Thought for Owner-Managers
Pre-employment checks are one of the easiest ways to protect your business before an employment relationship even begins. Investing a small amount of time at the recruitment stage can save SME Ownres considerable time, cost, and disruption in the future. If you are unsure which checks are appropriate for a role or how to carry them out correctly, seeking advice early can help you get it right from the start.
Contracting Out
At Kea HR we can carry out pre-employment checks on your behalf, thus saving you valuable time. The service will be tailored to meet your needs and could include checks on employment history, academic qualifications, membership of professional bodies and verification of work permits. Although this will add to the cost of the recruitment process it will ensure that the applicant is suitable for the position.
Recruitment is a crucial process, so let me help you get it right
I understand how important it is to recruit the right people each and every time you recruit and how much time that process takes. With that in mind I designed my Fixed Fee Recruitment Service to take away all those time-consuming parts of the process and make sure that you only have to deal with the serious candidates.
Whether you are looking to recruit your first employee, need to quickly ramp up your headcount or are looking to recruit a HR Administrator or HR Manager for your business, I am here to help you.
- Advertising – I will review your advert or write it for you
- Filtering Candidates – I will review all the applications and filter them so you will only see the candidates with the closest match to your requirements
- Arranging Interviews – I will contact all the candidates on your behalf, gaining answers to any preliminary questions you have and make sure they have all the details they need prior to meeting you
- Providing Feedback – I will contact every applicant to inform them they have been unsuccessful
- Pre-employment Checks – I will carrying out comprehensive pre-employment checks for the successful candidate, including references from previous employers and checking the right to work in the UK
I charge a fixed fee for my service regardless of the role you are recruiting for; that can save you thousands of pounds when compared to extensive percentages of salary fees that a recruitment agency will charge.
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