The end of the year is always the time for reflection and statistics, so it’s no surprise that the end of 2019 saw the release of an interesting survey into the state of the pre-employment checking market. Although every employer does their own style of checking or vetting, the broad trends identified in the survey can help candidates predict what kind of employment checks they may be up against in 2020. From an employer’s perspective it can act as a check – if all your competitors are vetting in a certain way, should you be doing it too?

Criminal Records Checks

One of the main conclusions in the report is that employers are asking about criminal records with increased frequency. Around 78% of all organisations now ask about criminal records and do some form of checking. The most common way of checking up on criminal records is by asking candidates to complete a basic DBS check, which will flag up current convictions and cautions only. This is one of the most controversial aspects of pre-employment screening however, as employers have to find the balance between allowing people to leave their past behind and protecting their business.

CV Discrepancies

83% of the companies interviewed for the end of year survey said they had found discrepancies on candidate CVs. Some of these may well be genuine errors, such as misremembering dates of employment or mixing up your exam grades. However, many other discrepancies are intentional, designed to paint the candidate in a better light to give them the edge on the competition. However, companies know that this is a growing problem and are fact-checking CVs with increasing frequency so it’s really not worth risking it. Employers who don’t fact check risk taking on someone who is really not suitable for the role, and who lacks the essential experience required.

Re-Screening

Although most companies are aware of the need to look into the identities and backgrounds of people who are applying to work with them, only a third repeat the process for existing employees. Workers’ situations change over time, and not repeating the screening when someone is promoted or moved into a position with new responsibilities could be risky. It was also found that even when companies have a robust system for checking workers, volunteers, interns and work experience staff often walk into the organisation without any checks at all.

Future of Employment Screening

There’s no surefire way of predicting how employment screening is going to go in the future. However, with more databases going online and social media making it easier than ever to check up on the background of candidates, employers aren’t going to stop doing what they can. If you’re thinking about applying for a new job, probably the most essential thing to do is go through your CV and application forms and make sure that everything is completely accurate. Any errors or deliberate fibs could come back to haunt you in the future – being found out lying on your CV is normally defined as gross misconduct, and cause for immediate dismissal.