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Asking about people’s health and well-being is something which has been in the news often recently, with coverage of whether it is appropriate or not to ask staff about whether or not they have had their Covid-19 vaccination. At the pre-employment stage, employers often shy away from asking any questions about health, absence due to sickness or disability out of fear of falling foul of discrimination legislation. However, employers are allowed to ask about health, and in some cases, ask job applicants to go for a medical before their job offer is confirmed.

Reasonable Adjustments for Disability

Refusing to interview or employ members of staff who have a disability is clear discrimination, but on the other hand, asking about disability can help employers put additional measures in place for support. Most employers will ask about any adjustments which an employee may need to perform their job. There are also specific instances in which asking questions about health is justified. For example, asking someone being employed in a role which requires heavy lifting whether they have an illness which might affect that, or whether someone wanting work as a roofer has a health problem which could stop them climbing ladders or working at height.

Pre-Employment Medicals

The Equality Act, passed in 2010, made it illegal for employers to have a blanket policy of carrying out medicals on anyone who wishes to work for them. As with everything in law however, there are exceptions. Employers are still allowed to send prospective employees for medicals in two situations:

• A Legal Requirement
• Job requires it

For example, someone working as a pilot, cabin crew, or air traffic controller must pass a medical in order to be certified as safe to perform their job. It is therefore entirely reasonable for an airline to require a medical before offering work to a new cabin crew member. The other exception is for work as something like a driver or courier, where insurance companies may demand that employers check their drivers’ eyesight or medical details to ensure that they are safe to be behind the wheel.

What Information Will Be Shared?

Employees are often very concerned about giving employers access to their medical records or sharing information about illnesses or medical history. Most medicals for employment purposes are carried out by external, private companies rather than by individual employers. Medical assessors will be told what job the person is being considered for and will then carry out their assessment on that basis. Results will usually be passed back to the employer on a pass/fail basis, with no details being given about why someone would not be considered for a role. This ensures that the applicant’s medical details remain private.

Employers usually don’t have rights to demand access to a worker’s medical records, at any stage of their employment. This area of employment law is a legal minefield, and employers should always consult with HR experts to make sure that any plans they have for checking or medicals are legal and fair.

Every industry sector has its own vocabulary and jargon. If you’re not up to date with all the different phrases and expressions used, then it’s easy to get lost in confusion about what is actually being said. We’ve put together a handy glossary to help explain some of the most common phrases in plain English.

DBS – DBS stands for Disclosure and Barring Service. This is the organisation in England and Wales which does criminal records checks for people working in that area of the UK. Your employer will be able to let you know whether you need a DBS check or not.

PVG – PVG stands for Protecting Vulnerable Groups and is the name of the system in Scotland for the most detailed level of criminal records checking.

Right to Work Check – this is the legal requirement for employers to check that the people they are employing have the legal right to work in the UK. A right to work check usually involves employers seeing passports to verify nationality.

Screening – Screening is just another word for checking. In some situations, screening is used to mean checks carried out at an earlier stage of the recruitment process, in order to make sure that you’re not wasting time interviewing unsuitable candidates. More frequently however, it’s used to mean the same thing as checking.

Vetting – Again, vetting is another word which means the same as checking or screening. Vetting was formerly used in connection with government or military positions but now is used in a wide range of other situations too.

Verification – Verification just means fact checking, so in an employment context this means looking at facts you have given on your application form or CV and checking to make sure you’ve told the truth.

BPSS – BPSS is Baseline Personnel Security Standard and is the screening which is usually carried out for people working in government departments. For people with access to sensitive data, a higher level of checking might be required.

RICE Framework – the “RICE” acronym covers the basic checking which employers should be doing: Right to Work, Identity, Criminal Record and Employment History.

Background Check – this is a term which isn’t specific and can mean a range of things, from a very quick check into someone’s references, to full-on checking every fact on a CV and running a full credit check.

Credit Check – this is an investigation into someone’s financial history, usually carried out in connection with jobs in banks or other financial services. Employers will always ask for consent before carrying out a credit check.

Security Clearance – government and defence jobs, or roles in police or Armed Forces may use the term “security clearance” instead of vetting or background checking. This process is more about assessing someone’s criminal background, to ensure they don’t pose a security risk.

GDPR – this acronym is the General Data Protection Regulation. GDPR sets out the rules about how your personal information should be stored and processed. In basic terms, it should mean that anything sensitive discovered on a background check should be kept confidential.

One of the main rules when employment screening is to construct a full employment history for your potential employee. This usually means accounting for the last three years, but some employers will want to see an employment history going back five, or even ten years. All the HR advice will talk about looking for gaps in employment history, but how do you go about investigating breaks in employment?

Reasons for Gaps in Employment

There are many reasons why a candidate might have a gap between one job and the next – redundancy, caring responsibilities, extended period of travel, study – so don’t automatically jump to the assumption that the candidate has something to hide. They might have been sent to prison, but it’s probably far more likely that there’s another explanation. Candidates are always advised to account for gaps on their CV, so check the application to make sure they haven’t offered an explanation elsewhere.

Chasing References

People know that employers don’t like to see gaps in employment history and are often tempted to tweak their CV to hide the fact that they were sacked and had a couple of months out of work before finding a new job. Always chase up references from previous employers to confirm dates of employment, and make sure they match with what the candidate has told you. Most former employers will also confirm the job title. Giving candidates the benefit of the doubt is important too, especially when taking an employment history going back five years or longer. People forget exact dates; they might remember that they started at a particular job in the autumn, but if they tell you October and it was really November, that’s of no great concern.

Voluntary and Involuntary Gaps

If you do discover gaps which can’t be accounted for, at interview you are trying to get to the bottom of whether these gaps were voluntary, or involuntary. A voluntary gap would include taking time off to have a baby or care for an older relative, to study or to travel overseas for several months. These reasons are not anything to be concerned about, and candidates are usually happy to detail these gaps on an application.

Involuntary gaps are what employers are more concerned about. An involuntary gap can be due to redundancy, being sacked, or even something as serious as being in prison. Candidates are usually happy to tell employers they were made redundant, less so that they were sacked or went to jail. Previous employers may be happy to give a reason for leaving, others will merely stick to giving the dates of employment with no further comment.

Mind The Gap

Not all gaps on CVs indicate the candidate is trying to pull the wool over your eyes. But some might, and you’re not doing your job properly as a recruiter if you don’t investigate what’s going on. It all helps build the picture of a candidate’s background, and helps you make a more informed choice about who to hire.

Most employers will conduct pre-employment checks on people who are applying to work with their company. The process varies but will almost certainly include a right to work check, along with checks into everything from social media use to credit checking. There aren’t many rules and laws around pre-employment checks, but one generally accepted policy is to get consent from candidates and be clear about what you are checking.

Right to Work Checks

The one exception to getting consent is for Right to Work Checks. This is a government requirement, aimed at stopping illegal workers finding jobs in the UK. Employers who are caught with people working for them who are either not in the UK legally, or who have no right to work here, can be fined up to £20k per worker, or face time in prison. So, every employer in the UK should be asking candidates to bring something with them to interview which proves their nationality or right to work in the UK, such as passport or birth certificate. This isn’t an optional check, and the employer doesn’t have to seek permission for it as they are just complying with their legal requirements.

Pre-Employment Checks – Disclosure

Disclosure checks are also a legal requirement for some jobs, but not all. It’s fairly easy to find out whether the role you are considering will require a DBS check, and if so, at which level. It’s standard practice to state in job advertisements whether a role requires a DBS check, or not. If the role does require a DBS check, then you won’t be able to opt out of this, and your employer will usually ask you to fill the form in as soon as they make a job offer.

Other Pre-Employment Checks

Depending on the role and the company, there may be lots of other checks which an employer chooses to carry out. These might include using an external organisation to fact check a CV, running a credit check, or looking through a candidate’s social media feed. The range of checks an employer will run often depends on the seniority of the position. An entry level position might just involve checking references and a Right to Work Check, whereas a higher-level managerial job will require more in-depth checking. Employers are free to carry out whatever checks they feel are appropriate but it’s good practice, and common courtesy, to get consent from applicants first.

Many employers choose to work with an external company to run pre-employment checks, and these organisations generally have a standard form explaining what checks will be carried out, how out to candidates along with the job offer, with a covering letter making it clear how the results of the checks will affect any job offer. If you are conducting the pre-employment checking in-house, there are template letters which can be downloaded and customised. Just make sure you run any letter past the legal team before sending out.

It’s a buyers’ market when it comes to job hunting at the moment, with dozens – or even hundreds – of people applying for each vacancy, how do you weed out the people who are worth employing from the ones who don’t make the grade? Recruitment is expensive and time-consuming, and making the wrong decision can leave you with other members of staff trying to cover work and being faced with starting the recruitment process all over again. One of the key checks that any employer can do on the people they are hiring is checking references. But what is the most effective way to do this?

When to Check References

There is no right time to check an applicant’s references in the recruitment process. If the role you are trying to fill is high profile or involves a long recruitment process with interviews and assessments, you don’t want to get to the end of the entire process and discover that there is an issue with references. On the other hand, it’s pointless tying up staff time in checking references for dozens of people applying for an entry-level admin position. Most employers take a middle ground and take up references after the first round of interviews, when they are down to the final one or two candidates. It’s good practice to wait until you have made a job offer before contacting current employers, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get started on chasing up previous employers or character references.

Written References

Many employers have a standard format for issuing written references which just show the dates of someone’s employment, and their job title. These are often known as “tombstone references”. Employers wish to stick to purely factual references, often to avoid conflicts with previous employees who dispute any opinions given. Character references provided by a family member or friend are also pointless – nobody’s going to give their sister or best friend a bad reference. Similarly, beware of references which are provided by someone on a generic email address such as Gmail or Hotmail. How do you really know that it’s a previous employer who is sending you emails, and not the candidate themselves?

Pick Up the Phone

Often, a better way of getting a real flavour of how someone performed in their previous jobs is to contact an employer directly. People are more likely to speak openly than commit their thoughts to paper or email. Always start the conversation by assuring them that any comments will be treated in confidence. Try to ask open questions; for example, ask a previous employer to talk about a candidate’s role, rather than asking them to confirm in a yes or no answer what the candidate has told you. Previous or current employers are unlikely to want to dish the dirt on a candidate, but it’s a good tactic to ask about reasons for leaving a position, or relationships with co-workers. What a previous employer doesn’t say is sometimes just as important as what they do say, so learn to read between the lines.

Employers are increasingly demanding proof of academic qualifications for the people they hire. Most jobs will now specify a minimum of GCSE qualifications in English and Maths, and for higher level positions there may be a requirement for a specific degree or qualification. But with some surveys suggesting as many as 85% of people lie on their CVs, how can you check that someone really has the qualifications which they are claiming?

Asking for Certificates

One of the easiest ways of verifying that candidates have the qualifications they are claiming is to ask to see originals of exam pass certificates. For younger candidates who have only recently sat exams, this shouldn’t be an issue. But people move house, lose their certificates, or get married and have certificates in a name which doesn’t match their current name. If you decide to have a policy of only employing if you can see original certificates, then state this clearly upfront as candidates may need time to get copies of certificates issued from the exam board or their Higher Education institution. Only ask to see the certificates which are strictly needed – if someone has a degree, do you really need to see their A-level and GCSE passes too?

Foreign Qualifications

Many applicants will have been educated overseas or gone to university abroad. Employers shouldn’t automatically assume that standards overseas are lower as often they are not. However, it does put in an extra layer of difficulty when screeners or employers are not familiar with the institutions or qualifications. If someone is claiming a degree or diploma, nearly all colleges and universities overseas will have some sort of internet presence. Google can often quickly reveal if an institution is genuine or not, and translation software can help you compose a brief email asking for confirmation of study. One thing to be aware of though is that forged certificates and degrees can be bought cheaply, for as little as £20 in some areas of the world. Always conduct due diligence if having a degree is critical to someone’s success.

HEDD – Higher Education Fraud Protection

If you have a candidate who is claiming to have done a degree, HND or HNC in the UK, then rather than asking them to show their degree certificate, employers can check with the HEDD site. There is a cost for checking through HEDD, but with starting prices of £12, it’s a price worth paying to avoid the hassle and expense of getting rid of an unsuitable employee. HEDD will confirm the place of study for any current or past student, tell you the course they were on, give you their final grade, and confirm their dates of attendance. Most universities in the UK are included in the scheme, and there is no fee for checking on the website. Candidates can’t use HEDD to check their own qualifications, it’s purely for employers. Candidates can instead contact their place of education and ask for academic transcriptions, or for a copy degree certificate to be sent out.

Like its namesake from ancient Greek history, a Trojan Horse presents itself in a harmless form, lulling its victims into a sense of false security.

The original malware miscreant, it is a decoy, ushering in malicious software that can often go undetected.

Do Trojan Horses attack personal computers?

As long as you have information that is of interest to the cybercriminal, you are at risk of coming under an attack. This information could be passwords to your online bank account or your PayPal account, for example. Remember, this Trojan Horse is out there doing the same thing to millions of other personal computer users, making this one of the most lucrative cybercrimes.

Trojans survive by escaping detection, sitting silently in your system garnering information and setting up holes in your security.

What does a Trojan Horse do?

• Spies. They are designed to lurk behind the scenes waiting until you access your online bank accounts or pay for online using your debit or credit card. It will then send your passwords and other relevant data to its master.
• Creates backdoors. It often arrives on your cyber doorstep and compromises your system’s security so that other hackers or malware operators can enter.
• Zombifies. Sometimes the cybercriminal is not interested in you at all. It just wants to act as a parasite and turn your device into a slave in a network that they have under their control.

Is it only computers that are at risk?

Unfortunately, mobile telephones are also under attack from Trojans. The most common method is making your mobile send costly text messages to premium numbers. This is something which is totally out of your control and quite unlike the other way cyber crooks dupe us into making expensive calls to numbers that they own.

Here is a Trojan Horse check list:

Installed programmes

Go to the add/remove feature on your PC or Finder Feature on your Mac to see if there are programmes you don’t recognise. If so, it means you have a Trojan Horse or a legitimate download added a programme behind your back. Either way, it is good to remove it.

Start Up Software

Not all Trojan Horses will be in the add/remove program list. For a more comprehensive list on Windows, for example, hold the windows key and press R to bring up the run menu. From that menu, type “regedit” and click enter. It will show you all the software installed. If you aren’t sure of some of the software that pops up, then do a search for them online to see if they are the real deal or not. If not, delete them.

Performance

If your computer is running slowly, use the Ctrl-Alt-Del command to pull up your task manager. Click on the processes tab to see what programmes are using up your memory. If you notice a programme you don’t recognise search its name online to see if it is a Trojan Horse.

Invest in an antivirus

This should be something you invested in from the get-go, but if not, then you should waste no time in investing in a strong reliable antivirus. This precaution is the best way to identify malware.

Stealing your personal details to gain access to your well-earned money is a crime that has gained sophistication rapidly in recent times helped along with the advent of online activity.

Just when we were getting wise to dumpster diving, shoulder surfing and skimming, we are now faced with a new onslaught, exclusive to the internet.

The internet is fast becoming a virtual high street, where we do our banking, pay our utility bills, shop for groceries and other goods and re-negotiate contracts. This is an ideal breeding ground for cyber highwaymen, who are developing methods all the time to carry out their dastardly deeds.

Insecure Websites

Shopping online is what we are doing more and more of these days, increasing the chances of a cyber crook intercepting your personal information. Make sure that the website you use is secure, checking that the URL starts with https. Most websites will have a padlock in the far-left corner of the URL box, so keep an eye out for it. If you are warned that you are about to access a website that is not secure, pay heed to this and rather opt for one that you know is going to be safe.

Email scams

Otherwise known as phishing this scam is one in which a cybercriminal will pretend to representation an existing organisation or company. The email will prompt you to enter personal information such as your bank account, credit card or debit card details, your date of birth, NI number and physical address. Once they have this information in their possession it will not be long before you will be alerted to the fact that your personal data has been compromised.

Beware of any email that requests too much data and don’t click on links or open attachments that come from a suspicious source. For a high level of protection from phishing reputable antivirus software packages are well worth investing in.

Hacking

Tech-savvy cybercriminals can hack into a wide range of computer systems from banks to government organisations. As soon as a bank or an organisation that you deal with has a security breach you will be notified immediately. Check that this information comes from a reliable source and if you feel your data has been compromised put a block on your account.

This illegal activity is not just aimed at the big guys these days though, as more and more of us find ourselves falling victim to home-hub hackers. Through fake pop up alerts, for example, hackers can gain access to your computer and the more sophisticated will install a Trojan Horse, which will work in the background gathering up all your personal data and delivering it to the cybercrime ring.

Pretexting

This is one of the sneakiest ways cyber thieves can use to steal your identity in that it is multi-layered in its approach. Firstly, they are able to retrieve enough information about you to call your bank pretending to be you. This way they can complete the crime by transferring your money from your account to theirs. Lately, however, banks have become wise to this and have upped the level of security questions in their telephonic communications with their account holders.