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Withdrawing an Offer After Pre-Employment Checking

It sounds like a riddle – when is a job offer not a job offer? Employers are increasingly carrying out a wide range of screening tests on staff before employing them, and it’s standard to make any job offer conditional on passing whatever tests the employer wishes to put in place. Most often, these conditional offers are associated with criminal records checks or DBS checks; if your disclosure certificate shows up criminal convictions then you know you’re not getting the job. But what about the other background checks, can employers withdraw an offer if they’re not happy with what they find?

Employer Procedure

The short answer to whether an offer can be withdrawn is yes – as long as you’ve made it clear to the applicant what checking you will be doing, and that something coming up on a background check could lead to the job offer being withdrawn. This can cause issues for applicants, who may have handed in their notice at their previous employer. But as long as you have told them your policy, legally you are in the clear.

Conditional Offers

It is up to the individual employer to decide what conditions they wish to impose on employment. Nearly all job offers will include a paragraph about offers being subject to satisfactory references. Many jobs will require a DBS check, but other checks may apply too. Given the high number of people who tell lies or exaggerate facts on their CV, it’s becoming increasingly common for an employer to fact check everything, and should you discover that an applicant has tweaked their A-level grades, or claimed false responsibilities or experience, you are well within your rights as an employer to withdraw their employment offer. The other important thing to note as an employer is that the applicant has the right to ask you why you have withdrawn their offer – but you also have the right not to tell them the specifics. A standard statement about failing pre-employment checks is sufficient, legally.

This is often a judgement call. The employer will look at the information which you have provided them, and what has been revealed on background screening. They can then decide whether, on balance, they still wish to employ you. An employer may decide to overlook a slight exaggeration about past work experience, but don’t have to.

Right to Work

One of the key checks which employers have no discretion over is the right to work checks. This is a legal requirement, set out by government. Employers have to check whether the people they are employing are legally allowed to live and work in the UK. If you can’t show them the correct proof, then they will have no choice but to withdraw your offer. Usually, employers will ask to see a valid passport as proof of your nationality. If you don’t have a passport, look online to see which other documentation can be accepted instead. Employers won’t risk employing you without seeing your documents as fines for illegal workers can be up to £20k per worker.

Ten Key Reasons to Outsource Pre-Employment Checks

If you run a small or medium sized business, you will be well aware how busy your HR department can be, dealing with everything from disciplinaries to payroll. Often, pre-employment checks and screening can fall towards the bottom of the priority list, which means the checks are rushed or just overlooked altogether. Could outsourcing the checks to an external provider be the answer? We think it could be, and here are the ten key advantages of handing the responsibility over to someone else.

Time Saving

Doing background checking thoroughly and properly takes time. Pulling lots of data together from different sources can be a full-time job for someone. Deciding to outsource your pre-employment checks frees up your staff to turn their attention to other tasks.

Eliminate Bias

External background checkers don’t know your company and haven’t met the candidate at interview. They can therefore base their recommendations purely on the facts in front of them, rather than on impressions formed when meeting the candidate.

Compliance

Screening companies should be up to speed with the latest legislation around employment law and ensure that your checks are done legally and properly.

Quick Turnaround

Companies which do nothing, but background checking should have a streamlined process and efficient ways of working. They should be able to do things quicker than a HR department which is doing a range of different tasks simultaneously.

Expertise

People who run background checks as a profession develop a level of expertise and knowledge which isn’t achievable for someone who is trying to do background checking alongside a lot of other responsibilities too. Experienced screeners can also advise on the most appropriate strategy for your company and industry.

Data Protection

Compliance with data protection rules regarding processing data isn’t optional, and it’s easy to get things wrong. Using an external company should help you ensure that you are complying with your obligations under the law.

Software and Automation

Many screening companies have invested heavily in specialist software which allows automated screening, quickly and more efficiently. Often, the software is too expensive for smaller companies to invest in.

Privacy

Some applicants aren’t comfortable with having someone they are potentially going to work with seeing all of their personal details, criminal record or references. It may be reassuring for candidates to know that their checking is being done off-site, by a separate organisation, with staff who they will never meet or have to work with.

Accurate Results

Everyone makes mistakes, but most screening providers have put measures in place to guarantee that the information they provide is accurate and correct. This should reassure both recruiters and candidates, knowing that mistakes shouldn’t be made.

Minimisation of Risk

Using a screening company is the ultimate in peace of mind for your business. Choosing to use a professional screener is taking the best steps to eliminate the remote possibility that someone with a criminal record or dishonest character gets a job within your company and does untold damage to your reputation and finances.

Written Policies on Pre-Employment Screening

If you are running one of the many companies which is starting to delve deeper into the background of people applying for positions, should you have a written policy on it? Most HR organisations agree that background screening is a positive step which companies can take to minimise the risk of employing someone who is at best unsuitable for the position, and at worst, a risk to colleagues or the company’s finances. But it’s important to have a written policy to make sure that any screening is done fairly and ensures that the company is not discriminating against any applicants based on race, sex, or other protected characteristics.

Purpose and Scope

The first thing your screening policy should contain is a statement on purpose and scope. This doesn’t have to be anything fancy; it’s merely a statement about why you are carrying out background screening, and what you will be looking at during your vetting process.

Organisational Responsibility

This section of the policy should detail who is responsible for carrying out the screening. Many organisations choose to use an external company to do this work for them, so it’s important to let staff know if this is what you intend to do. If you are screening in house, it’s best practice to name an individual, or at least a position such as HR Director, as the person with overall control of the process.

Legal Parameters

The policy should also mention that some background checks have to be completed for legal reasons. In the UK this includes a Right to Work check to confirm someone’s nationality and eligibility to work in the UK. Other positions, usually in healthcare or working with children, may need a disclosure, or criminal records check. The policy should contain a statement about clearly stating which positions require a criminal record check in vacancy notices.

Detail the Process

A good policy should also go into a bit of detail about how screening will be done. This should lay out which checks will be carried out, whether screening will be done once at recruitment or repeated at a certain interval, which positions are eligible for screening, and what criteria could lead to someone being rejected after an adverse screening result.

Avoiding Discrimination

Once you’ve written your policy on employment screening – and you can download a template to customise if you don’t want to start from scratch – the next step is to make sure that everyone involved in the process is aware of the policy and what is contained within it. Any policy on screening must be applied across the board, whoever the person is applying for the position. Obviously, deciding just to screen men, or people living in a certain postcode, could lead to accusations of discrimination. But it would also be unfair to not follow the process for someone known to the employer, or who has been referred by an employment agency. Keep all paperwork relating to screening and background checking so you can justify your decisions.

Is It Illegal to Lie on Your CV?

Employers can see how tempting it is for employees to tell a few white lies on their CV. Giving yourself a team leader position when you were just a team member, tweaking A-level grades, extending employment periods to cover gaps. Who’s going to notice and why does it matter? Most candidates aren’t aware that in the UK, lying on your CV falls under the remit of “fraud by false misrepresentation” and is classed as a crime. Many employees who are dismissed after their lies are discovered try to claim that they just made a mistake when completing their application but legally, that makes no difference.

Grade Checking

Qualifications are one of the most lied about things on a CV, and so increasingly employers are checking. Most won’t ask for proof of every qualification, just the highest or most recent qualification, or ones which are critical to the position under consideration. If you have forgotten what grades you got in your A-levels, don’t guess. Just put that you have passes in subjects and if the employer requires more detail, you can ask for replacement certificates at a later date. Don’t ever be tempted to claim membership of a professional body which you don’t have, as it just takes one phone call from your employer to the professional organisation concerned to verify your claims.

Consequences Of Lying on CVs

Most people lie on their CVs because they think they will get away with it. But along with not getting the job, there are many other consequences to being less than honest. Some of these are:

  • Embarrassment at Interview – If you say you’re fluent in Spanish, and the interviewer greets you in Spanish and asks about your journey, how will you respond? Also, being quizzed on specific aspects of a job you’ve never done will just leave you feeling embarrassed and out of your depth at interview.
  • Removed from Process – probably the main consequence of lying on your CV is that you’ll be asked to leave the interview process, or any existing job offer is rescinded.
  • Blacklisting – Major employers don’t appreciate having their time wasted by people lying on CVs and then being caught out. Many will operate an unofficial “blacklist” of people who have been caught out and will refuse to ever consider them for another position in the future. This can hugely hamper your job prospects if you live in an area with just one or two large employers. If you’ve landed the interview through an agency, then they are unlikely to want to work with you again in the future.
  • Dismissal -if your lies come to light after you’ve started work, then this is classed as gross misconduct and usually means instant sacking. How are you going to explain that on your CV going forward?

The best advice is clear – don’t tell fibs on your CV. If you’re caught out, the consequences can be severe. If you’re unsure of grades or job titles, state that in your application rather than guessing.

Social Media Screening

It’s common knowledge that many employers will Google a candidate’s name, or search for them on Facebook to decide whether they are the sort of person who fits with their company. What’s perhaps less known is that a 2017 survey revealed that 36% of employers in the UK discounted a candidate because of what they saw on their Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn profile. But what should employers be looking for on candidates’ social media profiles?

Adverse Social Media Activity

Most employers will say that they are looking for adverse social media activity, but what does this mean in practical terms? HR departments who are screening social media sites will have a range of things they are looking for, but these will include:

  • Anything which contradicts information or claims which someone has made on their CV or application form
  • Derogatory posts about a former employer, their business, or colleagues
  • Inappropriate language
  • Extreme views or political opinions
  • Posts showing illegal or offensive behaviour

How Far Back Do They Look?

Again, the approach taken will vary from employer to employer, and even within one employer depending on the job. Most employers recognise that the main social media sites allow anyone over the age of 13 to have an account and that it’s probably not fair to judge someone in their 20s over a post they put online as a 14 or 15-year-old. Most will only look at posts from the age of 18, or just have a blanket policy of looking at posts going back a year.

Social Media Screening as Part of the Recruitment Process

Social media screening is cheap and simple and can easily be done in house. Usually, media screening takes place at an early stage of the process before interviews. This means that members of staff are not wasting time in interviewing someone who later turns out to be unsuitable. From a candidate’s point of view, if you are often missing out on interviews for positions which you have the experience and qualifications to do, could that be down to what employers are seeing on your Twitter feed or Facebook wall?

Should You Clean Up Your Social Media Profile?

If you’re in the job market, it’s worth knowing what employers are looking for, and making sure that there’s nothing on your social media profiles which could call your character into question. Many employers recommend the “grandma” test – any posts which you wouldn’t be happy for your granny to see probably aren’t the sort of thing you’d want your employer to see either. All social media sites will let you go back through your feed and remove any posts which you feel are perhaps inappropriate. Think also what you’re posting on other people’s feeds, or what sort of replies you are posting to brands or company feeds.

Another option of course is to make yourself impossible to find on social media, if you are uncomfortable with the idea that other people might trawl through your feed. Adopt a pseudonym, misspell your name, or switch your first and middle names, and delete your profile picture too.

Industries With the Hardest Pre-Employment Screening

There is some degree of pre-employment screening for most jobs, even if it’s just the very basics of establishing your legal Right to Work in the UK or chasing up references. But for other industries, there are many more hoops to jump through before securing a position. Let’s take a look at the industries which have the highest level of pre-employment vetting requirements.

Financial Services

Banks, insurance companies and credit card providers have some of the toughest pre-employment screening around. The level of screening will vary according to the role and depending on how much access the role would have to customer’s cash or accounts. In addition to the basics of Right to Work and reference checking, many jobs in retail banks or insurance will look for a basic DBS check into an applicant’s criminal record, to weed out anyone with convictions for fraud, theft, or dishonesty. A credit check is usually carried out too, in order to identify people who are in deep financial trouble, and who may be either open to bribery, or tempted to commit theft.

Government Jobs

In terms of working in the public sector, the strictest vetting procedures are reserved for central government jobs. Many people working in roles in government departments will have access to sensitive information, or regular contact with people with a high public profile. Security vetting for these jobs generally will include a detailed criminal records check, and for most roles, applicants will be asked to give details of the family and partner too. Security services will then check the information given to ensure that the applicant is not “on the radar” of the police or security services as a member of an extremist group, or with extremist views. For jobs with MI6, MI5, or the Ministry of Defence, the bar will be set even higher.

Police Jobs

Police vetting is similar to vetting for work in the government. Most police forces in the UK have the vetting form online, so you can see exactly what applicants will be asked. Police recruiters are obviously interested in your criminal record and will also look at your financial situation to make sure you are not vulnerable to bribery. Police forces will also ask applicants about their immediate family, people they live with or close friends, in order to make sure they are not a known associate of a serious criminal. Vetting in police jobs is carried out regularly just in case someone’s situation changes.

Safety Critical Industries

If you want to work in a power station, drive a train, or be an air traffic controller, there are different types of vetting which might apply. Employers in this sector are less interested in your finances, but may have medical testing prior to hiring you, and compulsory random drug and alcohol testing on an ongoing basis. A DBS check is usually not required, beyond the basics of asking about unspent convictions. In some industries though, especially for those working in aviation, additional vetting will be done with the security services.

How To Spot a Dodgy Job Application

With an increasingly busy jobs market, employers are often faced with hundreds of applications for every position. It’s quite a task to sort through all of the applications and work out which ones are worth inviting to interview. With a high number of applications containing at best exaggerations and at worst downright lies, how do you spot a dodgy application in amongst the piles of paper or inbox full of emails?

Cover Letter

All serious job hunters know that it’s essential to craft an individual cover letter for each position, explaining exactly how you meet the criteria in the job advert. If someone hasn’t bothered to do that, and appears to be sending out generic letters, then they are either lazy, or not aware of the conventions around job hunting. If you only have a limited pool of candidates then you may choose to overlook a generic letter, but in most cases, these applications should be disregarded.

Spot the Cliché

If your applicant sounds like one of those Apprentice candidates who confidently says they are the best salesperson ever, then what else could they be telling fibs about? Words like “driven”, “passionate” or “results-oriented” are used so frequently that they have lost their meaning. A candidate who uses cliché isn’t necessarily lying, but do they have the evidence in their work experience to back up their claims?

Right Work Experience

Experience will depend on the position – someone recruiting for a graduate training scheme for example will not expect years of relevant experience from someone straight out of university. For other candidates, check that their work experience matches your requirements. Candidates who don’t quite have the required experience shouldn’t be discounted if they are strong in other areas. It’s also wise to check references to confirm that claimed job titles match up to what employers have told you about a candidate’s employment history.

Weird Job Titles

If you are recruiting people from within the same industry, you’re the expert on the terminology used and the terms used to describe jobs. If a candidate is using terms which sound odd or out of place or claiming to have carried out tasks which you do not associate with their previous employer, they might well be telling fibs. Similarly, someone swapping frequently from job to job, often in very different industries, can be an indication that they are either an unreliable employee, or someone who’s economical with the truth.

Interviews are Key

Often, lies can only be uncovered at interview stage. It makes sense to have someone on the interview panel who understands the industry and specifics of the job rather than someone from HR or a different department. A skilled interviewer will soon be able to work out whether a candidate really has done the tasks they are claiming or has exaggerated their role. This can be done in a non-confrontational way, but any discrepancies should be fully investigated and if there’s still a doubt after interview whether a candidate is telling the truth, then it’s probably best not to employ them.

Medical Screening for Staff Members

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.

Employment Screening Jargon

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.

Easy Ways to Boost Your Credit Score

Credit checking is becoming increasingly common in pre-employment checking for a wider range of occupations than ever. Employers do require your consent to run a credit check, and it is usually a strategy for employers in the financial services or insurance industries. A credit check under these circumstances isn’t about seeing how you spend your money or looking at whether you have a mortgage. A pre-employment credit check is more a high-level check, to ensure that you are not in serious financial difficulties which could tempt you into fraud or theft. It’s also unlikely that a recruitment decision will be made purely on the outcome of a credit check, but in a competitive jobs market, it makes sense to do everything you can to ensure you are as strong a candidate as possible. This could include checking your credit score yourself and taking steps to improve it.

Checking Your Credit Score

There are lots of website and apps which allow you to look at your credit score online. Website and apps such as Clearscore or CreditKarma might ask you to sign up using an email address but won’t charge for access to your basic report. It’s usually only worth checking your score on one site or the other. Looking at your credit score in this way is a soft check, which means that the action of checking won’t adversely affect your score.

Improving Your Credit Score

The first thing to do when you see your credit score is to assess whether it needs improving. Most sites operate on a “traffic light” system, so a green score doesn’t need any action. Amber or red on the other hand are a different matter. The first thing to do is check that all the details the site have about you are correct. Mistakes can happen, and identity fraud could mean that there are loans on your report which have nothing to do with you. Credit referencing agencies will put things right if you can prove they have made an error.

Another very simple way of boosting your credit score is to make sure that you are registered to vote at your home address. Credit scoring companies will check that you are on the electoral roll, and if you’re not, there is no way of establishing whether you live where you say you do. Getting on the electoral roll costs nothing.

If you have a shared bank account with a partner, a joint mortgage with a flatmate or loan agreement with a parent, then their defaults and missed payments can affect your rating too as you are linked to them. It’s best to keep finances totally separate until the other party gets their finances into better shape.

Many younger people who have no history with mortgages or loans find their score is low as they are such an unknown quantity. It’s often a good idea in these situations to take out a basic credit card, make a couple of purchases a month and pay it off in full to show the credit agencies that you’re a good risk.