Background screening significant to an organisation’s success (Supplied Content)

  

                                            

Background screening now this term has been frequently used in the past five years it refers to a thorough background check of an individual which includes criminal, commercial and financial records.  Although some may ask, why background screening whereas candidates have stated and attached all the background information needed on their curriculum vitae? Truth is organisations have been victims over the past years of employees with qualifications that are not registered with SAQA thus demolishing the reputation of the organisation.

Companies like the Managed Integrity Evaluation(MIE) which is the largest background screening and vetting company in Southern Africa have managed to come up with ways  in which companies can add value to their hiring processes and also assist them through increased productivity as most suitable candidates were hired thus reducing the risks and potential reputational harm of bad hires.

The uptake of background screening has increased to 6.77% over the past five years.

This is according MIE’s seventh annual Background Screening Index (BSI) report released on 14 March 2018, the increased rate shows that organisations are starting to be aware of the excellent screening services done by the MIE across the continent.  There are other findings highlighted in the BSI report:

·          2017 saw a growing demand for criminal background checks within the public sectors and SOEs with 724 507 criminal checks, 9.91% were found to have a criminal or pending criminal record. The mining and manufacturing sectors were found to have the highest associated risks.

·         Misrepresentation and fraud of qualifications remain high. MIE conducted 552 871 qualification checks in 2017 where 14.3% of these checks were found to misrepresented, fraudulent or the transaction was cancelled.

·         An associated risk with confirmed credit checks has increased. Overall the potential risk associated with confirmed credit checks has increased to 18.08% 

With the findings listed above, organisations will be able to see the importance of background screening for greater hiring processes.  Background screening enable organisations to identify individual which may be a threat to the success and growth of the organisation . 

By so doing they are also ensuring the safety and security of their employees from a new employee who might have a history of a harmful or negligent behavior.  Back door hiring should also be avcoided at all costs by organisations as they may not know what they are getting themselves into hence the services of companies such as MIE are to be considered for the prevention of such obstacles.