DBS Checks and recruiting during COVID - Managers, Don't Miss Out

by Startacus Admin

Recruiting at the moment or planning to do so soon? Here are just a few of the reasons why doing background checks on your candidates is an absolute must

Hiring is among the most important tasks managers have and is doubtlessly one of the foundations of a company's success. Also, recruiting the right candidates is the hardest, most demanding, and poorly understood parts of building up a business. There are a lot of ways you can get it wrong, and the fact that about one in five hires is later considered a wrong decision, can certainly attest to that fact.

There are many misconceptions about the hiring process that need to be dispelled. The very notion that it should begin when the need for an addition to the company becomes necessary has been challenged over the years. On the contrary, industry experts recommend that companies should do networking, scouting out, and even nurturing potential talent as a continuous practice, if they could spare the effort. That's what we'd normally call the "passive" stage of recruitment - one that most companies neglect to invest in or simply can't afford to spend resources on, in spite of its significance.

A company enters active recruitment with the announcement that it is looking to fill a position. What usually follows is a review of all applicants, usually based on their CVs and cover letters. Once the number of suitable applications has been reduced to a reasonable amount, employers would then proceed to the interview with candidates whose resumes they liked.

However, doing so is a serious oversight that could end up wasting the company resources and creating a whole heap of problems down the line.

Background Checks Are Essential 

Skipping on performing background checks before scheduling an interview is a bad practice, which may end up wasting precious company man hours. It's a sad fact of life that applicants are often less than entirely honest or accurate in their CVs and cover letters. Recommendations from previous employers are not a reliable source of information, as they can also be misleading or outright fake. Additionally, there may be details that haven't found their way to the applicant's resume that the employer may want to know about. 

Reviewing an applicant's commercial, criminal, and maybe even financial records before scheduling an interview will end up saving the employer the effort they would have wasted on unsuitable applicants. Why even schedule an interview if it turns out that the applicant had some deal-breaker details in their past?

Many employers don’t have the habit of performing background checks until after the interview with a prospective candidate. There are cases where that's mandated by law, but industry experts are almost unanimous in their recommendation that a similar check should absolutely be performed at the earliest opportunity, and definitely before hiring a new employee.

Just a couple of years ago, performing a background check would have been a trifling ordeal. Fortunately, with the march of technology, this is not the case anymore - nowadays, an employer can quickly and efficiently perform DBS checks online, gaining access to vast amounts of relevant information about potential hires without breaking the bank. 

From a company's standpoint, there really is no way to justify not doing this due diligence. The effort to perform a background check is minimal, and it can provide invaluable information about the applicants and help the business avoid severe pitfalls.

Getting Used to the New Normal

There are a couple of things to keep in mind when recruiting during the COVID-19. First and foremost - don't let lockdowns and social distancing keep you down. The pandemic may have put severe restrictions on many things, but you should not let it deny you access to good quality employees - and there may be more of them around than you think. Don't stop looking for opportunities to recruit fresh talent and expand and diversify your company's portfolio.

With social distancing and lockdowns not looking like they're going away any time soon, it would also be a good idea to consider re-thinking how you organize your workforce and reflect that in your recruitment strategies as well. Surveys show that employees that have the opportunity to choose overwhelmingly prefer working from home and tend to be more productive that way as well - keep this fact in mind when reviewing applications. 

Like most business communication, interviews for applicants have largely been moved online these last few months. Don't let that create undue difficulties for you as a recruiter - while the energy is different you can interview people online just as well online as you can in person.

The UK government has taken steps to make DBS checks more manageable and accessible during the pandemic. Take advantage of this.

 

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Published on: 26th October 2020