According to the Central Bureau of Statistics (Badan Pusat Statistik/BPS), in 2018, the total population in Indonesia is around 260 million with a relatively high unemployment rate. The high unemployment is caused by many factors, one of which is the problem of candidate competency, which is below the company’s minimum requirements. Therefore, the search for competent candidates is a daunting task for many companies.
Employment background checks are here to deal with the matter. In finding a suitable candidate, employment background checks (Employment Background Screening) cannot be separated from the recruitment process. The background checks are usually done before companies make decision on hiring candidates.
However, for companies which have already hired employees without background checks, it is not too late to conduct checks on its employees. Background checks are important because they are related to the companies’ strategies in making future decisions, such as employee promotion plans, transfer of employees to other divisions, and placing the right employees in the right position.
You have at least three main benefits for conducting background checks:
1. Integrity
Integrity is a hallmark that demonstrates moral and ethics of an employee in a workplace. Assessing candidates’ integrities is critical. At least, a tiny part of their integrities lies on their honesty in presenting themselves on resumes or CVs. Based on our experiences in providing employment background screening services since 2008, we find that fake academic certificates are rampant.
To avoid hiring candidates with fake academic certificates, most basic checks (educational background, professional certificate, and identity card checks) should be performed on selected candidates. Without integrity, no matter how brilliant the candidates are, they bring costly consequences for companies.
2. Knowledge on track record
The truth is it can be very hard to know what someone is like to work with on a day-to-day basis solely from a resume and interview. Another benefit of conducting background check is to get knowledge on candidates’ track records.
Verification of track records can be done by getting information directly from the former HR department and superior of candidates.
Here are some of things that should be verified:
- Position
- Working period
- Status of employment
- Performance, including achievements or if there are bad records
- Reason for terminating employment
- Eligibility of candidate being employed
In general, employee verification is done for work experience up to the past ten years or two to three previous companies.
3. Early detection
Early detection is very important to warn companies about criminal records such as fraudulent activities, cases of violence, harassment, and drugs.
To get early detection, a company can search through social media, police records, District Courts, and other databases such as “Custom Search Engine of Global Watch List”.
In addition to fulfilling regulatory compliance, especially in the banking industry, other benefits of checking candidates’ backgrounds comprehensively are:
- Improving the quality of prospective employees who will be hired. both in terms of technical, non-technical and integrity competencies
- Reducing employee turnover due to bad hiring
- Enhancing the safety of the working environment
- Reducing the risk of misplacing the right employees in one position
However, many companies which opt to conduct background checks on their own often find it very time and energy consuming, and the result can be biased due resources shortage. At this point, to get the work done properly and obtain the right result, a company needs to delegate the works to an experienced and trustworthy third party.
