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Background screening is vital in acquiring and managing talent

The Business Times - 26 May 2011 Letters to the Editor

REFER to the article Hiring and empowering employees in Asia by Martin Cerullo (BT, May 18). One of the critical points raised by the writer is that recruiting, retaining and developing top talent in Asia is a massive challenge for many firms. As a matter of fact, spotting and nurturing the right talent are important keys to successful business growth. Businesses increasingly understand that background screening is a pivotal starting point in a chain of activities that make up the talent acquisition process. Getting this step correct is fundamental to mitigating risks in an organisation. Outsourced service providers have fine-tuned and automated screening processes to a point that allow employers to shorten the time to hire, thereby saving time and cost, and ensuring that they find and hire the proper candidates before the competition can. As the talent acquisition process becomes more critical amid the growing complexities in the profile of candidates, we encourage potential employers to use the following steps when working with outsourced service providers: Choose your screening partners wisely only those with strong regional knowledge and experience can provide you the best legally obtained information; Screen appropriately for the level of risk based on the role/position youre hiring for; Monitor your programme metrics and continually adjust procedures to maximise efficiency; If you are subject to third-party audits, organise your reports and documentation upfront; and Create efficiencies with technology screening is important, but only one part of how an organisation should manage its hiring process. Seek out systems that offer workflow and process efficiencies.

From First Advantages experience of operating in this region, we encourage new adopters of background screening processes to start with pre-employment screening of candidates before progressing to a post-hire employment screening exercise. During the pre-employment stage, a multitude of checks can be conducted, which include checks on the candidates past employment, education & professional qualifications, financial regulatory listings, local media listings, criminal history and credit history (the latter two only available in selected counties). With the advent of more innovative solutions leveraging on technologies, even small and medium-sized companies can now access background screening services. In essence, such services automate the provision of employment, education, credit and income verification to third parties such as finance companies, mortgage firms, landlords and prospective employers. Into the post-screening era, the best practice lies in implementing background screening as a policy across the board and then to do periodic checks of existing employees to maintain high levels of internal security and compliance standards. We believe this will constitute a sound corporate practice as these techniques mitigate risks for employers in the long term. Ensuring that the candidates report accurate information on their resumes allows companies to make fair assessments of the candidates character, competency and attitude. It reduces the chances of a wrong hire and, in that aspect, reduces the costs involved. Wayne Tollemache Executive Managing Director (International) First Advantage

First Advantage www.FADV.com/APAC

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