There is only one recognised benchmark for performing candidate and employee screening within the UK – British Standard BS 7858:2012 “Security screening of individuals employed in a security environment – Code of Practice”, Logosoft write.
This standard gives recommendations for the “security screening of individuals to be employed in an environment where the security and safety of people, goods or property is a requirement of the employing organisation’s operation and/or where such security screening is in the public interest.” Although issued as a Code of Practice by the British Standards Institution, it is important to note that compliance with the recommendations given is regarded as mandatory for all organisations wishing to maintain an NSI approval. The recommendations given in BS 7858 should therefore be regarded as requirements of the appropriate NSI approval schemes.
Many organisations outside the security industry also use this robust standard to perform their candidate and employee screening process, and for good reason…
The importance of screening
There have been a number of widely reported cases of employees who have been found out to be fraudulent, in many cases, months or even years after they had been employed. The implications for the employing organisations have at best been a serious inconvenience and, at worst, very damaging to their reputations and image.
A number of research projects have been conducted revealing alarmingly high proportions of employees having been untruthful when applying for jobs. Experts estimate that 20pc to 50pc of job applicants lie to embellish their credentials; firm statistics are hard to come by but the best evidence comes from companies that provide employment screening services – and in recent years discrepancies between applicant provided data and credential reference checks have stood at well above 40 per cent.
These are alarming statistics because they come from sources actually carrying out the checks on application materials. With the average cost of turnover and fines for employing illegal workers increasing, getting the recruitment and selection process right is more important than ever. A robust pre-employment screening process delivers many tangible benefits, such as:
•Reduced staff turnover and employment costs by hiring better staff
•Avoidance of fines, e.g. for employing illegal workers
•Demonstrates a Duty of Care to current staff
•Compliance with legislation or regulations eg. SIA
•Safeguard organisational image, brand and protect stakeholders’ interests
•Reduction in the risks of infiltration by activists, terrorists or spies
•Protection of data, intellectual property and information
•Demonstrates to clients/suppliers your commitment to protecting their information
The solution
As a provider of systems to the manned guarding sector since 1992, we know that pre-employment screening really is business critical. Whether you need to security screen for audit purposes, company policy requirements or to make sure your candidate is who they actually say they are…
Vetting Manager is a complete personnel screening system designed for all organisations concerned with confirming the credentials of applicants and employees.
This extremely versatile administrative and management tool ensures compliance with standards such as BS7858 – and in doing so reduces the time and effort required for vetting, giving you full control of the pre-employment screening and background checking process.
Features and benefits:
•Supports multiple user-defined screening processes, internal checklists and questionnaires;
•Guarantees compliance with documented standards and quality management systems by ensuring that nothing can be overlooked;
•Maintains a full audit trail of all pre-employment screening and background checking activities;
•Includes facilities to record the methods used to verify career gaps;
•Readily integrated with other personnel management applications;
•Wide range of pre-defined reports with in-built end user query and reporting tools.
The user case
Sunwin Managed Security, initially formed as Aegis Security Services in 2005, as the in-house manned security guarding section of the Co-operative Group – and hold SIA Approved Contractor status for guarding and key-holding services. They have about 650 security officers and an overall portfolio in the region of 1500 employees in numerous disciplines.
Ensuring all staff have been screened to the necessary standards presents quite an administrative challenge, so in 2008 they brought their pre-employment vetting services in-house using Logosoft’s Vetting Manager.
Bev Mahdavi, Business Support Manager says: “We find Vetting Manager easy to use and it provides the ability to meet all industry standard requirements, with numerous reports readily available for management reporting purposes we have clear insight which supports informed decision making.
The next step for us is to now implement Vetting Manager Webex, a client portal which enables direct customer access to their employee vetting files. This will alleviate the workload of our vetting clerks, reducing the number of queries coming into the department – this will greatly increase productivity, freeing up staff to concentrate on working through vetting files.”
For a free, no obligation online demonstration – contact [email protected] to book your slot. For further information about Logosoft’s suite of workforce management systems ring 01527 874977.
