More than one third (39 per cent) of UK organisations do not have an adequate screening process in place to check the claims of international job candidates, according to research conducted by HireRight, Ltd., a leading global candidate due diligence company.
The correct measures have not been established despite more than three-quarters (76 per cent) of people involved in recruiting from abroad, admitting that it is more difficult to effectively background screen potential employees from other countries.
In addition, more than one quarter (27 per cent) anticipate that their business will hire even more overseas talent in the next two years.
The research is based on questioning 200 people involved in UK HR and recruitment.
Steve Girdler, managing director of EMEA, HireRight, comments: “The recent change in law allowing Bulgarians and Romanians the same rights to work in the UK as other EU nations, has shed light on the increasingly international makeup of this country’s workforce.
“But with greater choice of talent comes greater complexities. To help ensure organisations employ a qualified candidate who does not pose a risk to the business through fraudulent, dishonest or inappropriate behaviour, organisations must have a robust screening process which treats national and international candidates with the same level of rigour.
“Clearly this is not currently the case in many organisations.”
Importance of checks highlighted, as one-in-two CVs are inaccurate
HireRight’s latest Candidate Health Check reveals that more than half (54 per cent) of job applications checked in the last quarter of 2013 contained an inaccuracy. With the UK employment market improving that figure represents a nine per cent decrease compared to the previous quarter.
Throughout 2013, employment history (33 per cent) and educational achievements (32 per cent) were the areas where candidates were most likely to include inaccurate information.
Steve Girdler, adds: “It’s interesting to see that as UK recruitment picks up, people are being more truthful (or at least careful) in their applications.
“But let’s not fool ourselves. More than half of the applications we receive still contain inaccuracies, showing it is vital to check that people – wherever they have lived or worked – are exactly who they claim to be, will be able to fulfil their job responsibilities and won’t pose a known risk to the business.”
