Earlier this week InterQuest Group’s Legal Counsel Andrew Smith was invited to speak at the CIPD’s Forum & Workshop event, ‘Building capability, managing risk: the role of pre-employment checks’.
The event was organised and hosted by the CIPD, following up on their recently published employer’s guide to good practice in conducting pre-employment checks. Topics covered on the day included reference checking, on-line profiles and the role of Recruitment & HR professionals in relation to these areas of the hiring process.
The CIPD event included a line-up of speakers from a range of different Legal, HR and Recruitment backgrounds, with InterQuest’s Andrew Smith sharing his insight into best practice in recruitment, drawing on his own observations and experience within the sector.
Of the event Andrew commented: ‘I was very pleased to be invited to the CIPD’s event, having contributed to their employer’s guide last year. How recruitment agencies work with clients and candidates in the compliance and reference checking is a crucial stage in the hiring process and one where it is very important that best practise be understood and adhered to by all professionals involved, whether in HR or in a Recruitment Agency. I am always pleased to be able to work with the CIPD, with the work that they do playing such a vital role within the Human Resources profession. The other sections of the event were extremely interesting, bringing together a diverse cross section of views and opinions, which I was very pleased to be able to contribute towards drawing on my own experience.’
The CIPD’s Mike Emmott also reflected on the day’s conference, observing that: ‘The day surfaced some serious issues around the law and practice underpinning the recruitment process. The rise of social media has presented employers with new opportunities and challenges that need to be managed. And there are real questions to be answered about the way in which requests for employer references are currently handled. These issues aren’t going to go away.’
