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Background screening is vital in acquiring and managing talent The Business Times - 26 May 2011

Letters to the Editor  

 A S S E E N I N . . .

First Advantage

www.FADV.com/APAC n e-mail: apac.sales@fadv.com

Tel: + 65 6534 3262 n Fax: + 65 6538 0616

I 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 rms. 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 ne-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 nd and hire the proper 

candidates before the competition can.

As the talent acquisition process becomes more criticalamid the growing complexities in the prole 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 you’re hiring for;

• Monitor your programme metrics and continually adjust

procedures to maximise efciency;

• If you are subject to third-party audits, organise your 

reports and documentation upfront; and

• Create efciencies with technology – screening is

important, but only one part of how an organisation

should manage its hiring process. Seek out systems

that offer workow and process efciencies.

From First Advantage’s 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

candidate’s past employment, education & professionalqualications, nancial 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 compani

can now access background screening services.

In essence, such services automate the provision of 

employment, education, credit and income verication to

third parties such as nance companies, mortgage rms,

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 candidate’s character, competen

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