{"id":2885,"date":"2024-04-23T11:13:09","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T09:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/?p=2885"},"modified":"2024-04-23T11:13:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T09:13:09","slug":"can-we-do-background-checks-on-recruits-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/2024\/04\/23\/can-we-do-background-checks-on-recruits-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Can we do background checks on recruits?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Employers are often charmed by applicants, that they neglect doing background checks before employing them. This is however, a crucial procedure in preventing fraud against the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In seeking to implement \u201czero tolerance\u201d, organisations must concern themselves with the honesty and integrity of their employees. One of the ways in which this can be done is through background screening and integrity assessments of both existing employees and candidates for employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


A typical background screen and integrity test would be carried out by professional service providers and might include one or more of the following:
\uf0b7 – Company searches
\uf0b7 – Checking of criminal records
\uf0b7 – Credit bureau enquiries
\uf0b7 – Confirmation of work, schooling and higher education details as claimed
\uf0b7 – Structured interviews with the person concerned
\uf0b7 – Interviews with references (lifestyle assessment)
\uf0b7 – Psychometric testing, and
\uf0b7 – Verification of tertiary qualifications.
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Certain organisations have been known to use polygraph testing during the recruitment process for sensitive positions, such as those who will have access to company funds or assets. This is however a risky procedure as it could lead to allegations of unfair labour practices when an applicant is shown away based on the outcome of the lie detector test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In respect of background checking and screening, there are certain legal issues to be considered. These may be summarised as follows:
– \uf0b7 The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa stipulates the right of the individual to fair labour practices and the right to privacy. The Constitution further takes a very strong stance against discriminatory practices.
– \uf0b7 The Labour Relations Act of 1995 and the Employment Equity Act of 1998 seek to define rights as they pertain to employees: in essence, an employer may not unfairly discriminate against an employee or applicant for employment on any arbitrary ground, such as race, gender or age.
– \uf0b7 The Employment Equity Act states, however, that it is not unfair to discriminate on the basis of an inherent requirement of a particular job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


In order to protect the employer from legal action against it in respect of breach of privacy, the employer must obtain the consent of the employee or the applicant for employment. This consent must contain sufficient detail to place the employee or applicant in a position so as to appreciate fully the nature and extent of the integrity assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Performing screening or vetting procedures on new recruits is a vital activity in securing the basic level of integrity in a company\u2019s workforce. History has shown that individuals with an inclination towards dishonest behaviour tend to become repeat-offenders. This trait will however not be uncovered by recruiting employers, if they do not follow a stringent policy of vetting new staff.
Always consult a reputable labour law practitioner when considering to appoint new employees and to avoid what might prove to be rather expensive litigation if a proper process is not followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Employers are often charmed by applicants, that they neglect doing background checks before employing them. This is however, a crucial procedure in preventing fraud against the company. In seeking to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2888,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions\/2888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law-at-work.co.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}