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Reasons To Vet

The HR Department and senior management of a company are the gatekeepers for the business in respect of the safety and well being of the staff. Get the screening process wrong and you can end up with all sorts of problems. (See the worst case scenario in our case studies [click to link].) Getting it right in the first instance will save you a lot of grief, aggravation and time wasting in the future.

There are many reasons for screening, here are just a few:

Duty of care - in the UK there is a common law duty of care to take all reasonable steps to protect your staff. There is also more legislation coming into being to protect the staff whilst at the workplace.

Compliance - to meet many of the new statutes on health & safety, employment laws etc. ISO 9001 requires verification of experience, education and training skills. The Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering Recommendation 15a of the Forty Recommendations advocates adequate screening procedures for the hiring of employees.

Regulatory - should you be in a regulated industry, bodies such as the Financial Services Authority place certain obligations on companies to undertake screening.

Reduction of business infiltration by the likes of:

  1. Competitors seeking market advantage through theft of intellectual property
  2. Environmentalists seeking specific proprietory information/threats of violence
  3. Business interruption through the grudge factor (system collapse)
  4. Reputational damage by disgruntled third parties (bad press etc)
  5. Organised crime syndicates

Reduction of :

  1. Internal fraud and dishonesty
  2. Unqualified and incompetent staff
  3. High staff turnover
  4. Recruitment costs
  5. Law suits
  6. Training costs

Increase of:

  1. Staff morale
  2. Productivity

A well planned screening programme that takes into account the above issues will be a valuable tool to your best business practices and good corporate governance, helping to create a pleasant working environment.