Are employment background checks necessary?
It’s every employer’s worst nightmare to realize that they left their company exposed to a “bad apple” they hired. By not conducting thorough background checks before hiring, you’re simply inviting potential problems such as insecurity, theft, fraudulent activity, harassment cases, and a tainted brand reputation further down the line. Don’t be like one of many Ugandan employers and businesses that are culprits of ignoring pre-employment background checks.
In case you were wondering; Yes, background checks are legal in Uganda. But employers and their HR managers should be aware of labor laws, data protection rules, and privacy regulations they must comply with first. While you’re not breaking any law either for not conducting a pre-employment background check, it is necessary. And while background checks rely on available records that may not always be 100 percent accurate, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Choosing the right screening strategy and defining a compliance strategy that suits your company is a good starting point to ensure that background checks are conducted expeditiously.
No doubt, this can be a challenging task for employers but Investing in pre-employment screening services is the best way to ensure that your company doesn’t run the risk of not performing background checks.
As an employer, it is important to note that you should only run a background check with the prior consent of the candidate.
How can we help you to run background checks?
At EBC, we offer unique and personalized pre-employment screening services to organizations that wish to recruit, retain and promote high caliber staff that hold genuine qualifications and the requisite experience.
It is a common practice in Uganda for job seekers to falsify academic credentials or CVs which expose prospective employers to the costly risk of recruiting incompetent staff or, even worse, unscrupulous personnel who purport to possess the required qualifications and experience. EBC supports the efforts of HR departments to ensure that their current staff and future employees all have authoritatively verified information & qualifications. The verified information includes; Academic Certificates (both local & International), Professional History, Criminal Records, and Identification Documents.
What do we cover?
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND CHECKS – We contact previous employers to verify an applicant’s work history, job title and tenure via either phone or email. We ask about the applicant’s reasons for leaving and eligibility for rehire. We also ask if there are problem areas that a prospective employer should be made aware of. We have well – crafted questionnaires that are designed to get the best out of a previous employer.
However, for senior management positions, we have our managing consultants fill the questionnaires themselves during face to face briefs/interviews with the employer.
REFEREE CHECKS – Finding out more details with referees is a very important part of the selection process and is a viable way of obtaining more information about an applicant in relation to the selection criteria for the position. Before commencing the reference checks the candidate is notified about contacting their listed referees shortly. Our consultants contact the referees listed on a candidate’s CV. This is done by phone call or email. A written record of all relevant information provided by the referee is obtained to enable fully informed decisions to be made based on all available information.
For senior management recruitments, a Verbal Referees meeting is scheduled and we have structured questions to ask the referees which relate to the selection criteria. We include salient questions to clarify any areas of concern or confirm information provided by the applicant.
EBC serves to independently and reliably confirm the authenticity of information & documents not just for job recruitment but also any other information that you have an interest in such as; Tenancy Records, Vehicle Log books, Bank Statements, and Notarized Agreements amongst various others. By rigorously having the information & documents vetted, we protect your interests as you carry out your day to day transactions.
For more information on how we conduct the verification processes, and the prerequisites needed to get started, get in touch with our customer service;[email]
