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https://thepbsa.org/education/webinars/uk-criminal-record-checking-industry-update/ Our Managing Director, Hedley Clark, will be speaking alongside Ian Johnston, Executive Director for The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) in a free webinar hosted by our industry body, the PBSA. The webinar is aiming to illuminate progress in the Criminal Record Checking (CRC) industry throughout England and Wales and Hedley will be speaking on cooperation between the industry and the CRC. The first in a series of webinars planned by the PBSA, the theme will be tackling the…

The director check helps minimise risk to your organisation by giving an insight into any potential high-level hire. Here are the essentials. No matter your company's size, when hiring for senior management, you want to minimize the risk of your appointment. It could be a serious waste of your time trying to hire a new director for the business without carrying out a director check. You could go through the whole process only to find out that Companies House currently…

A couple of months ago Barry Nixon, an eminent figure in the background screening world, posted a fascinating article about discrimination and the difficult questions the background screening industry faces regarding its role in propagating it. It’s an excellent read and forces those of us who make our livelihood through the industry to challenge some topics we’d perhaps rather avoid. I was inspired by Barry’s examination of the US situation. This spurred me to take a look at the parallels…

Referencing checking - one of the most critical parts of the hiring process. A key way for an employer to make sure they aren't making a mistake in their hiring decision. SkillSurvey released a study showing 86% of reference checks are made before a company extends an offer of employment. However, it's a time-consuming process. With increasing worries about candidates being who they say they are, companies are turning to deeper levels of screening. HR Dive published an article exploring…

TransUnion has recently sponsored a report by The Economist Intelligence Unit. This is a global survey of over 1,600 executives. The report hopes to gain an insight into their perspective of the rapid adoption of digitalisation by consumers as a result of COVID-19. It also examines the implications for digital fraud prevention and consumer trust. You can read the report here. The UK version of the report examines the opinions of 180 UK executives. It explores topics such as trends…

As economies reopen, North America, Europe and Asia are seeing their COVID-19 infection rates rise again, despite businesses thinking they had the virus under control, reports The HR Director. Concurrently, in the US alone, people are filing hundreds of employee vs employer lawsuits relating to the coronavirus. Local governments are steadily increasing the number of fines they hand out to companies in breach of COVID-19 measures. Workplaces have been actively taking physical anti-COVID measures (temperature checks, masks, restructured seating plans).…

Times are hard, and fraudsters are targeting desperate job-seekers with recruitment scams. In London, the "Mystery Shopper" recruitment scam has already claimed 35 victims, who have lost over £51,000. The police have issued an alert here. Fraudsters are using recruitment sites to find potential marks. They then cold-call the victim, pretending to be an employee of a mobile phone network. They then explain that the "candidate" will need to complete a "mystery shopper" test as part of the recruitment process.…

There's a wide variety of industry-specific background screening - the British Standard (BS 7858), the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), Financial Conduct Authority Screening (FCA) and Department for Transport Airside Pass Checks. We'll provide a summary of what each type of background check entails so you can quickly reference each one. British Standard (BS 7858)Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)Department for Transport (DfT) Airside Pass British Standard (BS 7858) The BS 7858 is a code of practice developed…

FCA checks can be confusing. Here is an explanation of all the essentials, including meeting the "fit and proper test FCA" requirement. Financial services and solo regulated firms use these checks in assessing fitness and propriety, as well as competence and capability in a candidate. When assessing a candidate, they allow authorised firms to confirm certain factors. For example, their previous employers or lack of any criminal offence. The regulatory reference was last updated in December 2019. This is a…

BPSS checks: The essentials The Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) is a set of government checks mostly for members of the civil service. It's also for the military, government contractors, and everyone who will have access to government material. This post aims to give some advice on What the Baseline Personnel Security Standard really isCompliance with requirements for organisations that have access to Personal Securities Network (PSN) servicesThe benefits of including the BPSS requirements for your company's own employment screening…