Legal Concerns: Can We Legally Expand Background Checks on Current Employees?

Our company has recently decided to implement a new policy, which is to conduct more extensive background checks for future employees. These checks will include verification of previous jobs, education, credit history, criminal records, and drug screening. This policy will also be applied to any existing employees.

My question is, what are the legalities involved in implementing these policies for our senior and existing staff?

There is no statute that states about background checks or reference checks, both post-employment and pre-employment.

For the new hires, what you can do is - Prior to giving the candidate an offer, you may conduct a reference check with companies he has already left. Alternatively, there are agencies such as TOPS who conduct detailed reference checks, including criminal records, etc.

For the existing staff and seniors, if they are performing well, it does not make much difference whether you conduct a reference check or not. However, for criminal records, you can engage agencies. Additionally, if the checks are done now, the staff may lose morale, and work may suffer.

Cheers, Geetha

I work in the HR section of a legal government department in South Australia. We implement police checks (criminal background checks) for all employees. However, before the Police advise us about ANY employee or future employee, that person has to sign a permission form for a Police check. If they don't agree, we don't employ them, but at least if there is something in their background that they don't want others to know, they can keep it private.

All Police checks, when completed, are confidential. The department has one small group of people who are nominated to receive advice from the police and to make decisions about whether any offenses are a problem. Mostly, not even Managers know the result of Police checks, unless again, the employee gives permission for this to be discussed with the Manager, so they can reach a decision about whether issues identified in the criminal background check are a problem.

Dear,

Background checks post/pre-employment are legal. It is within management's prerogative. How you can use the information collected to treat your existing staff will be the question. Suppose you find that he/she has a criminal background, then how will you deal with him/her?

With Regards,
V. Sounder Rajan
VS Rajan Associates,
Advocates & Notaries,
No.27, 1st Floor, Singapore Plaza,
No.164, Linghi Chetty Street,
Chennai - 600 001.
E-mail: rajanassociates@eth.net
Office: 044-42620864, 044-65874684
Mobile: 98401 42164.

I have handled hundreds of background (antecedent verification) checks across a cross-section of various levels in sales, marketing, finance, HR, and IT. It is our company policy that house visits and neighborhood verification are part of our investigation. The inquiries with the past employers are not only through phone or email. We undertake travel of more than 600 km to ascertain the whole background of employment and the standard of living of the candidates.

I have met several candidates of different economic backgrounds. It is done well within the knowledge of both parties and is carried out in such a way that the right candidates do not get upset, and the wrong candidates are filtered out or services dispensed with. Great care, patience, knack, and a host of other skills are required to cull out valid and valuable information. There should be no emotional or personal attachment to any candidate's profile.

Finally, the findings and analysis of the observation of any candidate should be maturely handled. There should be no personal bias on any parameters of a profile.

In my experience, I have come across legal cases, credit card fraud, misappropriation of cash to the tune of crores, indiscipline, blue-collar offenses, connivance, misleading information, data theft, disproportionate standard of living, which are all startling findings in our investigation. It is not detective work, but it all involves a lot of human resources and an analysis of the sea of input that you gather in your process.

Finally, there should be absolute 100% integrity in your reports. The scope of imagination or assumption does not find a place because it is a service concerned with the larger interests of all, and in particular the employers where the stake is in multiple dimensions and large.

Rangarajan.