Welcome
We're pleased to present our first newsletter, designed for people with an interest in pre-employment vetting who want to keep up to date with the latest developments in the field. Summer 2005 has been a busy time for Powerchex, with a rapidly growing client base and the sponsoring of a market research project with some exciting results...
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Upcoming Conferences and Events
5th-6th October, London
From £25
26th-28th October, Yorkshire
From £400
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Articles of Interest
Nic Patton looks at recent research into UK organisations' approach to and experiences of pre-employment vetting.
Kath Burke reports on current vetting practices.
Getting To Know You
Mike Bluestone examines the risk of internal fraud and ways in which it can be prevented.
ID Cards - UK's high tech scheme is high risk
The findings of LSE research into the government's plans for identity cards, including possible implications for fraud prevention.
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Did you know...?
24% of organisations never or rarely
check on academic qualifications,
with a further 19% doing so only sometimes.
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Powerchex sheds light on UK vetting trends
72% of UK organisations carry out pre-employment screening in house, and of those organisations 46% have experienced a situation where an employee was hired who was later found to have lied or otherwise misrepresented themselves on their CV. This was among the most striking of the findings of market research undertaken on behalf of Powerchex during July 2005, during which 312 HR managers and directors were interviewed.
Overall 39% of businesses have experienced a situation where a vetted employee was revealed at a later date to have had fraudulent credentials, a shocking 85% of whom had conducted vetting in house. In contrast, of the 51 companies in the sample who outsourced the service to a third party provider, only 5 had experienced such a situation.
Despite the obvious advantages of outsourcing the task of pre-employment vetting, only 16% of organisations are currently doing so for all recruitment, while a further 12% are carrying out in house checks for the majority of staff while outsourcing the task for senior or specialist recruitment. The financial services sector displayed the highest propensity towards outsourcing, with 34% outsourcing all or some of their vetting.
Larger organisations are more likely to outsource than their smaller counterparts – the average staff size of the companies who outsource is 3313 compared to 2162 for those who carry out in house checks. However, small companies are at risk, with almost half (48%) of organisations with fewer than 100 staff experiencing problems with vetted employees.
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Type of Vetting
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In house
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Outsource
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Both
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% of respondents
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72
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16
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12
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% who hired a fraudulent candidate
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46
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10
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38
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Average no. of employees
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2162
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3313
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2776
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This story has attracted the attention of BusinessEurope.com and its associated publication Growing Business. More
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FSA Update
The FSA has set out to simplify its Handbook and remove unnecessary Rules and Guidance as part of its drive to achieve better regulation for firms. The first phase of the programme commenced in July with the simplification and streamlining of Anti Money Laundering requirements, of the Approved Persons regime, and of the Training and Competence regime, as well as a major review of the retail Conduct of Business. More
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When Vetting Goes Wrong
Some recent examples of failed vetting
- In April, 16 call centre employees were arrested in Western India in connection with a $400,000 scam. The incident had been clearly linked to poor vetting.
- Earlier in 2005, Sumitomo Bank's London offices were the target of a £220m fraud attempt. The assault was facilitated by insider knowledge only available to the bank's employees.
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