Despite the ever-expanding roles and responsibilities of security officers, the duties that they’re expected to perform and the ongoing terrorist threat, it’s fair to say that pre-employment screening continues at a minimal level within the industry. Many UK security companies still perform only the most basic of checks on potential recruits.
Security Industry Authority (SIA) licensing has improved the situation to some degree, but in a marketplace where a large percentage of the workforce is sourced from a global recruitment pool, we believe the private security industry should be doing more to protect its clients and, indeed, its reputation.
The costs involved with making the wrong employment decisions hardly bear thinking about… Serious fraud, the theft of goods, loss of intellectual property or a fundamental lack of security at clients’ premises could, at best, end your relationship with a valued customer and, at worst, result in physical injury to employees and/or members of the public.
From a business perspective, poorly performing staff are also great thieves of management’s time, with senior professionals often having to spend hours sorting out disciplinary procedures, dealing with immigration issues or recruiting a replacement for the officer who wasn’t up to scratch instead of focusing on what they should be doing – assessing the development needs of the business. The reputational damage that can be caused by a poor employee can also have huge repercussions for any business, never mind one that’s directly responsible for the safety and security of its clients’ operations.
What, then, are the key steps a security company should consider when vetting employees from outside of the UK?
Shared burden of proof
At the most basic level, check your company is fully aware of the requirements of the many employment acts that are applicable to global recruitment particularly the Asylum and Immigration Act and any evolving Government legislation. This in itself can be a challenge. Even the Human Resources teams of large blue chip companies may struggle here.
One of the key services you need is the provision of up-to-date knowledge on legislative issues that helps clients to stay abreast of changing legal requirements.
More specifically, security providers need to ensure they have a thorough screening procedure in place that applies the same burdens of proof to UK nationals as it does to non-UK nationals.
This may sound simple, but even when considering basic pre-employment checks the pitfalls are numerous. Is your own recruitment team fully conversant with the rules and Best Practice procedures involved when checking eligibility to work in the UK? How would you obtain references going back several years if the potential candidate has been living in another country? How do you check up on academic qualifications gained overseas?
Identity and permit to work verification should be a strong priority in an industry which employs a relatively large number of non-UK nationals when compared with other sectors. To ensure that the vetting procedures used are consistent, we advise companies to use a comprehensive checklist. One of the obvious and key steps on this list is to check an applicant’s passport, but with so many different formats issued by countries all over the world, security companies need to ensure that their in-house Human Resources team or external recruitment consultancy knows what the different passports should look like and how to verify their validity.
When it comes to validating ID documentation, the temptation to take short cuts is strong. It’s simply not good enough to make photocopies of a candidate’s documents and assume they are valid without question but, in our experience, this is often what happens. That trend is particularly worrying in light of the seemingly ever-increasing terrorist threat and the rapid spread of ID fraud during the past few years.
Checking permits to work
When checking permits to work, our basic guidance to companies is simple. Use the Home Office Border Immigration Agency Employers’ Helpline for free advice. Ensure your communications with potential staff are as clear and simple as possible to avoid confusion. Also ensure you apply your vetting procedures to your UK as well as your non-UK employees. Keep thorough records of all proof of identity and other documentation, and make certain the potential recruit signs a form confirming that they understand their requirement to join the Home Office Workers Registration Scheme.
To ensure your corporate responsibilities are fulfilled as security providers and employers, all of this process should be conducted methodically. Don’t fall into the common trap of failing to check out anomalies or carry out even the most basic checks (such as ultraviolet light checks on passports and visas, a requirement of British Standard 7858).
As counterfeiting becomes more sophisticated and fraudulent documents harder to spot, seriously consider whether you should employ the services of a professional screening company with the necessary expertise and resources to spot a ‘fake’.
References both academic and employment related also need to be pursued. Unfortunately, this is another area where many companies come unstuck.
The language and cultural differences are often at fault if a potential recruit comes from outside of the UK. You may find that your normal referencing policies cannot be followed, or that it’s difficult to elicit a response from a referee in a foreign country, but ask yourself honestly how hard did you try to check out this person’s background? Did you send one letter and give up, and was the letter translated into the local language or dialect?
Furthermore, does a member of your Human Resources team speak the native language of a potential candidate? Did they try to conduct more telephone research?
International reference searches are undoubtedly an area in which a screening company with overseas partners or operations can be of huge benefit. Their team will know the local customs, speak the language and be able to travel to a location to check out references for you. So there is no excuse for a referee not to respond to that letter.
Criminal record checks
Criminal record checks are another potential problem area when you’re dealing with a workforce which comprises a large percentage of non-UK nationals. The concept of conducting criminal background checks is obviously not a new one for the security industry. In this regard the sector has, by necessity, been ahead of many other sectors in the economy with a strong focus on the need to protect customer identities, prevent criminal acts and the loss of sensitive information – and, equally important, maintain client confidence at all times.
However, if your criminal record checks are to be as rigorous for non-UK nationals as they are for UK nationals, companies should use all of the international record checks available to them to ensure equality of treatment between UK and non-UK nationals.
Major screening companies are in the rare position of having access to an international criminal records database that enables them to check out the history of any potential employee. Unless a security company employs a major screening specialist this route may not be available to it, so what are the alternatives?
Another albeit not as complete option is for security companies to speak with the relevant Foreign Embassy, and to subsequently request a criminal disclosure about the potential candidate. In certain countries, it’s also possible to ask the candidate to request a certificate of good behaviour directly from the national Criminal Records Bureau of their country of origin (provided the privacy laws are respected, of course, and that the candidate’s consent is obtained).
These checks are not as thorough as those that can be provided by a professional screening company, but they will certainly enable security contractors to improve the quality of their vetting when it comes to international recruits. If combined with the other steps outlined here, they would also help to ensure that security solutions providers recruit the employees they want and deserve.
Follow the basic steps
The points outlined here should encourage the security industry to spend a little more time and resources vetting its employees at all levels. They should also show that, although the vetting and screening of non-UK nationals is a more lengthy and complex process than the screening of UK nationals, it’s a long way from being so arduous, expensive or long winded that it’s prohibitive.
In reality, many of the routines outlined here merely require security companies to follow a series of basic steps, and to question any areas of concern in order to improve the quality of their workforce – and better satisfy their due diligence requirements.
What seems clear is that, post-SIA licensing, the time is right for the security industry to take this issue more seriously than it has historically. In an age where ID fraud is one of the fastest-growing crimes in Europe, it must ask itself whether it can afford to be complacent where screening is concerned.
