It is crucial for employers to actively break down barriers for women in the workplace, not only as a matter of social responsibility but also for the benefit of their organisations. Diverse and inclusive workplaces foster innovation, creativity, and a broader range of perspectives, ultimately enhancing decision-making processes and problem-solving capabilities. By dismantling barriers that hinder women's professional growth, employers unlock a wealth of untapped talent, contributing to a more skilled and dynamic workforce.
Exactly how the challenges facing women in the workplace can be minimised and the benefits that supported and inspired women can bring to organisations can be enjoyed is something that industry leaders and government departments are grappling with. The APPG on Modernising Employment is holding a meeting to gather views and experiences from people working in the industry and draw up actions to put before Parliament to break these barriers.
Despite increased awareness and advocacy for equal pay, the gender pay gap persists. On average, women continue to earn less than their male counterparts overall, and while it is illegal for a company to pay men and women different salaries for the same job, the pay gap indicates that there are fewer women in higher-paying roles.
According to the Office for National Statistics, in the UK in 2023 the gender pay gap among full-time employees stood at 7.7%. Among the highest earners, this gap is considerably more.
This discrepancy not only affects individual women but contributes to broader economic inequalities. Closing the gender pay gap requires concerted efforts from organisations to reevaluate their compensation structures, promote transparency, and ensure fair pay for all employees.
The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier that limits women's upward mobility in the workplace. Although women have made significant progress in entering various professions, reaching top executive roles remains a challenge.
There are arguments to suggest that women’s inability to reach higher levels of employment is more significantly due to “broken rungs” rather than glass ceilings, meaning that stumbling blocks at the beginning of careers are preventing women from being promoted to more senior levels. According to McKinsey’s Women and the Workplace report, in 2023 in the UK, for every 100 men promoted from entry-level to manager positions, only 87 women were promoted (and women of colour are held back the most, with only 73 promoted for every 100 men).
Breaking the glass ceiling and fixing the broken rung necessitates dismantling ingrained stereotypes, promoting diversity in leadership, and providing mentorship and sponsorship opportunities for women to advance in their careers.
Balancing professional and personal responsibilities is a persistent challenge for women in the workplace. Societal expectations often place a disproportionate burden on women to manage both career and family life.
According to the TUC, 1.46 million women are kept out of the labour market because of their caring responsibilities and are 7 times more likely to leave their work for caring responsibilities than men.
Companies can support work-life balance by implementing flexible work arrangements, parental leave policies, and fostering a culture that values employees' well-being. Recognising the importance of work-life balance benefits not only women but contributes to a more productive and satisfied workforce.
A lack of representation in leadership roles is a significant barrier for women. According to the same McKinsey Women in the Workplace report, women represent roughly 1 in 4 C-suite leaders, and women of colour just 1 in 16.
Companies should actively promote gender diversity at all levels of the organisation, ensuring that women have equal opportunities to take on leadership roles. Encouraging mentorship programs, leadership training, and creating inclusive environments can help pave the way for more women to ascend to leadership positions.
Recognising that gender intersects with other identities is crucial in addressing workplace challenges. Women of colour, LGBTQ+ women, and women with disabilities often face compounded biases and discrimination. An inclusive approach that considers intersectionality in organisational policies, practices, and initiatives is essential for creating an equitable workplace for all women.
Incorporate diversity and inclusion training into the onboarding process for all employees. This helps create awareness of biases and fosters an inclusive culture.
Implement blind recruitment practices, where identifying information is removed from resumes during the initial stages of hiring. This minimises the impact of unconscious biases in the selection process.
Offer flexible work arrangements to accommodate diverse needs, recognising that one size does not fit all. This can attract a more diverse talent pool and contribute to a more inclusive workplace.
Develop leadership programs that specifically target and support the advancement of women. Provide mentorship opportunities and sponsorship programs to help women navigate the path to leadership positions.
Addressing the professional challenges faced by women in the workplace requires a multifaceted approach. Organisations must commit to dismantling systemic barriers, promoting diversity and inclusion, and adapting hiring practices to create an equitable and supportive environment for women to thrive in their careers.
Whatever the make-up of your team, when hiring it’s important to ensure that risk is minimised through thorough screening. With over 60 years of experience in recruitment, and over 9 years of experience as screening specialists, Reed Screening is ideally placed to advise your business on the best way to ensure that new hires are a boost to your company’s performance.
]]>The current hiring environment is marked by a multitude of factors, ranging from bureaucratic red tape to immigration laws and organisation-specific practices, collectively contributing to delays and inefficiencies. As organisations contend with these challenges, the call for standardisation across sectors becomes increasingly imperative.
Addressing this need is the Better Hiring Institute, an organisation at the forefront of a collaborative effort with the UK government and industry leaders. Their mission is to transform the UK's hiring landscape, mitigate the impact of fraud, and foster fairness and equality within the recruitment process. Their Better Hiring Toolkits provide industry-specific best-practice guidelines, developed with employers, work seekers and regulatory bodies.
The UK has one of the slowest hiring processes globally, costing employers on average £15000 per new employee. This financial burden encompasses not only direct recruitment expenses but also factors in diminished productivity, expenditures on temporary staff, and various administrative costs.
The repercussions of this slow-paced hiring culture extend beyond individual businesses, impacting the broader UK economy. The prevalence of unfilled positions, particularly within the public sector, gives rise to challenges such as prolonged NHS waiting lists. Moreover, a significant number of economically inactive individuals contribute to diminished tax revenue and strain on public sector funding.
In response to these challenges, organisations like the Better Hiring Institute are actively collaborating with both government bodies and industries to advocate for comprehensive recruitment standardisation within specific sectors. This collaborative effort emphasises the adoption of time and cost-saving technologies by employers, ensuring a consistent experience for both employers and candidates. The overarching objective is to transform the UK into a global leader in terms of the speed and efficiency of its hiring processes.
Fairness in hiring is not only important for compliance with anti-discrimination laws and regulations but boosts productivity, morale, dynamism, reputation, and employer brand.
Using fair hiring processes can also broaden candidate pools, and help recruiters to see candidates’ potential more clearly, providing a more diverse and inclusive workplace enriched with a variety of different perspectives, experiences, skills, and ideas.
With sector standardisation, a more level playing field across an industry can be achieved for both employers and candidates.
As new technologies enter the recruitment process, fraudsters, and people with criminal or dishonest intent are finding new ways of exploiting employers and work-seekers.
Sector standardisation in hiring serves as a robust deterrent against fraud and unlawful practice by establishing uniform and rigorous practices across organisations. This approach ensures that all candidates undergo consistent background checks and verification processes, making it challenging for individuals to falsify information. Standardised interview procedures, including predefined questions and evaluation criteria, reduce the opportunities for candidates to manipulate their responses. The implementation of technology, such as applicant tracking systems and digital verification tools, automates cross-checking processes, detecting anomalies, and flagging potential instances of fraud during recruitment.
Furthermore, sector-wide collaboration allows organisations to share information about known fraudulent or unsafe activities and tactics, fostering a collective defence against deceptive or dangerous applicants. Standardised hiring practices often include feedback mechanisms that contribute to continuous improvement in security and safeguarding processes. This iterative approach allows organisations to adapt and enhance security measures based on emerging threats and industry best practices.
Standardisation streamlines hiring processes, reducing redundancies and delays. This results in faster and more efficient recruitment, enabling organisations to fill vacancies promptly and maintain optimal staffing levels.
Standardisation establishes consistent evaluation criteria, ensuring that all candidates are assessed on the same basis. This reduces subjective decision-making, promotes fairness, and creates a level playing field for applicants.
Uniform practices and standardised procedures lead to cost savings for employers. This includes reduced administrative expenses, decreased time spent on lengthy recruitment processes, and more effective use of resources.
Standardisation enhances the candidate experience by providing clarity on expectations and a predictable application process. Candidates benefit from transparent evaluation procedures, contributing to a positive perception of the hiring organisation.
Standardised hiring processes contribute to better-informed decisions and improved candidate selection. By focusing on standardised criteria, organisations are more likely to attract and hire individuals with the right skills and qualifications for the job.
Sector-wide standardisation encourages collaboration among organisations within the same industry. This sharing of best practices, insights, and candidate pools fosters a sense of community and collective improvement within the sector.
Standardisation helps remove biases and barriers in the hiring process, promoting diversity and inclusion. By focusing on objective criteria, organisations are more likely to attract a diverse pool of candidates, contributing to a more inclusive workplace.
Standardised hiring processes contribute to legal compliance by ensuring that recruitment practices align with anti-discrimination laws and industry regulations. This reduces the risk of legal challenges and reinforces the organisation's commitment to ethical hiring.
Standardisation facilitates the adoption of new technologies across the sector. Organisations can collectively leverage advancements such as AI-driven recruitment tools, video interviewing platforms, and applicant tracking systems to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.
The ripple effects of sector-wide standardisation positively impact the economy. A more efficient hiring process contributes to a faster-growing workforce, which, in turn, stimulates economic activity, increases productivity, and strengthens overall economic health.
Reed Screening offers consistent, standardised employee screening for the whole workforce, with pre-defined packages for different industries and sectors.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks.
With screening and checks happening 24/7, we can vet your candidates within a timescale that suits your business, and our AssuredID service offers an easy and accurate way to verify a candidate’s ID digitally and remotely.
For more information, get in touch with our team.
]]>In January, the APPG for Modernising Hiring held a discussion to address the problems that this practice causes for legitimate employers, and how changes in government as well as in recruitment processes can protect both employers and work seekers.
The facts around recruitment fraud include:
- Job seekers aged between 18 and 24 are most likely to be targeted.
- 30% of UK adults have experienced employment fraud when searching online
- Victims lose around £4,000 on average.
- 74% of work seekers have applied for at least 1 job that never existed
- 4.5 million people in the UK have been a victim of identity fraud
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the job market has changed considerably, with some skills becoming highly sought-after, while other positions were being made redundant. Therefore, we’re seeing a lot of people looking for work, with more than two-thirds searching solely online, including on social media.
Fraudulent employers engaging in identity theft represent a malicious facet of hiring fraud, posing significant risks to unsuspecting job seekers. In these instances, fraudsters seek to extract personal data from applicants, including their name, address, date of birth, bank details, phone number, and family information. The goal is often to sell this sensitive information to serious organised crime gangs for illicit purposes. To obtain a work seeker's data, these fraudulent employers may employ elaborate tactics, including setting up and orchestrating a multi-level, long-term interview process that includes telephone, virtual, and in-person stages. Once the applicant has sent their ID details, the fraudulent employer may suddenly disappear, leaving the victim vulnerable to identity theft and potential financial harm. Unfortunately, this kind of fraud is not always prioritised for investigation by law enforcement, emphasising the importance of awareness, vigilance, and the role of organisations like UKIFA in providing assistance and guidance to victims of such scams.
Money-making scams present a growing threat within hiring, preying on the vulnerabilities and aspirations of job seekers. In these deceptive schemes, fake employers and fraudulent job adverts are designed with the sole purpose of swindling individuals out of money. Common features of these fake employments often include enticing claims that promise substantial earnings with minimal time and effort. Fraudsters adopt various tricks to extract money from unsuspecting applicants, such as demanding advance fees to cover fabricated expenses like police checks or CV security, only to disappear once the funds are provided. Another tactic involves offering telephone interviews conducted on premium rate phone lines, engineered to last a considerable length of time, thereby generating substantial charges for the victim.
In cases of fraudulent money-laundering employment, victims are offered seemingly legitimate work-from-home positions, but in reality, they are being used as conduits to launder illegally gained money for criminal enterprises. Positions involving buying and selling IT hardware or transferring money between different accounts may seem genuine, but victims find themselves unwittingly participating in illegal activities. In some cases, victims are asked to conduct interviews to recruit more people for similar roles, deepening their involvement in the fraudulent schemes. Unfortunately, these individuals often end up not being paid for their work, having given money for training, equipment, or goods under the false promise of reimbursement.
The prevalence of fraudulent employers and deceptive job practices is compelling legitimate employers to adapt their approaches to instil trust and confidence in applicants and candidates. In response to the pervasive scams that plague the job market, reputable organisations are implementing a series of measures aimed at assuring job seekers of their trustworthiness and authenticity.
Legitimate employers are prioritising transparency throughout the hiring process, offering clear and detailed information about the company, job requirements, and the recruitment journey. By fostering open communication, these employers aim to build trust and reassure candidates that the opportunities they present are genuine.
To distinguish themselves from fraudulent counterparts, organisations are adopting more rigorous vetting processes. This includes comprehensive background checks, reference verifications, and the use of advanced technology for identity verification. These measures are designed to ensure the legitimacy of candidates and provide a secure recruitment environment.
Establishing clear communication channels and providing official points of contact is crucial to preventing confusion and potential scams. Legitimate employers emphasise the use of official company email addresses, websites, and phone numbers to combat phishing attempts and maintain a secure communication environment.
Proactive efforts to educate job seekers about common hiring scams and red flags are becoming a staple in the hiring practices of legitimate employers. Informational materials on company websites, during the application process, and targeted outreach initiatives serve to empower candidates and minimise the risk of falling victim to fraudulent schemes.
Employers are increasingly opting for reputable job platforms and career websites to host their job postings. Clear identification on recognised platforms adds an extra layer of security for candidates, fostering a sense of trust in their job search.
Providing timely responses and constructive feedback to candidates has become a hallmark of legitimate employers. Clear and prompt communication sets them apart from fraudulent entities known for evasive behaviour, reinforcing the authenticity of the hiring process.
Investment in building a positive employer brand is on the rise. Organisations are showcasing their commitment to ethical hiring practices through employee testimonials, highlighting workplace values, and participating in industry best practices. This not only attracts top talent but also reinforces the reputation of the company as a trustworthy employer.
The existence of fraudulent employers has prompted legitimate organisations to take proactive steps, establishing trust, implementing robust security measures, and fostering a positive candidate experience. By doing so, these employers not only protect job seekers from potential scams but also enhance their own reputation as ethical and transparent contributors to the job market.
To ensure your business protects its employees, reputation, and business performance when working against dishonest candidates or fraudulent employers, robust screening and secure processes are key.
Pre-employment screening can help you minimise the risk, both in terms of legal liability and in terms of lost productivity and performance from an unsuitable hire. At Reed Screening we specialise in providing fast, accurate screening services that give you the confidence that your employees can be trusted, allowing you to get on with growing your business.
To find out more, get in touch today.
]]>Presenting were:
Jon Hall: Professor at the Open University & Advisory Board Member of the Better Hiring Institute
Keith Rosser: Director of Reed Screening and Chair of the Better Hiring
In April 2021, the Better Hiring Institute (BHI) emerged as a collaborative effort between the UK government and industry leaders, dedicated to revolutionising the nation's hiring landscape. With a commitment to making UK hiring faster, fairer, and safer, BHI strives to modernise UK hiring through digital solutions, dismantle barriers for diverse groups, and enhance the UK’s labour market efficiency by harnessing the full spectrum of talent.
Currently comprising over 15 industry-specific subcommittees, the BHI covers approximately 75% of the UK workforce, with aspirations to expand its reach to encompass 80% of the nation's 32 million workers. The institute operates through sector-specific subcommittees, convening weekly with different groups to stay abreast of industry dynamics and ensure relevance amid evolving landscapes.
Action-oriented, the BHI analyses hiring patterns using data from subcommittee meetings, translating insights into actionable strategies. Collaborating with stakeholders across government, regulatory bodies, businesses, and workers, BHI is actively contributing to positive change.
Noteworthy achievements include the publication of sector-specific Better Hiring Toolkits, establishing a standardised framework for rapid global hiring. With toolkits currently available for four sectors and plans to expand to ten, BHI is pioneering a clear roadmap for the UK government to enhance the attractiveness of its labour market. Additionally, the institute has formulated a 10-point plan for faster hiring, addressing issues such as outdated hiring rules, digital identity challenges, and job transparency—a blueprint embraced by the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Enterprise and Markets. As the BHI forges ahead, it remains dedicated to driving impactful solutions to hiring challenges, fostering collaborations, and ensuring the transformative benefits of technology advancements in the sector.
Jon, with a background in problem science, focuses on extreme problems—challenges perceived as wicked or insoluble. He identifies five to six characteristics of extreme problems, including massive complexity, high volatility, a hostile environment, and social complexity. Jon views UK hiring as an extreme problem due to the vast industrial sectors, technological changes, recruitment pattern shifts, and the complex social landscape with 32 million workers and 10 million economically inactive individuals.
Jon's interest in the BHI stems from a belief that it plays a crucial role in understanding and addressing the complexities of UK hiring. He acknowledges the challenges faced, such as lengthy hiring processes and the rising cost per hire, emphasising the need for solutions to enhance efficiency.
Glassdoor’s chief economist, Andrew Chamberlain conducted a study in 2015, which now considered relatively old, remains highly relevant today, shedding light on persistent challenges in the hiring process. Notably, Chamberlain's survey revealed that the United Kingdom takes an average of 28.6 days to appoint someone, posing substantial costs for businesses engaged in hiring processes.
In more recent figures from 2022 and 2023, the financial implications of hiring in the UK become even more apparent. Various costs contribute to the significant investment required for each new hire. Job board fees, advertising costs, recruitment agency fees, internal recruitment expenses, and invisible business costs accumulate to approximately £15,000 per individual hired. This financial burden underscores the impact of a prolonged hiring process on the overall cost for businesses.
Chamberlain's study also highlights the elongation of the job interview process in recent years. A variety of factors contribute to this trend, including industry characteristics, sector differences, legal and cultural distinctions, and the growing complexity of job characteristics. The need for aligning job expectations with those of the job seekers and the dynamic nature of employer interview methods further compound the challenges faced by businesses.
Despite these challenges, positive trends in the labour market have been identified. The Metropolitan employment balance remains positive, reflecting equal net employment intentions in both the public and private sectors. A noteworthy achievement is the balancing of public and private sector considerations, with a decline in redundancy intentions for the first time in two years. Additionally, hard-to-fill vacancies are prevalent in the public sector, which is balanced by rising wage levels approaching specifications in both public and private sectors.
Jon acknowledged the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models on content generation. Organisations are increasingly utilising these technologies for tasks such as crafting job specifications and supporting job applications, viewing generative AI as an opportunity to boost productivity.
While the potential benefits of AI in hiring are evident, it necessitates a careful balance due to privacy and security concerns. The conversation extends to interview processes, where AI can offer efficiency but also introduce risks associated with hiring the wrong candidate.
Finding equilibrium between AI and human involvement is crucial, recognising the need for oversight even as AI streamlines processes. However, the lack of collaboration among employers and the uncertainty in UK AI policies complicate this delicate balance.
The Better Hiring Institute aims to contribute valuable insights into the responsible application of AI in hiring. As policies evolve, BHI seeks to guide employers on leveraging AI efficiently while ensuring ethical and optimal outcomes in the recruitment process.
The Better Hiring Institute sits within a group of community interest companies, aligning with the umbrella organisation SAFER Jobs. Currently undergoing a rebranding effort, BHI has recently become the employer-oriented facet of SAFER Jobs, complementing the worker-driven initiative called Jobs AWARE. Supported by various government departments and Disclosure Scotland, BHI is integral to addressing challenges in the job market.
BHI's impact is evident in its extensive network, connecting with over six and a half thousand employer networks, engaging 150 regular All-Party Parliamentary Group attendees, and fostering collaboration through 407 regular subcommittee attendees. This collective effort ensures a balanced representation, benefiting both workers and employers.
With 13 subcommittees spanning diverse sectors like health, social care, supply chain, retail, and more, BHI brings employers together to discuss sector-specific hiring challenges. These subcommittees not only offer insights but also provide opportunities for participation in All-Party Parliamentary Groups, allowing individuals to voice sector-specific concerns to MPs.
Moreover, BHI hosts Faster, Fairer, and Safer expert panels, gathering technology providers and industry experts to discuss solutions and challenges. The organisation continues to grow and invites prospective members to join in 2024, providing an opportunity to actively contribute and benefit from the collective efforts shaping the future of hiring practices in the UK.
Keith spoke about the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Modernising Employment’s work in addressing the challenges faced by employers and businesses in the UK. Launched with the aim of setting a blueprint for the future of hiring, this group brings together members from both Houses of Parliament, fostering collaboration and dialogue on crucial issues in the realm of employment.
APPGs play a crucial role in providing a platform for parliamentarians to engage with external organisations. The APPG on Modernising Employment distinguishes itself by focusing on the complex challenges encountered by employers and businesses in the UK's dynamic job market. This dedicated focus sets the stage for informed discussions and targeted initiatives.
Identifying a gap in existing APPGs related to employment and work, the Modernising Employment APPG has swiftly become a hub for collaboration. By actively engaging with other parliamentary groups, such as the Women and Work APPG, the group amplifies its impact, creating a synergistic approach to tackling complex issues in the employment sector.
The APPG has accomplished notable achievements in its mission to reshape the hiring landscape. These include:
Beyond its immediate successes, the APPG on Modernising Employment has strategically aligned itself with the UK government's broader initiatives, leveraging opportunities like the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill. This Act, which enables greater data sharing for government purposes, aligns with the APPG's objectives of making UK hiring the fastest globally and addressing challenges in the digital landscape.
Looking ahead, the APPG has a comprehensive calendar of sessions addressing critical themes. These include modernising safeguarding, exploring the impact of artificial intelligence in hiring, reimagining the hiring process for the new generation, and improving the hiring of individuals with criminal records.
The APPG's upcoming session on modernising safeguarding in hiring is likely to address emerging challenges, such as deep fakes, digital fraud, and evolving threats in the hiring process. The planned face-to-face session in January will likely provide a platform for stakeholders to contribute insights and strategies to fortify safeguarding measures in the digital era.
The upcoming session on artificial intelligence and hiring in March will acknowledge the increasing role of AI in recruitment while also recognising the potential pitfalls. By exploring both the positive aspects and potential concerns, the APPG aims to strike a balance that maximises the benefits of AI in hiring while addressing privacy and security issues.
Moreover, the APPG is hosting sessions on hiring people with criminal records and reimagining hiring for the new generation. These discussions are vital in shaping policies that cater to diverse demographics and promote equal opportunities in the workforce.
These discussions will likely influence policy recommendations and contribute to shaping the future of work in the UK. The APPG actively seeks engagement from stakeholders, including employers, academics, and civil servants, ensuring a holistic and well-informed approach to policy recommendations.
As the APPG progresses through its planned sessions and collaborations, it remains crucial for stakeholders, including employers, academics, and civil servants, to actively engage. This collective effort ensures that the insights and recommendations generated through these sessions are robust, well-informed, and reflective of the diverse perspectives within the employment landscape.
The overarching vision of the APPG on Modernising Employment is to make UK hiring the fastest globally. By addressing challenges, promoting fairness and inclusion, and safeguarding in the digital era, the group is poised to shape the future of hiring in the UK. The APPG's strategic focus on engagement with government departments, industry leaders, and various stakeholders positions it as a key influencer in shaping the regulatory landscape. By actively participating in joint events, submitting policy recommendations, and fostering collaboration, the APPG aims to drive lasting change in employment practices.
We took the opportunity to get a gauge of the experiences and opinions of our attendees.
Why is making hiring faster important to your organisation?
Have the developments in hiring this year resulted in a reduction in hiring times?
As we finalise our events calendar for 2024, which topic are you most interested in hearing about?
The candidate experience is important to employers, as 40% of our attendees cite it as a key reason for speeding up the hiring process. Recent technological and regulatory changes in hiring in 2023 have expedited 50% of our attendees’ hiring processes, which shows promise. However, with the remaining half of attendees either unsure or seeing no speed benefit, it’s clear that more work needs to be done. Our attendees are most interested in hearing Digital Right to Work as part of Reed Screening’s future events calendar, indicating a lack of clarity and confidence in the system.
Digital hiring is a fast-moving area, with new developments happening all the time. Reed Screening is hosting regular events where you can keep up to date with the latest news and share your opinion on policy and process changes.
The last event of the year is:
Thu, Dec 07 - 2023 roundup - our future in 2024 - Join us as we summarise key changes in 2023 and look ahead at what is coming for UK employers in 2024.
]]>The digital age has brought about unprecedented changes in how companies operate. From streamlined communication to data-driven decision-making, the benefits are evident. However, one aspect that still lags for many organisations is their approach to hiring. The shift from traditional to digital hiring methods involves leveraging technology to identify, attract, and retain top talent efficiently. This transformation is more than a trend; it's a necessity for staying competitive in today's dynamic business environment.
Digital hiring leverages technology and online platforms to streamline and enhance the recruitment process. Here are examples of digital hiring practices that organisations commonly use:
Digital hiring accelerates the recruitment process. Automated resume screening, online assessments, and video interviews significantly reduce the time it takes to identify and evaluate candidates. This not only expedites the hiring process but also ensures that businesses can secure top-tier talent before competitors.
With digital hiring, geographical boundaries become less of a barrier. Companies can tap into a diverse and global talent pool, bringing in individuals with varied perspectives and skill sets. This not only fosters innovation but also enhances the overall adaptability of the workforce.
Digital hiring provides valuable data insights at every stage of the recruitment process. Analytics tools can help assess the effectiveness of recruitment strategies, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions. This data-driven approach ensures that businesses are not only making the right hires but also continuously optimising their processes.
A positive candidate experience is crucial for attracting and retaining top talent. Digital hiring allows for a seamless and user-friendly application process, giving candidates a favourable impression of the company from the outset. This positive experience can translate into stronger employer branding and increased employee satisfaction.
While the benefits of digital hiring are clear, the transition may be met with resistance from stakeholders accustomed to traditional methods. To successfully make the business case for digital hiring, consider the following strategies:
Highlight the tangible returns on investment that digital hiring can deliver. This may include reduced time-to-hire, improved quality of hires, and long-term cost savings.
Ensure that the team is adequately trained to navigate and maximise the potential of digital hiring tools. Provide ongoing support to address concerns and build confidence in the new approach.
Consider implementing pilot programs to showcase the effectiveness of digital hiring on a smaller scale. Demonstrating success in controlled environments can ease the transition for sceptics.
Open communication channels with key stakeholders and involve them in the decision-making process. Collaboration fosters a sense of ownership and inclusion, making it more likely for the team to embrace change.
In an era where adaptability is synonymous with success, the business case for digital hiring is compelling. Embracing this transformation is not just about keeping up with the times; it's about positioning your business for sustained growth and resilience in an ever-evolving marketplace. By highlighting the efficiency, global reach, data-driven insights, and improved candidate experience that digital hiring brings, organisations can pave the way for a future-ready workforce that propels them ahead of the competition. Making the business case for digital hiring is not just a strategic move; it's a commitment to shaping a workforce that thrives in the digital age.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks, to bolster your candidate experience. Our AssuredID service offers an easy and accurate way to verify a candidate’s ID digitally, while our Instant Referencing service provides quick and accurate employment history verification.
For more information, get in touch with our team.
]]>We ran a survey of over 100,000 employment references, and it indicated significant issues within the referencing process, including:
How can employers avoid these issues and ensure their referencing process is fast, effective, and secure?
In this blog, we’ll look at identifying the appropriate level of referencing for the position, the various risks associated with failing to reference properly, and the best practice methods for ensuring vulnerable people are safeguarded and your business is protected from poor hires.
Depending on the type of position you are hiring for, different levels of referencing are needed to ensure new employees are well suited to the role.
For instance, the majority of positions will require a basic level of referencing, which includes a confirmation of previous employment dates, as well as salary and job title.
However, for positions that require a particular focus on safeguarding, such as roles working with children or vulnerable adults, more detailed references are required, which may include a more detailed description of the role the candidate performed, as well as notes on attitude, capability, and any issues that need to be flagged.
A mixture of both basic and enhanced referencing may be required, depending on the sensitivity of the position.
Deciding what level of referencing your candidates require means taking into account several factors and risks.
Most important is the safety of any children or vulnerable adults whom your new employee will come into contact with. Therefore, an enhanced character reference is vital in order to gather information about conduct, attitude, and any potential safeguarding issues.
A consideration for all types of employers is the risk of fraud. Thoroughly checking references, including checking to see if previous employments are genuine businesses, can help mitigate the risk of employing a dishonest candidate.
Referencing is notoriously time-consuming, and a long hiring process can be detrimental in several ways, from increased recruitment costs to heavier workloads for existing staff, from a poor candidate experience to missing out on quality hires as other offers are accepted more quickly. It’s important therefore to be both thorough and efficient in your referencing processes.
While there is no single right way to conduct referencing, there are industry best practice guidelines to follow to ensure the safety, efficiency, and security of your business.
While references are not the only tool for evaluating a candidate’s suitability from a safeguarding standpoint, they can provide clues and important information on conduct and safeguarding issues in previous roles.
However, employers must use clean references as indications only, not as guarantees that the candidate in question will never pose a threat to vulnerable people. Therefore adopting a safeguarding mindset is recommended.
Included in the Better Hiring Institute’s Toolkit for the education sector is the idea of employers adopting a “safeguarding mindset”, which is defined as the difference between compliance and curiosity.
An employer who has a compliance-only approach to safeguarding is mostly concerned with meeting the minimum requirements, which can lead to red flags and warning signs being overlooked.
Conversely, an employer who adopts a curiosity-based approach to safeguarding is interested in finding out the truth, investigating anything that could point to a need for further action, and consistently monitoring employees over time to ensure that the risk of harm or criminal activity is minimised.
This means that not only can you as an employer be better informed of potential risks, but you can also more easily pass on crucial information to future employers.
The use of fake references is on the rise, with bogus companies being set up to generate fake references at scale for people who are trying to mask the absence of a work history or potentially mask other activities where they weren’t at work. At Reed Screening, our specialists have found 15 of these companies working at scale, with large numbers of work seekers using the same companies to provide their references.
The BHI offer a free document with advice on how to spot and report fake references, which includes advice on how to verify the legitimacy of a reference and a company.
As part of long-term plans to make UK hiring faster, to speed up economic growth and improve recruitment for both employers and candidates, work is being done to improve the referencing process. This includes the development of digital referencing tools that automate the process.
Designed to modernise and streamline the referencing process, digital instant referencing automates the process, considerably speeding up return times and saving recruitment teams time and resources.
Ensuring your candidates experience a positive recruitment and onboarding process while maintaining the integrity and compliance of your screening procedures means building a robust process.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks, to bolster your candidate experience. Our Instant Referencing service provides a hassle-free solution to deliver mass reference checks. After providing us with the candidate details, you can sit back and let our automation kick in. Our software will work with your candidate to contact, chase, and obtain the reference.
For more information, get in touch with our team.
]]>Presenting was:
Keith Rosser: Chair of the Better Hiring Institute and Director of Reed Screening
Helen Chandler: Head of Partnerships and Engagement, Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
Eleanor Curry: Market Development Lead, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Despite consistent progress towards digitisation of the employment process, manual checking is still required in a number of areas, and this causes difficulties for employers and job applicants. With the UK workforce changing and increasingly demanding greater flexibility, it’s vital that employers are able to keep up with the pace of change.
Streamlining processes is important, but it’s also vital to ensure that hiring processes are inclusive, and this requires not only speeding up the hiring process, but fully modernising and transforming it. Digitisation is one part of this, as is the Better Hiring Institute’s work to ensure that hiring processes are aligned with best practice across all industries.
The benefits of digitising hiring are profound. For employees, they could include the ability to live where they want and work anywhere, while for employers, they allow for a greatly increased recruitment pool, whether their teams are working remotely from home or via a hybrid model. This could help to boost employment levels in economic black spots across the UK, and could also be a useful tactic in supporting early retirees or those living with long term sickness back into the workforce on a flexible basis. Technologies such as digital reference checking could also help to improve inclusivity by moving away from the traditional CV-based hiring process, which can exclude those who are not well-versed in how to write CV’s, or for whom English is a second language.
The UK lags behind Europe and the USA in terms of hiring times – in the NHS, it takes an average of 60 days to get a person from job advert to their first day of work. Reducing hiring times has the potential to reduce workloads and help reduce backlogs and waiting lists in the NHS and in other industries, whilst boosting tax revenues by reducing the amount of time workseekers spend inactive.
The UK has made significant progress over the past two years, from the introduction of digital Right to Work checks to the digitisation of criminal record checking, as well as the introduction of technologies such as Open Banking and automated reference checking to streamline the process of employment history verification. Instead of manually chasing references, employers can rely on powerful software to not only automatically remind employers to submit details, but to check reference details against a database of verified data to ensure that the references being provided are genuine.
However, there’s work still to be done. Ensuring the portability of data, so that applicants do not need to verify their details multiple times for each employer, as well as greater standardisation to remove red tape, particularly relating to sector-specific regulations and trade body requirements, could help speed up hiring further.
With any technological advances come challenges which must be addressed, and digital hiring is no exception.
In particular, we’re seeing a rise in fraud targeted towards employers who still rely on face-to-face routes for things like right to work verification, often using fake birth certificates which are easy to acquire and almost impossible to validate.
Reed Screening is also seeing a significant increase in fraudulent reference houses – that is, companies set up purely to supply false references. Additionally, there’s a rise in over-employment, with candidates taking on multiple remote jobs at once without informing their employers.
Closing loopholes like these is an important priority, although inclusivity must also be taken into account, allowing an assisted route for those who do not have the ability to use digital routes, whether due to a lack of documentation or a lack of digital knowledge.
One aspect of the employment screening process which has undergone significant transformation in recent years is criminal records checking. Identity verification for criminal records checking can now be submitted digitally, significantly speeding the process of carrying out these checks.
Identity verification is an extremely important aspect of DBS checking – because of the sensitivity of the information being provided, it’s vital that they’re matched to the right person. Because of this, there are two digital identity verification routes for DBS checks, dependent on the level of confidence required for the identity verification.
Basic DBS applications go through the government’s OneLogin programme, which verifies a candidate’s identity to a Medium level of confidence against the Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework. Standard or Enhanced DBS checks, on the other hand, require identity to be established to a High level of confidence, and so these checks are conducted through an IDSP.
This process is under continuous development, and Helen Chandler, Head of Partnerships and Engagement at the Disclosure and Barring Service, explained some of the improvements that were in progress. Amongst these, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (who now have responsibility for Digital Identity in place of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport) are working to remove the legislative and regulatory blockers to allow candidates to verify their identity by checking against records held by DWP or HMRC – while this is currently not possible, it could provide a very secure method of proving identity, as well as opening up additional options for people who are unable to provide documents such as an in-date passport.
DSIT and DBS are also working towards the introduction of digital wallets allowing individuals to store a range of different data types together, from identity verification to qualifications, references and DBS checks. The NHS and the Department for Education are currently developing wallet systems, which have the potential to further streamline the checking process and make it much easier for healthcare or education employees to switch roles within their respective services.
The DSIT’s Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework is also undergoing further development. Currently in beta version, the level of uptake for the standard has been high, with 47 IDSP providers already certified in the first year after introduction and more in the pipeline.
The DSIT are currently in the process of developing proposals to remove legislative blockers to digital identity, as well as to introduce additional use cases beyond the three main live use cases – pre-employment, pre-rental, and criminal record checks – currently in place.
With a modular certification process allowing for easy integration with a range of services, DSIT predicts that its digital identity benchmarks could be used in a wide variety of alternate use cases, including mortgage applications, financial services, travel or accessing age-restricted services. With the current use cases predicted to benefit the UK economy to the tune of around £800m per year, the UK government is committed to promoting digital identity as a faster, simpler and more secure approach for individuals, whilst simultaneously allowing them to maintain a high level of protection over their data.
We took the opportunity to get a gauge of the experiences and opinions of our attendees.
How do you verify references currently?
Manually chasing by email and phone – 58%
Using a screening provider – 27%
Using automated software – 9%
None of the above – 4%
Has digitising the DBS process to date made it faster for you to hire?
Yes – 59%
No – 9%
Unsure – 32%
How fast is right to work checking now for your organisation?
0-5 minutes – 36%
Up to 1 day – 36%
Up to 1 week – 13%
Over a week – 13%
The vast majority of our event attendees currently chase candidate references manually, adding significantly to their hiring times. Technology like Reed Screening’s Instant Referencing software have the potential to significantly streamline hiring processes for many employers.
Digital hiring is a fast-moving area, with new developments happening all the time. Reed Screening is hosting regular events where you can keep up to date with the latest news and share your opinion on policy and process changes.
Below are a few of the upcoming events you can get involved with:
23rd November – Making UK hiring the fastest globally – Join us as we spotlight Reed Screenings’ collaborative campaigns with industry and the UK government to make UK hiring the fastest globally.
7th December – 2023 roundup – our future in 2024 – Join us as we summarise key changes in 2023 and look ahead at what is coming for UK employers in 2024.
]]>For employers, this opens up the labour market and allows access to talent from across the country, and even the world.
However, hiring remotely comes with risks, and it’s important to ensure that the recruitment process is carefully planned to ensure only honest candidates are hired.
Additionally, engaging candidates through a remote hiring process requires several considerations to ensure new hires are enthusiastic to start work.
At the start of the hiring process for a remote worker, consider why a candidate might prefer to apply for a remote role. Reasons could include that they’re based abroad or find commuting difficult due to disability or expense. They could have caring or other responsibilities that require them to be based in a particular place or are hoping to travel as they work.
Whatever the reason, it’s important to be aware of the different circumstances that candidates might find themselves in and design the role around them.
When advertising a remote role, it’s important to be clear about the parameters of this, and what in-person commitments might be expected. For example, will quarterly visits to the head office be required? Will interviews be conducted in person? Clarity at this point in the process means that anyone for whom this is a problem will sift themselves out. For this reason, only include non-negotiable expectations, as you risk deterring excellent candidates.
If this is the first remote role you have recruited for, you may want to expand your search and cast a wider net to take advantage of the national and international opportunities. This means making use of online tools and sites, as well as tapping into different networks to reach a more diverse and far-reaching talent pool.
Interviewing for remote roles can happen either in person or over video call. It’s important to be mindful of how an in-person interview might affect a candidate’s enthusiasm for the role – if they’re applying because they require a remote position, an in-person interview may be impossible. Offering a video option is always advisable, especially if applicants are based abroad.
When interviewing via video, there are some factors to take into account, including:
The risks of hiring remotely are in some ways magnified. Risks include:
Right to work: digital right to work has been providing benefits to businesses for over a year, now, and remote hiring provides a fast, accurate, and fully online way to prove identity. The accuracy levels of digital ID checks are higher than face-to-face checks and therefore is a safer way to protect your business from identity or right-to-work fraud.
Digital Right to Work can currently only be used by candidates who hold a valid British or Irish passport, meaning those who don’t meet this requirement must carry out a face-to-face Right to Work check. Fraudsters are taking advantage of this by obtaining fake birth certificates and bypassing the highly accurate technology-based verification, instead meeting employers face to face.
To minimise the risk of this, ensure that staff are trained to check ID documents, and maintain a comprehensive audit trail showing that proper processes have taken place.
Disguising using AI – there are instances of candidates using AI to create deepfake videos for pre-recorded interviews to disguise themselves or create new identities. We’re also seeing fraudsters using AI to generate hiring paperwork for applications that would pass vetting standards but aren’t necessarily truthful.
To avoid this, opt for live video interviews, as opposed to pre-recorded interview questions.
Fake references – Also on the rise is the use of fake references, with bogus companies being set up to generate fake references at scale for people who are trying to mask the absence of a work history or potentially mask other activities where they weren’t in work. At Reed Screening, specialists have found 15 of these companies working at scale, with large numbers of work seekers using the same companies to provide their references.
For employers, the BHI offer a free document with advice on how to spot and report fake references.
Ensuring your candidates experience a positive recruitment and onboarding process while maintaining the integrity and compliance of your screening procedures means building a robust process.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks, to bolster your candidate experience. Our AssuredID service offers an easy and accurate way to verify a candidate’s ID digitally.
For more information, get in touch with our team.]]>Verifying an applicant's identification is a key part of the checking process, and with the introduction of Digital ID verification for Right to Work checks, DBS is also taking advantage of this system.
The use of Digital ID verification for DBS checks offers several benefits to recruiters, candidates, and the wider labour market.
Digital ID verification is a fast and accurate way for candidates to prove who they are, negating the need for recruiters to handle physical documents. Using custom-built technology provided by ID Service Providers (IDSPs), identity can be verified with improved accuracy and speed.
Candidates upload an image of their ID documents to the ID Verification Technology (IDVT) – usually an app or online portal - as well as a live video image of themselves, and using Artificial Intelligence and data-powered technology, the IDVT can confirm the identity of the employee to certain degrees of confidence.
In the past year, DBS has published a digital scheme allowing checks to be made digitally for the first time, and allowing IDSPs to be formally accredited to ensure DBS checks are done to the highest standards.
With DBS’s new ID verification process, employers or Registered Bodies (RBs) engage a DBS-certified IDSP to verify an applicant’s identity including their current address. If the IDSP cannot verify the applicant’s current address, they report back to the employer or RB, and applicants are given 90 days to provide paper verification. Once the ID and address have been verified, the RB can apply for DBS.
As the UK goes through a cost-of-living crisis and economically unstable times, the need for faster, frictionless recruitment is more important than ever. With staff shortages in important, foundational institutions like the NHS, the need for speeding up the recruitment process is vital for essential services, as well as economic growth.
For candidates, the fast and simplified method for proving ID enhances the recruitment process, reducing pain points and getting them into work more quickly. Employers benefit from reduced time-to-hire and diminished costs associated with an empty desk.
ID documents are expensive and take time to replace, so, understandably, candidates would want to avoid any situations in which there was a chance of losing or damaging them.
With Digital ID, candidates don’t need to take their documentation out of their homes, as verification can be done remotely with the use of an app.
Additionally, personal data, such as that contained in passports and ID documents, is valuable to criminals and fraudsters, and theft of documentation or information stored in HR files puts candidates at risk of identity fraud.
Using a certified IDSP means that personal data is kept safe, as certification of an IDSP is reliant on the provider having appropriate security management systems in place that meet industry standards. Candidates can be assured, therefore, that their personal information is secure.
Faster verification means a faster process overall, leading to reduced recruitment costs. These include the costs of hiring temporary cover for vacant positions, productivity downturns due to increased workload, and HR time managing a long-drawn-out process.
Recent figures show that there are over 12 million people with convictions in England and Wales (1 in 6 across the UK). Almost 4.5 million Standard & Enhanced checks were issued by DBS in the year 2021/22.
Employers are split between those who would recruit a worker with a previous conviction (45%, up 20% from 2010 figures) and those who would instantly reject a job-seeker if they disclosed a previous conviction, even though this was not always the organisation’s policy (30%).
For many, the risk of re-offending is a major factor, with a REC survey showing that 60% of employers feel anxiety around this.
Recruitment must be fair for candidates with previous convictions, and with faster, more efficient DBS checking employers can spend more time considering their suitability and eligibility for the role with information on their background available, instead of instantly ruling them out.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks, to bolster your candidate experience. Our DBS screening service is an online solution, with market-leading turnaround times.
For more information, get in touch with our team.
]]>Industry best practice for recruitment in the education sector includes robust vetting checks, to ensure that dishonest candidates are deterred from applying and unable to secure employment.
The risks of failing to follow industry best practice include:
Included in the Better Hiring Institute’s Toolkit for the education sector is the idea of employers adopting a “safeguarding mindset”, which is defined as the difference between compliance and curiosity.
An employer who has a compliance-only approach to safeguarding is mostly concerned with meeting the minimum requirements, which can lead to red flags and warning signs being overlooked.
Conversely, an employer who adopts a curiosity-based approach to safeguarding is interested in finding out the truth, investigating anything that could point to a need for further action, and consistently monitoring employees over time to ensure that the risk of harm or criminal activity is minimised.
Industry best practice in the Education sector would include employers practising a curiosity-based safeguarding mindset.
According to information provided by the BHI, here are the key points for industry best practice when hiring in the education sector:
Set out safeguarding expectations to demonstrate your commitment to safeguarding as well as indicate to applicants the level of screening they will undergo and that related conduct issues will be identified and managed effectively.
Be transparent by using accessible, inclusive language, indicating a salary range, stating safeguarding responsibilities and reassuring that workplace adjustments can be made if necessary. Also, ensure that the job description and the required skills/qualifications are accurate and fair, to reduce the risk of unconscious bias.
Promote positive workplace culture by reporting diversity statistics within the organisation. This can help to support equality, diversion, and inclusion within classrooms. Offering reasonable adjustments and support for those who may need it such as remote interviews, flexible working, and job share options can also aid this.
Use a non-biased approach by asking standardised questions and inviting a diverse shortlist, as well as ensuring a varied interview panel. Within the organisation, the interview panel, and the interviews themselves, support conversations that highlight the value of having a neurodiverse and culturally diverse workforce to promote a recruitment journey that is supportive of diverse candidates.
Provide transparency to interviewees by outlining the structure of the interview to the interviewee so that they can know what to expect, as well as including a brief overview of the organisation, role, format of the interview, and questions and competencies being assessed. Also, ensure candidates are aware of the recruitment timeframe, and when and how they will hear back.
Be prepared for the interview by making the panel familiar with the applicants they’re seeing and asking questions specific to each candidate based on their experience. Be ready to answer any questions about the organisation and role, too.
Be thorough by keeping detailed notes of the interviews, especially around how well candidates fit the criteria and person description to facilitate candidate comparison.
Include safeguarding-related questions to assess candidates’ understanding of vulnerable learners, appropriate boundaries, and safeguarding responsibilities.
Allow opportunities for interviewees to ask any questions, as well as to clarify any discrepancies found within their application.
It is much more effective to be thorough with screening and gain as much insight as possible before the candidate starts work than after they’ve been onboarded. Ensure that candidates are aware of the level of screening at the start of the process.
Checks should include:
Identity and Right to Work – this is one of the most important checks, if a candidate is not who they say they are, then any other further checks are redundant. Not only this but hiring a person who does not have the legal right to work can incur severe penalties.
Criminal Record Check – particularly important in education establishments where staff will be working among children and/or vulnerable adults. While a criminal record may not mean that a person is going to cause harm or commit crimes at work, it’s always better to be aware and mitigate risk.
Qualification checks – ensuring teaching staff are competent and have been trained to the level they claim reduces the risk of low-quality performance.
Online checks – checking for adverse media against a candidate ensures you are aware of any potentially dangerous links that the candidate is known to have, including organised crime, drug trafficking, fraud, financial coercion, money laundering or terrorism. Reviewing publicly available sources such as social media profiles can also flag any instances of racism, sexism, hate speech or anything that might indicate an incompatibility with the company culture and values.
For more detailed information, check out the BHI’s Better Hiring Toolkit for Education Supply Chains.
Reed Screening provides screening packages designed specifically for the needs of the education industry, with packages pre-tailored to mitigate risk when hiring for popular roles such as maintenance, hospitality and facilities staff, finance and admin staff, or teachers, lecturers and support staff. We cover everything from permanent hires and fixed-term contractors to temporary/agency supply chains.
All workers are screened to the high standard you need to ensure that your establishment is operating safely, efficiently and with appropriately qualified, responsible, and reliable staff.
Get in touch today to see how our screening experts can help you.
]]>Developers, campaigners, and government departments are now looking at the future of Digital ID, and how this technology can be applied to a plethora of situations to benefit everyone.
Digital ID is a secure, fast and reusable way of proving identity.
Digital identities enable people to prove who they are using digital technology instead of physical documents. This is increasingly useful, if not essential, in a progressively digital world. Digital identities can be more convenient, more cost-effective and safer than scanning and sending physical documents.
Currently, Digital IDs are used on a single-use basis, meaning a new digital ID needs to be created for each company or provider that someone uses. However, work is underway to allow for permanent and portable Digital IDs to be created and reused for a number of different applications.
In financial services, travel, property transactions, age-restricted products, and business identity, digital ID can provide reduced costs, and improved efficiency, as well as privacy and fraud benefits.
The Department of Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) are working, for example, with the Treasury on enabling digital identity in the financial services sector, meaning that other digitally stored data such as credit reports and scores can be shared alongside ID information, meaning the accuracy of credit reporting can be improved and therefore the quality of service for customers.
Additionally, international interoperability for Digital IDs is being worked on, meaning it can work as a digital passport and can be used in a range of applications across the globe.
In employment and hiring, Digital IDs can contain information on employment history, references, and qualifications certificates, meaning that candidates can apply for jobs with their employment background readily available and verified, providing a host of benefits to the employment market, businesses, and work seekers.
Many employers are already using digital identity as part of their hiring processes, but due to its current limitations, are using it in a restricted way, requiring candidates to create a digital identity from scratch. In future, the vision is that everyone will have a trusted digital identity that can be shared over and over, instead of scanning physical documents each time. This could be used for job applications, but also for holiday bookings, account setup, property purchase, and a host of other activities.
The benefits of using digital identity in employment include:
These are particularly true of digital identities bound by attributes - e.g. attached to qualifications or training.
Internally, digital identities can be integrated with other systems. For example, integrating data on employees’ training via their digital IDs with the internal compliance system means that it’s simpler to ensure that individuals are correctly trained in essential issues specific to their positions.
The current referencing and work history process is slow, insecure, and easily defrauded. However, the use of digital identities that are attached to referencing and work history has the potential to significantly accelerate the hiring process.
A digital wallet that attaches qualifications, training history, and work history to a digital identity makes it easier for employees and candidates to move between sites and positions.
Questions remain about how digital identity can work in different situations. For example, how can we develop digital identities to be internationally interoperable, to ensure a seamless process for employees to work across and move between different countries?
There are so many opportunities to use digital identities across the employee life cycle, and as the technology, regulation, and security frameworks are developed, the potential that Digital ID represents is very exciting indeed.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks, to bolster your candidate experience. Our AssuredID service offers an easy and accurate way to verify a candidate’s ID digitally.
For more information, get in touch with our team.
]]>In recruitment, AI has been in use for some time already, assisting in sifting applications, arranging interviews, and even analysing behaviour to make hiring decisions in pre-recorded interviews.
While many AI functions are beneficial to both recruiters and candidates alike, there are situations where the human touch can provide a better experience or more accurate results. We’ve laid out some of our recommendations for when to use AI in recruitment, and when human involvement is better.
Faster sifting – using keywords and other indicators, AI can aid in sifting applications to highlight candidates that meet the brief most closely. It can analyse CVs and applications to pick out candidates that represent most accurately the employee the company is looking for.
Unbiased sifting – if algorithms and sifting parameters are free of bias, AI can handle applications with no unconscious bias towards the candidates. Where humans can allow unconscious bias to affect their judgement, AI can sift applications without paying any attention to indicators of protected characteristics, such as name, age, or nationality.
More efficient scheduling – organising interviews and scheduling them around panellists’ and candidates’ other commitments can be consuming of time and resources. With AI, recruiters can ensure that interviews are arranged to suit most schedules in a fraction of the time.
Better communications with candidates - chatbots and virtual assistants can answer candidate questions, provide further information on the company and role, and send updates and reminders for interviews and deadlines throughout the process. This means that candidates are more engaged, don’t have to wait for office hours or for staff to respond to emails to gather more information, and feel more involved in the process.
More accurate screening – recent data shows that AI-driven verification technology used in carrying out Digital Right to Work checks is more accurate than human screeners when looking for fake or forged ID documents. As well as this, the process of using Digital Right to Work checks is also much quicker and more convenient for most candidates, meaning you can be sure your employees are who they say they are, and that their candidate experience is high quality.
Looking beyond the algorithm – when sifting, AI programs tend to work within set parameters. This means that if a candidate has taken a non-traditional pathway towards the role, they’re likely to be overlooked by the AI, meaning employers risk missing out on high-quality candidates. Therefore, sifting AI programs should be used with caution to ensure excellent candidates don't slip through the net.
Interviews – AI programs exist that can conduct a virtual interview with candidates, asking set questions and providing a time limit for interviewees to answer. The AI records the interviews, and analyses the candidates’ responses, feeding back recommendations to recruiters. While this may sound like a great way to save staff time, we suggest it's used with caution. People are always different when they are talking to a real person as opposed to an AI, and being able to interact, ask additional questions, and respond in the moment to a candidate means you can learn more about them, make judgments on how they'll fit into the company culture, and offer a chance for people to respond in ways that are comfortable for them. Human connection also ensures a better candidate experience, since an interview is as much about the work seeker deciding if they want to work for a company as it is a recruiter selecting a new employee. Allowing candidates to put a face to a name and meet key team members, whether in person or via a video call, is essential for making a good impression.
When selecting the right tools to enhance your recruitment process, it’s important to identify the purpose you want your AI technology to fulfil.
For many employers, adopting AI and digital tools in recruitment is to accelerate the process, driving operational efficiency, and improving the candidate experience. Every technology has pros and cons, and it’s important to properly weigh up the implications of each one to find the balance that works best for your business.
Ensuring your candidates experience a positive recruitment and onboarding process while maintaining the integrity and compliance of your screening procedures means building a robust process.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks, to bolster your candidate experience. Our AssuredID service offers an easy and accurate way to verify a candidate’s ID digitally.
For more information, get in touch with our team.
]]>Presenting was:
Keith Rosser: Chair of the Better Hiring Institute and Director of Reed Screening
Adam Rudd: Chief Revenue Officer, Qualification Check
Chris Rea: Head of Commercial Services, Prospects Hedd
Keith Rosser explained that fake applications and fraud in recruitment were on the rise, as seen by screening specialists at Reed Screening and reported by members of the Better Hiring Institute (BHI). A recent survey of 1,000 UK workers found that:
Data from Cifas reveals:
Right to Work fraud - Most recently, there has been a rise in people targeting Right to Work and ID checks with fake documents. Since the launch of Digital Right to Work checks, developments in technology driving improved accuracy in ID verification have meant that higher numbers of fake documents have been uncovered. However, Digital Right to Work can currently only be used by candidates who hold a valid British or Irish passport, meaning those who don’t meet this requirement must carry out a face-to-face Right to Work check. Fraudsters are taking advantage of this by obtaining fake birth certificates and bypassing the highly accurate technology-based verification, instead meeting employers face to face.
Dual Jobs – this means that people with a genuine Right to Work in the UK and the right qualifications for the job are applying for roles, accepting positions, but then passing their shifts onto someone else who goes on-site to work on their behalf. Equally, people are also registering for more than one job or employment and using others to do some of the work for them, particularly where it’s remote work.
Disguising using AI – we’re seeing instances of candidates using AI to create deepfake videos for pre-recorded interviews to disguise themselves or create new identities. We’re also seeing fraudsters using AI to generate hiring paperwork for applications that would pass vetting standards but aren’t necessarily truthful.
Fake references – Also on the rise is the use of fake references, with bogus companies being set up to generate fake references at scale for people who are trying to mask the absence of a work history or potentially mask other activities where they weren’t in work. At Reed Screening, specialists have found 15 of these companies working at scale, with large numbers of work seekers using the same companies to provide their references. For employers, the BHI offer a free document with advice on how to spot and report fake references.
The BHI is taking note of these trends and feeding them into their policies and campaigns. The Home Office is currently working on expanding Digital Right to Work to accept other documents and close the gaps in accurate verification methods.
The BHI is also working with government departments on the shareability of centrally held government data which can help employers to verify individuals’ claims. Work is currently underway to identify other datasets that can be used in future to speed up recruitment processes and close loopholes.
The use of open banking to confirm and validate CVs automatically is also being developed. This involves the use of salary payment dates to confirm the dates, employment, and salaries that candidates are providing on their CVs. This is the first step towards removing the need for a CV for work history.
Adam Rudd spoke about the work of Qualification Check, a global provider with clients in 30 different countries working in education, healthcare, migration, and regulated sectors.
The risks associated with qualification fraud can be enormous, and the recruitment market today is offering increased opportunities for fraudsters to target employers.
Employers are looking further and wider for the skills they need – as employers search nationally and internationally for new employees, this means they’re encountering qualifications from different countries, with which they are less familiar and less likely to spot fakes.
Stiff competition for well-qualified candidates – the skills shortage is pushing employers towards taking risks. The need for particular skills drives some employers to overlook certain screening procedures.
Remote working has widened the talent pool – remote working offers opportunities for fraudsters to slip through the net more easily.
Migration is diversifying candidates’ backgrounds – increased migration globally means that employers are encountering a range of different pathways to work and unfamiliar qualifications.
There are four main types of certificate fraud:
Altered certificates – this refers to a genuine certificate that has been altered slightly to up the grade, change the dates (to appear younger) or change the name. The candidate is still qualified but has adjusted the certificate to mislead employers regarding their achievement level or personal details.
Forged certificates for a real university – advanced technologies can create very convincing copies of certificates from real universities, even going so far as to include holograms and other security features.
Forged certificates for a fake university – for every real university in the UK there is a fake one created by fraudsters. For example, Newcastle University is a genuine institution, but the University of Newcastle doesn’t exist. Fraudsters will create certificates for the University of Newcastle to claim they’ve achieved a qualification that they have not.
Unaccredited institutes – these are companies selling courses to unsuspecting work seekers that offer diplomas, but the training is not accredited so there’s no way an employer can be sure of the standard of education.
Adam described ways in which employers could deal with and avoid falling victim to qualification fraud.
The best way for employers to protect their companies is to attract the good and repel the bad. Employers should try to communicate the level of screening that qualifications will undergo early in the process. While some employers worry that this presents an obstacle to good candidates, it’s often not the case. Genuine candidates will appreciate the value placed on the time, work, and money that was put into achieving their qualifications, while fraudsters are more likely to be deterred.
It's a good idea to make qualification screening policy-based, so checks are done by default, and there’s no risk of prejudice or bias affecting which candidate’s qualifications are screened.
Technology and AI have advanced to the point where adjustments to certificates and forgeries are very sophisticated and can be virtually impossible to spot visually. Therefore, it’s always best to go to the source and validate the key data points – name, grade, dates etc.
However, it’s also important to consider the context around the results of checks. For instance, an educational institution may not be able to find a candidate’s personnel records, but the certificate could still be legitimate. In the USA, for example, universities will refuse to verify someone’s credentials if they haven’t fully paid all their student fees.
Alternatively, candidates could be using their married name but have studied under their unmarried name, meaning that institutions may not be able to verify the candidate’s qualifications if they have failed to provide the correct name to the employer.
Keeping an audit log of all inquiries around verification ensures that should there be any appeal process, all communications and checks are recorded and can be referred to in any investigations.
Should a fraudulent application be discovered it’s important to communicate clearly and non-judgementally to the candidate in the first instance to ascertain whether it is fraud. The candidate may have changed their name and mistakenly provided you with the wrong one or have another legitimate reason for the institution being unable to verify their qualifications.
However, those who are committing fraud are likely to drop out of the process at this point.
It’s important to notify the institution of the incident so that they are aware of the fraud and can take any actions they feel are necessary.
For candidates whose certificates are verified, Adam explains that it’s important to make this a positive experience, and Qualification Check provide candidates with a digital wallet that confirms the certificate has been verified at source and is true and correct, which they can take throughout their career to demonstrate the authenticity of their documents.
Chris spoke about the work of HEDD, the UK higher education system’s official degree verification service. Created in 2011 to make the process of checking degrees and third-party verifications more straightforward, HEDD has investigated more than 350 fake universities.
Each fake university is listed on the HEDD database, and the situation is such that there are now more fake institutions on the database of degree-awarding bodies than there are legitimate ones; the prestige and the reputation of UK degrees make it highly desirable for fraudsters.
For employers familiar with the UK higher education system, some fake certificates are easy to spot. For instance, many UK-based employers know that “Richshire University” is not a real place, or that Surrey University is not the correct way to refer to the University of Surrey. However, that certainty diminishes for employers abroad with less familiarity with UK institutions, but a small amount of investigation can uncover the truth.
However, confusion is high around postgraduate diplomas and certificates, where the robust regulation that degrees are subject to is lacking.
Degrees are tightly regulated qualifications, and therefore represent a known quantity – employers can be confident in the level of education that a degree-holding candidate has received. It is incredibly difficult for an institution for learning or education provider to obtain degree-awarding powers, and the term “university” cannot be used as a trading term without permission from the government.
However, outside of degrees, the rules are much looser, and qualifications such as postgraduate certificates and diplomas have no real framework or regulations to define their level of education. Setting up as a provider of postgraduate diplomas is relatively straightforward, and some institutions offer 3-month programmes for eyewatering sums. Work seekers, particularly those unfamiliar with the UK education system, are liable to fall victim to paying inordinate sums for qualifications that are unquantifiable and not as valuable to employers as other university-offered diplomas or certificates.
Many institutions offering bogus or overpriced postgraduate diplomas trade on spurious credentials. For example, institutions might state that they are UKRLP accredited – this simply means that they have registered as a learning provider, and it doesn’t indicate any sort of ongoing monitoring or assessment of the quality of the training provided. A training provider who uses their registration as a major credential is a red flag for students and employers alike.
Another bolstering of baseless credentials often adopted by bogus institutions includes using their registration with Companies House as meaning they are validated and authorised by the UK government, and claiming partnerships with international organisations, that have no premises or obvious establishment.
It’s important to investigate a company’s address and contact information. One example that Chris gave was an institution whose contact address was a mailbox office, showing that no such institution existed and that many poor unwitting candidates were conned out of large sums of money.
Chris expressed that increased regulation and control was required around these sorts of institutions, but until then employers needed to be looking closely at the qualifications that candidates are claiming, and ensure thorough investigations take place as a matter of course.
We took the opportunity to get a gauge of the experiences and opinions of our attendees.
Would you feel confident identifying a fraudulent document?
No – 41%
Unsure - 41%
Yes – 19%
Have you ever seen application fraud in the hiring process?
Yes – 62%
Unsure – 20%
No – 18%
Which of the following methods of application fraud do you see the most?
Fake references – 24%
Fake qualifications – 23%
Interview/application coaching – 16%
Dual jobs – 10%
Fake identity – 6%
With the vast majority of our attendees being unsure of how to identify a fraudulent document, it’s clear that fraud detection training and increased awareness of document fraud would be beneficial for many employers.
With over three-fifths of our attendees confirming that they’d encountered application fraud, it’s clear that this growing problem is not going away and demonstrates the scale of the problem.
At almost a quarter each, fake references and fake qualifications are the most common types of application fraud among our attendees, showing that there’s a need for more technology-based solutions to tackle these problems.
As usual, our attendees had a raft of questions for our presenters. We’ve included the most popular questions and answers below:
What is your advice on how employers can verify college qualifications and then perhaps more awkwardly, verify local training provider-type qualifications?
Adam: It is definitely a trickier area because the good thing is as Chris has mentioned, a lot of the universities and degree-level providers have processes in place. They have databases in place like the HEDD database and other providers out there. They are a lot more set in their processes. So going to them and verifying that information is becoming more widespread, and there are more global databases with this sort of information as well. I kind of feel like we're always a little bit behind the US, but the US have the centralised database that holds all their academic records. I feel like that's slowly moving its way here, very slowly. But going down to college and high school level, it’s very archaic. You tend to find each individual institute has its own set process.
Actually, it goes back to the basic principle of you've got to reach out to the source. You need to validate that the person you speak to at the source is the right person to speak to, but it will take a little bit longer and it will be a bit more troublesome because generally they only have records in a filing cabinet somewhere. They're not really as online as a lot of the universities are.
Chris: I mean it's the case that the deeper it goes down the line, if you like, the more fragmented it gets. I think if we're still struggling for majority use of checking degrees by employers, then you know that there are so many reasons that make it difficult for recruiters to look at lower-level qualifications. And I think that just widens the fraud gap. I think if you know the likelihood is that it's going to be too time-consuming and difficult for the recruiter, the verifier, whoever the entity is to make that check, the more likely it is you're going to get through on fake credentials if you're inclined to do that.
I think the sheer volume of certificates, documents, licences and training requirements that exist, I think it's overwhelming, it's very hard and the answer has to be, like you say, it's always that there's no excuse not to go to the source, but how easy it is to do that in some cases, who knows? Because not every organisation or certification or qualification provider makes it obvious how you actually check the validity of those qualifications. It's not always as straightforward as what I call higher-level qualifications. It's not. And systems like HEDD and Qualification Check and others provide that kind of portal and way in.
Are there any portals to check overseas qualifications available?
Adam: It will depend on the country and in some countries even by region or state. So I think the US do lead the way. They have the Student Clearing House which is a centralised database that you can go in and validate information. Then as you move your way around the globe, the further East you go the less likely that is sadly. But there are some. It's just knowing which for the Institute because some countries will have some that only cover certain institutes.
Any advice if qualifications can't be checked at source?
Adam: You can get mitigating evidence. I guess this comes down to a company's risk and what they're willing to accept. I'm aware that some companies say, well, I've just viewed the certificate. My recommendation is always, if you really want to be double sure, it's always going to the source. Every source will have a process to do that. It is just going to require a little bit more work and effort in order to get that done.
Digital hiring is a fast-moving area, with new developments happening all the time. Reed Screening is hosting regular events where you can keep up to date with the latest news and share your opinion on policy and process changes.
Below are a few of the upcoming events you can get involved with:
28th September - A year of digital right to work - where do we go from here? - Join us to hear from the UK Home Office and industry experts on what you need to know now and in the future surrounding right to work.
26th October – Digitising Employee Screening - Join us to hear from the UK government & experts on the latest to do with digitising employment.
23rd November – Making UK hiring the fastest globally – Join us as we spotlight Reed Screenings’ collaborative campaigns with industry and the UK government to make UK hiring the fastest globally.
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Almost 10 million people in the UK are of working age, but not seeking employment. There are several valid reasons for this, but to solve chronic labour shortages, it’s important that work is made more attractive, and barriers are removed.
The Better Hiring Institute is working with the UK government to make changes in hiring, aiming to make UK hiring the fastest globally, as well as improving levels of fairness and safety in recruitment. Their approach includes drawing up and actioning several 10-point plans that deal with implementing more digital hiring techniques to speed up processes, as well as clearing up overly bureaucratic procedures and regulations.
While this is taking place, what can employers do to remove barriers within their hiring practice and attract wider pools of candidates?
Being too prescriptive in a job description can deter potentially suitable candidates, as can being too vague, and omitting vital information. Additionally, many job descriptions are filled with jargon and technical language that can be intimidating for candidates who are not familiar with the industry.
Question exactly which qualifications are necessary, and which are indicators of a particular pathway. Candidates who have years of relevant experience, but no formal qualifications may be deterred from applying for a position that stipulates a specific educational pathway.
Additionally, candidates from overseas may have different but equivalent educational backgrounds, therefore including alternative and non-UK education and qualification criteria for necessary qualifications in job descriptions can help to make applicants from diverse backgrounds more comfortable in applying.
Most individuals would be more likely to apply for a job with a clear and informed job advertisement, which includes vital data such as salary information. This can be seen much more clearly with work-seekers who are neuroatypical and/or have disabilities. To combat dropouts and promote proactive recruitment, organisations should follow a standardised job advert process that makes clear the requirements and scope of a role.
Recruiters can also reduce barriers to work by offering flexible work arrangements. This can include things like remote work options, flexible hours, and job sharing. By offering these types of arrangements, recruiters can attract candidates who may have caregiving responsibilities or other commitments that make it difficult to work a traditional 9-5 job.
Remote working options such as co-working spaces and home working allow employers to access talent in communities where the jobs may not necessarily be. By offering local talent the option to remain in their hometowns and cities, recruiters can remove location-based barriers.
According to a survey conducted by the Department for Education, around 670,000 parents would return to work if it was more accessible. Offering workers the opportunity to take advantage of “work anytime” models, and making the offer clear on job adverts, promotes flexible models of employment and appeals to a wider range of workers.
This can involve taking steps to ensure that all candidates are evaluated based on their qualifications and not on factors like gender, race, or age. Recruiters can also work with hiring managers to create a more diverse interview panel, which can help to ensure that different perspectives are considered when making hiring decisions.
Going further, employers can focus on a candidate’s potential, such as the skills critical for success in a role, instead of industry-specific experience and qualifications. Some neuroatypical groups struggle to navigate traditional recruitment methods and find it challenging to market their skills. Instead, hirers can ask applicants to demonstrate how they have met job requirements in different roles (potentially in different sectors) to allow organisations to tap into a richer pool of applicants.
Offering video interviews, online applications, and digital ID verification options means that those who are less mobile, live further afield, or are unable to travel due to financial issues can access your business as a candidate.
Additionally, those with access needs, including applicants with autism, can feel more comfortable applying for positions. The ONS recently reported that adults with autism face the highest level of unemployment out of all disability groups, with just 21.7% in employment. But with digital innovations such as virtual interviews, applicants can control their environment: lighting can be managed, background noise can be minimised, and fidget toys can be used off-camera to help applicants avoid sensory overload, give their genuine best at interview, and avoid any judgment from recruiters.
Conversely, recent estimates cite around 9 million people in the UK who are unable to use the internet and mobile devices without support, which is the equivalent of 16% of UK adults. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that there is always alternative access for work seekers who are digitally excluded. Digital exclusion can be caused by disability, financial hardship, and age, therefore it’s important to ensure that if your recruitment process makes use of specific apps, or requires access to mobile technology, non-digital routes are also available, to ensure full inclusivity.
Whatever the make-up of your team, when hiring it’s important to ensure that risk is minimised through thorough screening. With over 60 years of experience in recruitment, and over 9 years of experience as a screening specialist, Reed Screening is ideally placed to advise your business on the best way to ensure that new hires are a boost to your company’s performance.
]]>As the new school year begins, schools and educational institutions across the country are gearing up to welcome new students and teachers. With the ongoing worker shortage adding a layer of complexity to the hiring process, it's more important than ever to attract the best teaching candidates and build a diverse and inclusive teaching staff.
Engaging the best teaching candidates requires a multifaceted approach that focuses on diversity, storytelling, technology, and values-driven recruitment. By leveraging these strategies, schools can build a strong team of educators who are passionate, creative, and dedicated to their students' success.
In this blog post, we'll explore some strategies for engaging top teaching talent and building a strong team of educators.
Diversity in the classroom is essential for creating a welcoming and inclusive learning environment, as well as useful for accessing new approaches to creative problem-solving and teaching styles.
To attract teaching candidates from different backgrounds, schools can focus on outreach programs that target underrepresented groups. This could include partnering with community organisations, attending job fairs, and creating job listings that explicitly welcome candidates from diverse backgrounds.
Employer branding is also important for demonstrating that your educational establishment values diversity. This means being clear about your approach through images, wording, and messaging. It’s also worth being direct about your intention to diversify your talent pool within your messaging; saying that you want to increase diversity within your team shows a willingness to improve and invites people of different backgrounds to apply.
Recruiting top teaching talent isn't just about listing job requirements and qualifications. It's also about telling a compelling story that speaks to a candidate's values and aspirations. Schools and educational establishments can use storytelling techniques to highlight their mission and values, showcase the impact of their work, and create an emotional connection with candidates.
In education, the soft benefits of the teaching professional are especially important, as publicly funded institutions are less likely to be able to negotiate pay. Spotlighting existing staff members and their stories and progress within the school can be inspirational and highlight the progress and story that new members of a school’s teaching staff can carve out for themselves.
Innovative technology solutions can help schools streamline the hiring process and attract top teaching talent. This could include using social media to promote job listings and engage with candidates, creating video job descriptions, and using AI-powered tools to screen resumes and identify top candidates.
Digital right-to-work checks are a good option for recruiting teaching staff, as they not only offer a more convenient screening option for both employers and candidates but also provide enhanced ID verification, which has been proven to be more accurate and spot more advanced fake documents than in-person checks. In educational institutions, where safeguarding is at the top of the agenda, it’s vital to know your staff are who they say they are.
When interviewing teaching candidates, it's important to look beyond their qualifications and experience. A great teacher is someone passionate, creative, and dedicated to their students. Schools can use behavioural interviewing techniques to identify these traits and assess a candidate's fit with their school culture.
Examples of soft skills that are important for teachers include communication skills, empathy, adaptability, and teamwork. To assess a candidate's soft skills, you can ask behavioural interview questions that require the candidate to provide specific examples of how they have demonstrated these skills in the past.
Additionally, you can observe how the candidate interacts with others during the interview process and ask for references who can speak to the candidate's soft skills. By taking the time to assess a candidate's soft skills, you can ensure that you are hiring a teacher who will not only be knowledgeable in their subject area but also be able to effectively communicate and collaborate with their students and colleagues.
Attracting passionate and motivated teaching candidates requires more than just a competitive salary and benefits package. Schools can highlight their mission and values, showcase the impact of their work, and create a sense of purpose and meaning for potential candidates. By doing so, they can attract teachers who are truly committed to making a difference in the lives of their students.
Whatever the make-up of your team, when hiring it’s important to ensure that risk is minimised through thorough screening. With over 60 years of experience in recruitment, and over 9 years of experience as screening specialists, Reed Screening is ideally placed to advise your business on the best way to ensure that new hires are a boost to your company’s performance.
]]>However, creating a truly inclusive workplace culture can be challenging; outdated beliefs and exclusionary policies can hamper progress and cause friction within the workplace. Nevertheless, the importance of fostering an inclusive work culture far outweighs any resistance you might encounter on the way.
Inclusive workplace cultures have a multitude of benefits that can positively impact both employees by fostering a sense of belonging and respect and the company as a whole by promoting creativity, innovation, and productivity.
An inclusive workplace culture promotes employee well-being and mental health. When employees feel included and valued, they are more likely to be engaged and productive. This, in turn, can lead to increased job satisfaction and decreased turnover rates.
Inclusive workplace cultures also promote creativity and innovation. When employees from diverse backgrounds and experiences come together, they bring a range of perspectives and ideas to the table. This can lead to more creative problem-solving and innovative solutions.
Additionally, inclusive workplace cultures can help improve the company's reputation and brand. Companies that prioritize inclusivity and diversity are more attractive to potential employees and customers. This can lead to increased profitability and growth opportunities.
Finally, an inclusive workplace culture is simply the right thing to do. It ensures that all employees are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their background or identity. By creating a workplace where everyone feels valued and included, we can work towards a more equitable and just society.
Whatever the make-up of your team, when hiring it’s important to ensure that risk is minimised through thorough screening. With over 60 years of experience in recruitment, and over 9 years of experience as screening specialists, Reed Screening is ideally placed to advise your business on the best way to ensure that new hires are a boost to your company’s performance.
]]>Presenting were:
Keith Rosser: Chair of the Better Hiring Institute and Director of Reed Screening
Sue Smith: Independent Safeguarding Consultant
Billy Smith: Head of Resourcing, Scottish Government.
As chair of the BHI, Keith explained the organisation’s goals and purpose.
The Better Hiring Institute was established during the COVID-19 pandemic to help drive massive change in hiring and onboarding and to help the UK economy grow after the lockdown. The BHI works closely with the UK government and devolved governments to make hiring faster, fairer, and safer.
Faster - A significant issue within the UK economy at present is slow hiring processes causing a delay in people entering work. This is leading to lower government yield from taxes, longer waiting lists and heavier workloads.
Fairer – hiring practices remain unfair and biased, offering unequal opportunities to barriered communities.
Safer – As we digitalise and make hiring faster, what impact is there on safeguarding and how do we ensure it keeps pace with innovation?
As part of these overarching values, the BHI’s objectives include:
Some of the changes the BHI has already influenced include:
In pursuit of its goals, the BHI has drawn up several 10-point plans to provide concise and digestible road maps, each covering a different aspect of change.
This plan points towards making the UK the fastest place to hire globally. It does that by identifying 10 areas that need to change, including the expansion of digital identity for hiring, the development of further information and checks that could be sourced from within government or elsewhere to speed up the hiring process, reforms to referencing, reforms to sector rules and regulations, and changes to supply chain complexity.
This plan is aimed at improving fairness across the UK labour market by highlighting bias and promoting good practice, including emphasising flexible working models, defining the role of AI in hiring, working towards consistency with how adverse information such as credit checks, social media etc is dealt with, and creating a more inclusive workplace for workers with disabilities.
This plan focuses on reducing the barriers that the economically inactive face, making work more accessible and attractive. It includes points on supporting parents to take the step into work, enhancing career education, providing transition support for skilled refugees, and upskilling the UK labour market.
The APPG for modernising employment is a massive opportunity for the industry to come together with parliamentarians and political movers to make real change.
An All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) consists of Members of both Houses who unite to pursue a particular topic or interest. The Modernising Employment APPG was set up in 2023 and is sponsored by the Better Hiring Institute. Its meetings are open to UK employers with an interest in hiring and work and is chaired by Emma Hardy MP (Hull). Its focuses include making UK hiring the fastest globally, the future nature of jobs, digital hiring, and improving labour market standards for all. It is pro-growth and pro-worker.
Employers are encouraged to get involved, as attendance at fact-finding and open forum events is critical in moving issues forward.
Keith explained that hiring in the UK is complex since the various industry rules, trade body rules, and regulator rules have evolved organically, and lack inter-alignment. Organisations are faced with complexity within their industries; often regulator rules don’t match supply framework rules, or trade body rules, creating an overly complicated and messy situation for employers.
Therefore, a key activity of the BHI is to release Better Hiring Toolkits that are free to use for organisations and provide free help and advice to organisations as well as work to set the best practice standard for the industry.
The toolkits also include helpful information for employers, including critical guidance such as identifying name changes in hiring, online media check guidance, and information on managing supply chains. They also point to government and industry bodies, such as the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate for reporting poor agency practices.
With these toolkits, the BHI is continuing at pace to cover over 80% of the UK’s workforce. The Care Toolkit launched on GOV.UK earlier in 2023, and has been utilised by 10,000 organisations, and within one month of launching, the Finance Toolkit has already been used by 250 organisations.
Better Hiring Toolkits in Local Authorities and Education are due for release by Autumn 2023 with work continuing in Construction, Transport, and Health into 2024.
Sue explained how safeguarding is developing alongside the innovations in hiring technology and practice.
It's never been more important from a safeguarding point of view to keep ahead of the curve of the developments that are fast approaching, such as the increased use of AI and digitisation in employment. Safeguarding is constantly changing over time, and so should our vigilance and assessment of our methods to protect those at risk.
The job of policymakers and employers is less to obliterate risk entirely, but to minimise it as far as possible, as reflected in a quote by Michael Bichard, Baron Bichard, who said in 2004 as part of the Soham inquiry:
“For those agencies whose job it is to protect children and vulnerable people, the harsh reality is that if a sufficiently devious person is determined to seek out opportunities to work their evil, no one can guarantee that they will be stopped. Our task is to make it as difficult as possible for them to succeed.”
Therefore, stopping every element of abuse from ever occurring is an unrealistic aim.
As an example, Sue referred to the work of Marcus Erooga, who has published extensively on the topic of child sexual abuse, and states that it is impossible to predict when the constellation of factors comes together in which the situational child abuser will choose to abuse.
Therefore, Erooga defines the protective system as one where someone who is thinking of abusing is aware that it's likely to be reported or detected and can be certain that if the abuse is disclosed, not only will they be dismissed, but the matter will be reported to the police immediately. If there's a protective system in an organisation, the risk/benefit analysis ought to lead potential abusers to the conclusion that whilst abuse may be possible, it's not in their interest to proceed. An aim of policy and practice which includes organisational systems must therefore be to increase the risk and cost of detection to a potential perpetrator.
Because safeguarding is a multilayered challenge, it’s not possible to rely on a single mechanism of prevention.
As part of the development of the Better Hiring Toolkit for Care, a survey was undertaken to see what protective mechanisms employers relied on the most. DBS checks are featured highly.
However, while DBS checks provide extremely important intelligence, employers should never assume that a clear DBS check means they are employing someone who will not abuse and that disclosing convictions, cautions and soft intelligence doesn't mean they are employing someone who will present a risk.
Employers need to be constantly horizon scanning and taking a 360-degree approach to assess and reassess risk, not just at recruitment stages, but during employment. The Better Hiring Toolkit for care describes this as developing a safeguarding mindset.
Sue describes a safeguarding mindset as the difference between compliance and curiosity. Dozens of inquiries and safeguarding reviews have found that a culture of compliance alone, focused on meeting minimum standards, is not enough to keep people safe.
Curious organisations, instead, are proactive with the information they have, and when something doesn’t seem right, they seek additional information to challenge or validate their observations.
The Better Hiring Toolkit for Care provides a rich wealth of resources about how organisations can set out their safeguarding expectations and demonstrate a safeguarding culture that goes beyond compliance and embraces curiosity. As part of this, a culture that promotes the freedom to speak up is crucial - sharing conduct information and low-level concerns is all part of this.
Developing a safeguarding mindset, culture, and 360-degree approach to safeguarding that extends beyond recruitment is crucial as we move towards more digital hiring and ID validation methods. If we continually review the health of our safeguarding mindset and maintain our curiosity, we will be in a better place to increase the risk and cost of detection to a potential perpetrator and minimise the risk to children, adults at risk, and the public.
Billy described how the BHI’s priorities dovetail with those of the Scottish Government, and why he urges employers to join the Better Hiring Institute.
Huge changes in the labour force and labour market have created a challenging environment for employers to navigate.
Labour force changes include:
In the labour market, we’re experiencing a shift to increased high-skilled and fewer low-skilled jobs, which is combined with rapid advances in technology, but a growing risk that this will widen inequalities.
The BHI’s goals of making hiring faster, fairer, and safer are key to overcoming these challenges.
Billy laid out his reasons for getting involved with the BHI:
From the Scottish Government’s point of view, there is a clear linkage between the aims of the Better Hiring Institute and the three key missions of the Scottish Government:
All organisations want their recruitment to be faster, fairer, and safer, not only for the social benefits to both employers and employees, but also for the advantages to efficiency, compliance, and safeguarding.
However, national change is not possible for individual organisations, which is where the BHI is leading the charge to not only help employers and candidates but also protect them from harm.
Employers are urged to get involved and contribute to the change-making activities the Better Hiring Institute is leading. Joining is completely free, and the majority of industries have subcommittees that meet every six to eight weeks. The time commitment is low, the sessions are always virtual, and the feedback received through the meetings is hugely important in shaping the changes to hiring and onboarding.
We took the opportunity to get a gauge of the experiences and opinions of our attendees.
If you were to prioritise one of the BHI’s ongoing projects, which would be most important to you and your organisation?
What do you see as the biggest challenge in hiring moving forward?
The BHI is supporting the APPG on Modernising Employment to change UK hiring. Would you like to hear more about how you are able to get involved?
Better Hiring Toolkits are proving to be valuable to employers, as 40% of attendees would opt to prioritise the development of industry-specific toolkits. By Q1 next year the BHI aims to have released Toolkits that will cover 80% of the UK’s workforce, before moving on to provide resources for the remaining 20%.
Almost half of our attendees saw employee skills in hiring as a significant challenge. The BHI is moving to help bring together the different industry skills frameworks that exist across industries into one place and linking to guidance and advice on job adverts.
The vast majority, 84% of attendees, were interested in hearing more about how to get involved in the APPG on Modernising Employment. More information can be found on the APPG website.
Is there a need for training to use the BHI toolkits? e.g., short micro-modules on how to do specific tasks, linked to low-cost accreditation (and recording) of competence in doing those tasks?
Keith: There isn't a need for training. I think the toolkits are quite self-explanatory. They're interactive guides online, so people can also use them just to go to certain sectors or sections, to use the template documents or to go to certain pages. They don't have to be read as end-to-end documents.
And as I say, they are interactive guides, hyperlinked online. They're not Word or PDF documents that have to be scrolled through. So, I think they're quite easy to use.
In terms of the second part of the question and micro modules on how to do specific tasks and the potential for future accreditation - we haven't got to that stage yet and there have been a number of members who have asked if in the future will there be a way to certify or credit themselves to say they follow the toolkits. We haven't got to that point, but potentially there might be future developments that people can accredit themselves as a sort of better hirer through the Better Hiring Institute. So excellent question and it's something on our road map.
Digital hiring is a fast-moving area, with new developments happening all the time. Reed Screening is hosting regular events where you can keep up to date with the latest news and share your opinion on policy and process changes.
Below are a few of the upcoming events you can get involved with:
However, dealing with young candidates requires a different approach to the interviewing and screening process, as opposed to hiring for more senior positions. Here are our recommendations for how to approach interviewing and screening school leavers, and getting the best out of younger talent.
New school leavers have limited experience of employment, if any. So it’s important to lay out exactly how the application and interview process will play out, what you’re looking for, and what you’re expecting at each stage. This means that you’re more likely to see candidates’ strengths and learn more about them, beyond how they handle their first interview process.
It also important to ensure you are realistic in your expectations. The experience that school leavers have may be limited to Saturday jobs, work experience placements, and weekend volunteering. It’s unreasonable to expect a fully rounded employee with all of the expected soft and hard skills already in place.
If you’re employing young candidates, expect to provide a lot of on-the-job training, and be aware that they are still developing not only as workers but as people too. Their interview skills will most likely need work, as will their interpersonal and judgement skills.
Hiring a young school leaver is an investment in your company’s future workforce, so it’s important to look for potential, instead of hard skills.
If you want to coax the best out of young applicants, using plain and easily understood language is important. Alienating and confusing candidates through the use of industry terms or specialist language will not help you to identify candidates with the most potential. Therefore, try to explain any jargon that is unavoidable and use clear language otherwise.
As with any candidate, being clear on what the company can offer a new employee is important with school leavers, too. As younger candidates, they might be very clear on where they want to be in the future, while others might still be exploring their options. Being clear on the potential trajectory of a position, the pathways it can lead to, and the training they can benefit from can ensure your candidates are engaged, motivated, and more likely to stay with the company for longer.
Today’s school leavers don’t remember a time before smartphones were commonplace, and have grown up with and around digital technology. While this means they’re likely to be an asset to your company in terms of mastering your tech, it also means they have high expectations of technology usage in the workplace, too.
Providing digital options for applying, interviewing, and screening will appeal to younger candidates, as well as offering benefits to you as an employer. Adopting the use of online interviews allows young candidates to control their own environment and save on travel and clothing costs, while employers can save time and money on booking space, and ensuring busy interview panellists are in the same room at the same time. Additionally, digital screening and checks, including Digital Right to Work Checks, have been shown to be quicker and more secure.
The world is embracing inclusivity and diversity, and younger generations are at the forefront of this. To get the most out of younger candidates (and to reap the rewards of a more diverse workforce) it’s important to have in place inclusivity and diversity policies, as well as present an accepting and open employer brand.
This most likely won’t mean you need to overhaul your whole company, but it’s important to make sure that policy and systems are in place to promote a inclusive workplace, and ensure you’re on top of any behaviour or attitudes that might drive new talent away or be seen as unacceptable.
When interviewing school leavers, you’re meeting candidates at the very beginning of their employment journey. Those who are not right for the position now are more than likely going to build their skills and develop as people before the next vacancy needs to be filled, so it’s a good idea to keep in touch with candidates and build a talent pool, and encourage them to apply for future positions.
Do this by building a dedicated mailing list for applicants, and send them regular updates about vacancies, as well as content on how to apply, good interview technique, and other useful information.
While younger talent has a shorter history to check, it’s still important to make sure that your new hires’ backgrounds won’t put your business at risk.
With over 60 years of experience in recruitment, and over 9 years’ experience as screening specialists, Reed Screening is ideally placed to advise your business on the best way to ensure that new hires are a boost to your company’s performance.
]]>However, Gen Z is widely regarded to have different needs and priorities in the workplace to older generations. Therefore in order to appeal to this generation and take advantage of the business benefits they offer as employees, it’s important to put measures in place that are going to evolve as the workforce does.
Here are our recommendations for how to attract the newly emerging top young talent.
Gen Z are the most socially aware generation, and are pioneering identity politics, celebrating and taking control of their own identities. In order to attract Gen Z employees, its important that your company culture is accepting and embracing of diversity within the workforce. This can mean ensuring that inclusivity training takes places, or that company events or parties are planned to account for and celebrate different cultures, identities, and needs.
Company ethos is also an important factor when attracting Gen Z applicants. As a well-informed and politically active generation, using social media to share and consume news and opinions, Gen Z is particularly in tune to ethical issues, and take this into account when choosing where to work. It’s a good idea to shout about your company’s ESG initiatives and goals in job adverts and on your company website, to demonstrate your ethical stance and the actions you are taking to positively impact the world around you.
While company culture can be steered towards inclusion and support of different identities, it’s important that the company’s commitment to this is also written into policy. A business without a diversity and inclusion policy is a rarity nowadays, but the more you can demonstrate this in practice, the more attractive your business will be to younger applicants.
For example, adopting inclusive hiring methods within every area of your process is important. This can include ensuring job adverts are open and non-restrictive to people with alternative pathways by not specifying unnecessary qualifications within job criteria, and ensuring that non UK education and qualifications are accepted where certain credentials are essential.
An awareness of things like preferred pronouns for candidates, and taking mental health into account can indicate to candidates that you take inclusion seriously, as well as taking steps to eliminate unconscious bias within the selection process by removing names or other identifying or protected characteristics from applications.
The workplace has changed considerably in recent years, and many people are embracing more flexible working practices, including remote and hybrid working, as well as flexible hours and job share options.
Gen Z are no different, and place a high value on positions that afford flexibility within the workplace. Therefore, when looking to attract Gen Z applicants, it’s advisable to highlight the flexible working options that your workplace offers, and be very clear exactly what your expectations are in terms of time in the office, expected working hours, and how willing you are to negotiate terms.
For jobs where remote working is not feasible, look for different areas you can offer flexibility. For example, can you be flexible with when holidays and time off is booked in, and can you offer flexible working hours or other benefits?
Much of Gen Z does not remember a time before smart phones, and most weren’t born when broadband became commonplace in the UK. They have grown up with and around technology, and therefore expect that technology is utilised in the workplace.
This means that if you want to attract the top young talent from Gen Z, you need to have a workplace that makes use of and benefits from a range of tech-based systems. Many young workers are likely to be masters of IT systems and mobile devices, and can therefore be valuable assets within your team. However, they are most likely to be uncomfortable in an environment where manual and time consuming tasks are not already replaced by automation and streamlined processes.
A strong way to demonstrate your adoption of tech is through the application and screening process, by conducting online interviews and offering Digital screening checks such as Digital right to work or Digital DBS screenings.
Digitalisation of the process is also beneficial for your business, too, as it can help to streamline the recruitment journey, as well as provide valuable insights into how applicants interact with you as an employer.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks for workers of all kinds, including the top young talent of Gen Z.
With screening and checks happening 24/7, we can vet your candidates within a timescale that suits your business, and our AssuredID service offers an easy and accurate way to verify a candidate’s ID digitally and remotely.
For more information, get in touch with our team.
]]>Retention of seasonal staff represents a more cost effective and low-risk way of employing holiday workers, meaning that the same team returns to you for busy periods. This can result in less time being needed to onboard and train, the team being familiar with the company operations and culture, and your workforce remaining reliable and trusted throughout the year.
However, achieving this can be challenging without putting the right measures in place. Here are our top tips for building a reliable seasonal workforce and retaining them.
There’s no point retaining staff who are a poor fit for your company, therefore it’s important to be thorough and selective when hiring.
For some businesses, particularly retail or hospitality, seasonal workers are often school or university students looking to earn money between term times. While students are often reliable, hard-working assets to your seasonal team, they are only likely to return for as long as they’re studying or until they’re hired in a position more connected to their area of study.
Widening your hiring net to include gig-economy workers, temps, and freelancers means you are more likely to attract candidates who are more settled in their working lifestyle and are more likely to return for future seasons.
Selective hiring means introducing a thorough hiring process, however, this can be a difficult balance to achieve, as seasonal workers are unlikely to want to undergo a long and in-depth hiring process for a temporary position. Ask existing staff for recommendations within their networks, and make it clear to applicants that there is a probability of future work to attract high quality candidates.
While most seasonal workers aren’t looking for a long-term career in the industry of their summer job, showing that pathways and development opportunities are available is a great way to retain seasonal staff.
Offering training opportunities, increasing responsibility and considering seasonal staff for promotions etc. not only encourages loyalty through the offer of increased benefits, but also demonstrates the value you place in your employees.
Additionally, by offering training and increased responsibility you are developing your workforce, and are more likely to benefit from their new skills and experiences in the long run.
Building a friendly relationship with a seasonal worker is a smart move – people looking for seasonal work are more likely to return to a place where they feel they belong, and that has an enjoyable work culture and environment.
Ensure that staff feel supported and valued throughout the busier seasons and maintain contact with seasonal workers when they’re no longer required. This means send them company updates, invite them to staff events and parties, and ensure that they are aware that you intend to hire them again when the next busy season comes around.
With the cost to hire a significant expense, it may be worthwhile offering financial incentives to returning staff as way of saving money.
Higher wages, one-time bonuses, or splashing out on incentivising gifts will not only motivate seasonal workers to return but will most likely end up cheaper than recruiting new staff.
While for many seasonal jobs are a way to earn money over the holidays, being clear on why the work needs to be done and the wider societal impact of the role can help to engage seasonal workers more.
Because they're not full-time employees, contingent and gig workers’ investment in the company and its values is unlikely to be as strong as permanent employees. Therefore, make sure you express the “why” behind the business or project - what is the overall goal? What change are you making? What does success look like? Making this clear from the outset will allow the worker to understand the organisation’s reason for being and invest and identify more fully with the company values.
Set up systems so that the admin of employment such as screening and right to work checks are easy and hassle free. Employing digital systems such as Digital right to work checks improves the experience for both employer and employee by providing a quick and convenient way for a worker to prove their identity and right to work legally in the UK, and improved security and protection against fraud for the employer.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks for workers of all kinds, including gig workers, freelancers, and temps.
With screening and checks happening 24/7, we can vet your candidates within a timescale that suits your business, and our AssuredID service offers an easy and accurate way to verify a candidate’s ID digitally and remotely.
For more information, get in touch with our team.
]]>Presenting were:
Keith Rosser: Director of Reed Screening and Chair of the Better Hiring Institute
Andrew Henderson: Secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Modernising Employment
Devon Troup: Digital Identity Legislation Lead at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology.
Keith spoke about the need for transformation and reform in hiring in the UK, evident in the 1.1 million vacancies and the slow, inefficient processes we’re currently working with.
The BHI are working to address these issues, and make hiring faster, fairer and safer.
10th July marked the first meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Modernising Employment, with the session focused on how we make UK hiring the fastest globally.
Representatives from Royal Mail and NHS Professionals spoke on key issues that need resolving in the hiring process, as well as the importance of faster hiring. 1 in every 75 vacancies currently outstanding in the UK is for either the NHS or Royal Mail, so the need to speed up hiring is particularly pertinent for these organisations.
Challenges to faster hiring include the widespread use of manual hiring processes, as well as lack of alignment between regulatory bodies forcing the completion of unnecessary checks. However, Keith mentioned that the most pervasive challenge was around tradition, custom, and red tape, where across the UK industries and sectors, regulators, trade bodies, and groups have developed their own organic rules for hiring, which has led to complexity and confusion.
For example, the emergence of digital identity and digital right to work has sped the process up significantly, however, in certain cases such as DBS checks, there’s still a requirement for applicants to produce physical documents to prove their address. This sort of red tape holds up hiring processes considerably, and has also been shown to be susceptible to fraud very easily on illegal websites, and therefore provide no extra safeguarding or security.
Other challenges and opportunities include:
To address these, the BHI have submitted a 10-point plan for faster hiring, which is being sent to government ministers.
The Better Hiring Institute has also been creating free best practise toolkits for industries to help organisations know what the best practise in their sector is and offer additional information such as where to report recruitment agencies that haven't done the right thing or how to help improve transparency in supply chains, plus further advice on implementing fair inclusive hiring processes.
Importantly, however, the BHI are developing these toolkits to align standards and hiring frameworks, and therefore drive innovation. With aligned requirements and rules for each industry, developments such as digital identity, digital right to work, and other innovations can be better supported.
This year, the BHI has a plan to launch toolkits that represent over 80% of the UK labour market, all developed in association with sector related bodies and DBS.
The removal of barriers is critical to promote fairer hiring, and the BHI are currently developing a 10-point plan to address this.
Barriers that represent significant challenges to fair hiring include:
Hiring practise – this includes how job adverts are worded and presented, whether qualifications are asked for on job adverts, requiring experience for entry level or graduate jobs, the questions asked at interview, where and how interviews take place, how people with gaps in their employment history are dealt with etc.
Trust in technology – in order to promote the use of technology in the hiring process, applicants and candidates need to be sure that fairness and security is built in. The BHI are working to provide answers to how we protect job seekers through IDSP, and how can we protect job seekers who are applying for work online.
Unnecessary red tape - for instance, the NHS supply chains mandate in-person right to work checks, not taking advantage of the increased security and expedience of using digital right to work checks.
Collective regulation - Promoting the concept of collective regulation, balancing the requirements of the regulator as well as the wants and needs of businesses in that sector.
Keith spoke about Reed Screening’s work to innovate within the hiring process. This has included:
Digital referencing – Reed Screening has been pioneering the use of open banking and government gateway data to replace referencing where it's safe to do so. Where detailed referencing is not required for safeguarding, confirmation of dates of work and employment history through these alternative methods can replace the current referencing techniques and accelerate the slowest part of the hiring process.
AI-driven screening – through the roll-out of Reed Screening’s new screening and hiring platform, which has been in development internally for the past 2.5 years, the screening process has been made significantly faster. The platform automatically runs checks, and automatically processes clear results, with humans only needing to be involved in more complex cases.
Promoting better ways of hiring – by working with government and industry, Reed Screening have been promoting innovation within the hiring process. Through a study of 70,000 hires, Reed Screening showed that 82% opted for the digital route to verify right to work. Hires completed the process in 3.5 minutes and were able to start work 1 week sooner than those going through the manual process, representing a big impact on tax revenues and businesses dealing with workload and waiting lists.
Supplier innovation of the year winner - Reed Screening were recently awarded a prize for supplier innovation of the year at an industry award ceremony for their work in transforming UK hiring.
Andrew spoke about the APPG for Modernising Employment, and the important work they are doing to identify policy changes that can revolutionise hiring for the modern world.
An All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) consists of Members of both Houses who join together to pursue a particular topic or interest. All-Party Parliamentary Groups cover a diverse range of subjects and are established for a rich variety of purposes. They provide a valuable opportunity for parliamentarians to engage with individuals and organisations outside Parliament who share an interest in the subject matter of their Group. They are not however official parliamentary bodies, and Groups must avoid presenting themselves in a way which leads to their being confused with select committees.
The Register of All-Party Parliamentary Groups, which is maintained by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, is a definitive list of such groups. It contains financial and other information about Groups which the House has decided should be published. The Register is published on the parliamentary website and updated approximately every six weeks.
The APPG for Modernising Employment was set up in 2023 and is sponsored by the Better Hiring Institute. Its meetings are open to everyone with an interest in hiring and work, and it’s chaired by Emma Hardy, MP for Hull West.
The work of the APPG will gather information on how to beneficially modernise employment, initially focusing on topics that include:
The APPG will meet (when Parliament is in session) to discuss various topics and take evidence. This is then used by the Chair, Emma Hardy, to form the basis of a letter to the relevant Minister. Typically, this would highlight whatever the situation is and bring some aspect of policy that is not working or needs to be looked at to the Minister’s attention.
The APPG may also undertake inquiries on particular areas of interest in order to collect evidence for the purposes of answering their designed question. These are more comprehensive than a single meeting and typically, they involve gathering evidence from industry, academic and NGO sources through questionnaires then evidence meetings. From this a conclusion is formulated for the Chair, who can then present this to the Minister or use it to invite the Minister to speak to the APPG. Inquiries tend to be more in-depth in their nature and may take several months to complete.
APPGs are open and transparent. The APPG has a calendar of events, and meetings are advertised to encourage participation. The aim of the meetings is to allow the industry experts to meet both parliamentarians and other industry members to share ideas, comments etc.
The APPG’s website is intended to be a resource for the industry, and contributions of documents or papers for sharing are welcome.
Devon spoke about the new bill being discussed in Parliament to enable the widespread use of digital ID.
Digital identities enable people to prove things about themselves, such as their age or address. This is increasingly useful, if not essential, in an increasingly digital world. Digital identities can be more convenient, more cost effective and safer than scanning and sending physical documents.
Benefits include:
in September 2020 DCMS, now DSIT published a response to the Digital Identity Call for Evidence, outlining the principles and strategies to enable the widespread use of reusable, interoperable digital identities across the UK economy. In response, DSIT committed to:
...all while focusing on privacy, inclusion and international interoperability.
Trust framework - A third (beta) iteration of UK digital identity and attributes trust framework was published in June 2022. Robust testing is underway, including a series of large, in-person policy-development events and a sandbox testing platform.
Governance - “Live” pre-employment, pre-rental and criminal record checks are already happening under the interim UKAS-accredited certification scheme. The Office of Digital Identities and Attributes will be established after legislation. It will own the public Register of certified providers and issue ‘trust marks’.
Legislation - Necessary legislative measures are part of the Data Protection and Digital Information (No.2) Bill - a confirmed Government priority.
In financial services, travel, property transactions, age-restricted products, and business identity, digital ID can provide reduced costs, improved efficiency, privacy and fraud benefits.
DSIT are working, for example, with the Treasury on enabling digital identity in the financial services sector, and an international team is working on international interoperability and much like in travel, in property transactions the need for identity verification is often repeated. Digital ID is a secure, fast and reusable way of proving identity.
In employment and hiring, whether it's for completing employment checks, employment history, qualification certificates and enabling these for assets carried out digitally, digital IDs will reduce costs and speed up processes.
Part 2 of the bill has 17 measures under the title Digital Verification Services, which is how the bill refers to digital identity and legislation terms.
The Bill defines the digital identity services, introduces the trust framework, and outlines how and when it should be updated. It’s proposed that there will be an annual review, but small changes may be made outside of this.
It also gives the Secretary of State the power to require top up certificates which can be used when the trust framework has been updated in a minor way, meaning that organisations can avoid full re-application to maintain their certification, and instead only apply against the new rules.
These measures give powers to the Secretary of State to carry out the operational governance and oversight of digital identity services enabled by the Bill. These functions will be carried out by the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes, a team of civil servants within the department.
The DVS register (Digital Verification Services Register) will be a publicly available register, on which any organisation fulfilling the required criteria must be listed. Criteria include completing an application process, paying the relevant fee, and holding a certificate from an accredited certification body. Organisations on the register will be issued a trust mark, indicating to organisations and the general public that they are dealing with a trusted digital identity organisation.
The Bill also requires that the register is kept up to date, and that any organisation that has their certification revoked against the trust framework must be removed from the register. It also empowers the Secretary of State to remove organisations from the register in response to security concerns, for example.
The Bill also enables the Secretary of State to require certifying bodies and organisations on the DVS Register to provide the department with reasonable information. This could be for inclusion or monitoring purposes. However, information requests have to be proportionate, meaning for example details about an organisation’s commercial relationships would be considered unreasonable.
These measures allow the Secretary of State to delegate all of these functions to a third party, which builds in flexibility for the Office of Digital Identities and Attributes to move outside of DSIT, where it will be housed initially once the legislation is passed.
These clauses also set out the requirement for the Secretary of State to publish an annual report on the operation of this part of the Bill, the terms of which are not defined in legislation but are likely to include an assessment of how the market is functioning as well as monitoring on inclusion.
These measures enable public authorities (any organisation carrying out a public task) to share information with trust marked identity service providers for the purpose of identity and eligibility verification. However, that can only happen at the request of the user, which differs to consent. Organisations will need to show that the user has made that request for the identity checks to be made.
The Bill enables public authorities to charge for a check to be made against data in order to recover the costs of the disclosure. The legislation doesn't dictate how those costs will be set, however, all public charging has to be carried out in line with managing public money guidance or its devolved equivalents.
It attaches a criminal offence to the misuse of tax information, which is standard for any onward sharing of tax data without the permission of each of HMRC, the Welsh Revenue Authority and Revenue Scotland.
These measures also require our Secretary of State to produce the code of practise for public authorities to use alongside the legislation, and that code will apply to all types of public authorities who wish to share data through this gateway. This code will be consistent with the Information Commissioner's Office, their data sharing good practise and will consult the ICO when preparing this code. The code won't place any new obligations on public authorities, rather it just sets out the key steps and considerations around the use of this information sharing gateway, and it will highlight other relevant legislation running alongside this Bill.
We took the opportunity to get a gauge on the experiences and opinions of our attendees.
What remains the most time consuming part of the hiring process?
Referencing – 77%
Obtaining information from candidates – 14%
Criminal record checks – 7%
Proving qualifications – 0%
Would you like to hear from the Better Hiring Institute about the work of the APPG?
Yes – 72%
No – 28%
What is the most important digital identity consideration for your organisation?
Fraud Prevention – 42%
Speed – 23%
Security – 23%
Privacy 9%
According to over three quarters of our attendees, referencing still remains the most time-consuming part of the hiring process, showing that the work being done to accelerate this is badly needed.
With 72% of our attendees wishing to hear more about the work of the APPG, there is evidently appetite for and interest in the work of the group.
Fraud prevention, according to 42% of our attendees is the most important consideration when it comes to Digital ID, while speed and security were joint second at 23%, and privacy was third at 9%.
I appreciate the Data Information Bill is still a bill, so nothing is certain, but is there anything you can say to employers who use IDSP or are thinking of using IDSP about the bill that will be relevant in terms of governance or rules for Digital IDs going forward?
Devon: Absolutely. We've got the right to rent, right to work, and DBS checks already in train. Legislation hasn't passed yet, but once we have this legislative underpinning - and I should mention we are looking at the right to work and right to rent checks and right now it's recommended that organisations use certified identity service providers to carry out these checks. We are looking at giving that statutory footing as well if that's appropriate.
But the creation of the register is going to be quite a fundamental part of building trust in this market, because right now we just have a list of certified IDSPs on gov.uk, whereas the register will have that kind of publicly available list, but it will also be electronic as well and enable organisations to check that quickly and electronically. So you know immediately which kind of organisations you can trust, which IDSP from that list has met the baseline standards for what identity use looks like, and then I think secondly the data sharing gateway is going to be a really huge advancement in the current right to rent, right to work checks, where there is still a physical aspect with the address checking. Whereas once information is available, whether that's held by the Home Office or DWP or the local council, to prove that this is your address and this is where you've lived for X number of years, we'll be able to streamline that process and hopefully make those checks even faster.
And it's really, it's really brilliant to see, I think on your first couple of slides there, 82% had opted to make those checks digital. It’d be great to see that increase, great to see it faster and from more and more certified organisations - I think we've currently got 42.
Keith: Thank you, Devon. And it's estimated about 30% of IDSPs aren’t certified so 42 plus that 30% group as well. So I think for employers to know that all IDSPs in future potentially will be certified, I think will be very positive as well. Although it might be a journey, take heart in the idea that we might be able to remove things like proof of address paper checking in future, I think would be great. Certainly we get a lot of feedback from employers that are having to use physical documents - it’s becoming increasingly difficult when even bank statements and things are online and now work seekers don't even have the documents at all.
One of the challenges for transforming hiring is that it crosses over so many government departments, and that's probably one of the reasons why hiring has never been truly modernised. In your experience does an APPG potentially have a role in bringing parts of government together and push change forward?
Andrew: Well, yes, I mean I guess it would be wrong to say that an APPG can somehow wave a magic wand.
And I mean, this is a general problem when dealing with government. But it is possibly the same when dealing with any large company or big organisation. We all as human beings tend to organise ourselves into silos. And it can make it very difficult when trying to get government to move. I mean this is where the chair comes in. And whilst I can't claim to know Emma [Hardy, MP for Hull West and chair of the APPG] well, I did get the impression that she will be quite dogged at tracking down the right person.
If you go onto the government’s various departmental websites, it will breakdown the responsibilities of each government minister, but it even then it’s difficult to work out which one we should be talking to, particularly if you look at a very narrow area.
With digital identity of course, which is another interest of mine cause I run the APPG on that, we've got one government department doing policy looking outwards to the private sector, and another government department building a public sector digital identity scheme. I guess it might be the case of you wouldn't start from here, but it is difficult. It very much depends on the chair and the good thing about APPGs is they bring that cross-party element. So if Lord Lucas and Emma Hardy need to team up to pursue a particular issue then effectively they've got the vast majority of Members of Parliament behind them, because they represent the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. So it's that cross party consensus, which we're trying to get to, which really helps. So it's not a political thing; for example if I do this, I'll please that party. But It's actually getting a cross party consensus. This is what should be done and you've got support from both sides. That's the key.
Digital hiring is a fast-moving area, with new developments happening all the time. Reed Screening is hosting regular events where you can keep up to date with the latest news and share your opinion on policy and process changes.
Below are a few of the upcoming events you can get involved with:
Social media screening is a key check that can help to flag potential risks attached to hiring a particular candidate, corroborate work and training details, and gain an insight into a candidate’s likelihood of fitting in with your existing team.
With social media and online platforms becoming a large part of many people’s lives, publicly available online sources can hold valuable information about a candidate that might not be apparent through the application and interview process.
But what exactly should employers be looking for when it comes to carrying out social media screening?
Reviewing publicly available sources, social media screening evaluates and flags any adverse content posted by, or associated with a candidate, focussing on a number of factors. These include racism, sexism, hate speech, drug use, general criminality, and any other risk categories that an organisation may deem as indicating unsuitability for the position applied for or incompatibility with the culture and values of the organisation.
The search:
The most pressing reason for conducting social media screenings is to mitigate the risk of bringing an employee into your business that is likely to be a security threat. Social media screenings identify instances or endorsement of criminal behaviour such as drug use, theft, or possession of illegal weapons.
It can also identify any affiliations that can pose a risk, such as links to terrorist groups, organised crime, or anyone who could expose your business to corruption, bribery, or fraud.
Aside from connections with legally dubious groups, it can also uncover connections with politically adverse groups, indicating a potential risk to your business.
Once criminal links and behaviours have been ruled out, social media screenings can identify any potential reputational risks. This might include any instances of racist behaviour or comments, sexism, hate speech, or other behaviours that may reflect negatively on your business.
This can also include adverse behaviours such as stalking, trolling, or harassment via social media. In recent years, many businesses and public figures have suffered reputational harm due to the resurfacing of historical social media posts and comments that have breached accepted social standards, so ensuring that your new hire’s online past is not going to cause your business reputational damage is important.
While not as serious as links to crime or reputational damage, ensuring your new hire is a good cultural fit the company is a smart move.
Hiring a poor fit can cause serious disruption to your company’s performance and hiring costs. Lowered morale, reduced productivity, and higher turnover are all potential results of a poor cultural fit.
Therefore, using a social media screening to check for commonalities and potential sticking points can help to choose a candidate that is going to be an asset to your business as a new hire.
Employers should be wary of carrying out social media screenings themselves without professional or external help, for a number of reasons:
With so much at stake, it’s important to ensure that hiring risk is minimised through thorough screening. With over 60 years of experience in recruitment, and over 9 years’ experience as screening specialists, Reed Screening is ideally placed to advise your business on the best way to ensure that new hires are a boost to your company’s performance.
]]>Employing candidates who have used fake identity documents can have a number of negative consequences:
Security risk - individuals who’ve obtained employment using false documents are also at a higher risk of committing fraud or data theft within their roles, potentially causing greater liability for employers if there is a data breach.
Reputational risk – fake passports and other ID documents are closely linked to organised crime, terrorist groups, and the exploitation of vulnerable people via crimes such as trafficking. Being linked to this sort of activity can only have negative effects on your business’s reputation.
Legal risk - Employers who are caught knowingly employing people who do not have a right to work in the UK face criminal charges, which can land them with unlimited fines or even imprisonment. But even if the employer isn’t aware that their employee is an illegal worker, they could be liable for a fine of up to £20,000, unless they can prove that proper care has been taken to ascertain whether or not the documents they’ve presented are genuine.
Fake identity documents can potentially be very damaging to businesses financially, reputationally, and in terms of security. Therefore, it is important to put in place robust measures to ensure the risk of fake documents passing muster is minimised.
In recent months, digital right to work checks have been used increasingly by businesses to check that new hires have leave to work in the UK. Over this time, more and more fraudulent ID documents have been exposed, as the technology that powers digital right to work uses AI and machine learning to spot forged or stolen documentation to a greater degree of accuracy.
However, digital right to work options are currently only usable by people in possession of an in-date UK passport, which means that 1 in 5 work seekers in the UK are currently unable to participate. Therefore, face-to-face checks still need to be available to work seekers, and this is where fraudsters are most likely to attempt to gain work illegally.
Therefore, while efforts are being made to ensure digital ID is more inclusive, it’s important to ensure your staff receive training on how to spot fake ID, and that you employ robust internal processes to record your efforts.
The quality of false documents of all kinds is significantly better than most people expect. There’s a lot of money to be made from selling fake ID documents, and fraudsters invest large sums into obtaining the technology that can replicate everything from perforations and watermarks to UV-reactive paper, holograms and even laser engraving. This means that high quality fake passports, driving licences, and other ID documentation can be difficult to spot.
They’re also relatively easy to obtain. Openly on social media, there are numerous advertisements for ID documents for sale, comprising genuine and completely false ID documents, of many different nationalities and document types.
Every advertisement is a potential scam, and cases where genuine documents are for sale suggest that theft or other crime has been committed to obtain them.
According to research carried out by Beruku, from November 2022 to date, 2621 documents have been found being advertised on social media, of which:
62 individuals found on advertised UK driving licences were listed as company directors and attributed to over 100 companies.
Also online is the significant threat of high-quality raw materials being available for purchase from abroad at a minimal cost. For instance, blank driving license cards, and high quality hologram stickers can be purchased for pennies – authorities are currently tracking purchasers to crack down on the creation of forgeries.
While the goal is to prevent fraudsters from successfully committing fraud using fake ID, the worst can sometimes happen; in those cases it’s important that you can prove that you’ve taken as many steps as you reasonably can to prevent document fraud in your business.
Therefore, accurate record keeping is key – being able to prove that checks have been made by suitably trained people can help you to make the case that robust measures were put in place. While investment in training and technology is not strictly required, it not only helps to catch fraudsters, but also gives a good impression to regulators should they have cause to investigate your business.
It's also vital that you maintain high levels of data security around your employees’ personal information – businesses can be a source of stolen documents as well as the potential victims of fraud, so ensuring that copies of documents are held securely and that access is restricted only to those who require it is important too.
To ensure your business protects its employees, reputation, and business performance when working against dishonest candidates, robust screening and secure processes are key.
Pre-employment screening can help you minimise the risk, both in terms of legal liability and in terms of lost productivity and performance from an unsuitable hire. At Reed Screening we specialise in providing fast, accurate screening services that give you the confidence that your employees can be trusted, allowing you to get on with growing your business.
To find out more, get in touch today.
]]>For candidates, offering virtual interviews means they are able to expand their horizons and apply for positions without the worry of travel, or even the worry of moving to be closer to work if the position is a remote one.
As digital hiring processes are adopted by employers across the UK and beyond, virtual interviews are becoming increasingly widespread.
For employers, this means that many of the logistical headaches attached to conducting interviews such as ensuring the right, high-level people are in the same room for the whole day, booking and paying for interview rooms, as well as managing access needs, providing refreshments, and ensuring candidates are directed to the right place all adds up to a time-consuming process – and that’s before any candidates have even entered the building.
Instead, virtual interviews can be a time-saving, more easily managed alternative. But how can you get the measure of a person through only meeting them virtually? And how can you ensure that your virtual interview conveys your company’s culture and personality effectively?
To answer those question, here are our tips for conducting an effective virtual interview.
The most important part of conducting a virtual interview is making sure that the tech is working.
As the bedrock of a virtual interview, a stable internet connection is vital. Without this, you’re not going to be able to conduct the interview properly, as you’ll be too busy worrying about whether you’ve frozen, or struggling to understand what others are saying.
In advance of the interview, make sure that you and all the panellists are familiar with the platform you’re using, that everyone has tested their cameras and microphones, and that they know how to use the different functions. For example, if there’s a waiting room feature, make sure you’ve practiced admitting people onto the call, and you know that it’s definitely working before interviewees will be joining.
Lastly, just before the interview, make sure your device is free of virtual clutter in case you need to share your screen. This means closing unnecessary browser tabs, muting chat apps like Slack or Discord, and ensuring that anything you need to share is ready to go.
Just as you would with an in-person interview, make sure that you’ve given clear instructions to candidates about how exactly they can attend.
This means not only providing a specific date and time, but also ensuring you provide clear instructions and information to interviewees about the platform the interview will take place on, including links to the call and whether they will need to download an app or if they can access via their browser.
Like any other interview, it’s also courteous to let interviewees know who will be attending the interview as a panellist, how long you expect it to last, details on anything they’re required to prepare in advance, and whether they’ll be expected to carry out any performance based tasks.
After the interview, make sure you follow up with candidates by telling them when they can expect to know the outcome of the interview, and thanking them for their time.
With video interviews, you can make the process more inclusive – for example, candidates with physical impairments can participate without bias, neurodivergent candidates can manage their own environment to give their best, and candidates from lower-income households don’t need to worry quite so much about travel expenses or looking the part in an expensive suit.
However, other access requirements that perhaps wouldn’t have been an issue with an in-person interview can come to light. For example, some candidates might require live captioning or transcribing (there are plenty of AI options that provide this), BSL interpretation in case lip reading or digital sound is more difficult to understand virtually, or a platform that is compatible with screen readers.
Ensure you ask candidates about any access requirements they may have in plenty of time prior to the interview, so they can be organised in advance.
For virtual interviews, you can only control your own environment, not that of the candidate.
For your environment, try to avoid using a virtual background, which can be distracting and can often feel like an evasion or a way of hiding something, which can give the impression that you’re not willing to engage or invite the interviewee into your world. Instead, try to position yourself in front of a clutter-free but interesting background – a bookcase or a painting are popular choices.
Think carefully about lighting, camera position, and screen position. If you’re using multiple monitors, make sure your webcam is positioned on the screen you’ll be displaying the video call.
Another useful tip is to turn off your self-view on the screen once you’re certain your environment and position gives the right impression. This will help you to focus more on the candidate instead of being distracted by your own image and worrying about how you’re appearing.
For candidates, they might not have access to a quiet or clutter-free space in which to carry out the interview, so it’s important to be patient, try not to let their environment distract you, and concentrate on what they’re saying and their body language. It’d be a shame to miss out on a truly brilliant new employee simply because they had noisy neighbours or their flatmate accidentally walked into shot.
With over 60 years of experience in recruitment, and over 10 years’ experience as screening specialists, Reed Screening is ideally placed to advise your organisation on the best way to ensure that your digital recruitment processes are beneficial to your company’s performance.
At Reed Screening, we’re dedicated to making the recruitment journey as smooth as possible for both employers and candidates, to help our clients source and retain the talent they need. Speak to our team today to find out how we can streamline and enhance your recruitment journey and boost performance in 2023.
]]>Keith Rosser – Director of Reed Screening & Chair of the Better Hiring Institute
Laura McCluskey – Deputy Chief Executive for Business Strategy, Disclosure Scotland
Cathy Taylor & David McLaren – Regional outreach Manager, and Head of Policy (respectively), Disclosure and Barring Service.
Keith spoke about the CRTB, an authoritative and independent voice representing a wide range of sectors using criminal record check information. The CRTB represents about half of all police checks being processed across the UK. Their aims and objectives are:
The CRTB’s 5 Point Plan includes:
Recent figures show that there are over 12 million people with convictions in England and Wales (1 in 6 across the UK). Almost 4.5 million Standard & Enhanced checks were issued by DBS in the year 2021/22.
Employers are split between those who would recruit a worker with a previous conviction (45%, up 20% from 2010 figures), and those who would instantly reject a job-seeker if they disclosed a previous conviction, even though this was not always the organisation’s policy (30%).
For many, the risk of re-offending is a major factor, with a REC survey showing that 60% of employers feel anxiety around this.
However, only 17% of ex-offenders manage to obtain work within six months of release, and there are concerns over the risk of bias in AI throughout the hiring process. This shows a need to ensure that AI introduction doesn't exacerbate existing issues in the hiring process.
In order to drive fairness in hiring as well as ensuring safety, it’s important to work towards breaking down unnecessary barriers for work seekers with convictions by:
Laura described Disclosure Scotland’s vision and strategy for 2025.
Disclosure Scotland operate around three core functions:
Disclose: disclosure of criminal records information
Protect: compliance activities relating to the use of disclosure data and that they're being used for the right process. Also barring and protecting vulnerable individuals.
Promote: marketing, communications and engagement around the products we offer, as well as consultation services and user-centred design spaces to improve digital services we're offering.
The vision for Disclosure Scotland is to help Scotland flourish and become a safer, more inclusive place to live, underpinned by the following outcomes:
To achieve these, Disclosure Scotland’s strategic objectives include:
The strategy envelopes Disclosure Scotland’s vision, values, purpose and strategic goals, and will be integrated into their operating model, which includes:
in order to deliver results that include Scotland’s National Outcomes, plus organisational and individual outcomes, as well as value for money and qualitative and quantitative results.
Currently, the operating model is transitioning from a paper based system to a fully digital one; digital checks are being offered at a basic level, and piloting digital options for high level disclosures is currently taking place, with great success. Disclosure Scotland now have a working proof of concept for digital results which they are now prioritising over the next 6-8 months in terms of scaling the offer and increasing participation.
The operating design process is based on six pillars:
Disclosure Scotland’s priority as an organisation is and always will be safeguarding, however Laura explained that there's a lot more involved in criminal record checks - they're a helpful tool for employers, individuals and society for making sure that the right people are working in the right places at the right time.
Disclosure Scotland has a level of integration across all of their services, including their Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) service, which integrates with their Compliance and Barring services, enabling the barring of individuals as appropriate. There are also other referral mechanisms from employers and the courts, which will change as aspects of the Disclosure Act 2020 (coming into force next year) are implemented, aimed at improving safeguarding and ensuring individuals who are where they shouldn’t be can be removed quickly and with minimal bureaucracy.
Once the Disclosure Act 2020 has come into force, the disclosure system will be more accessible through simplification; there'll be two levels and four separate disclosure products, instead of the current four levels and seven products. This will help towards making individuals more aware of which service they need to apply to and why.
People will receive results safely and digitally which they'll then be able to share with employers as they desire for the purpose of employment or volunteering.
Digital technology will also work to improve Disclosure Scotland’s delivery timescales, through the introduction of digital applications and automation to speed the process where appropriate at all levels of their disclosure products.
Cathy and David spoke about future developments for DBS, in response to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) report and the Independent Review of the Disclosure and Barring Regime (The Bailey Report).
Within the final IICSA report there are three recommendations applicable to DBS:
The government accepted all but one of the recommendations and DBS will be working with Home Office to consider IICSA and Bailey review recommendations, although there is no timetable at present.
They also spoke about other developments happening at DBS. In the past year, DBS has published a digital scheme allowing checks to be made digitally for the first time, and allowing IDSP's to be formally accredited to assure DBS checks are done to the highest standards.
Processes are soon to be updated, and they are likely to include the permanent adoption of the checks temporarily made allowable during the COVID-19 pandemic, i.e. virtual document checks which are then confirmed in person on the first day of work.
For the time being, document-based processes will remain in place to ensure DBS’s disclosure products remain accessible to all.
With DBS’s new ID verification process, employers or RBs engage a DBS certified IDSP to verify an applicant’s identity including their current address. In the event that the IDSP cannot verify the applicant’s current address, they report back to the employer or RB, and applicants are given 90 days to provide paper verification. Once ID and address have been verified, the RB can submit the application to DBS.
If an applicant doesn’t have enough documents to prove their address, the option of using digital copies of credit card or bank statements has been ruled out. David said, “we don't foresee this becoming an option as there's no safe framework in which we could ask for an online statement.”
There are number of modernisation projects ongoing inside DBS:
Online application capability will provide improved accessibility for customers and improved accuracy for DBS. Paper application forms require a higher level of corrections than e-bulk submissions, and DBS are working to ensure this is as accessible as possible.
There are numerous benefits to this including:
The update service enables employers who have given consent to request update checks to be notified of any changes in certificate status. DBS are consulting with users and non-users to gather opinions on how better to support people using the update service.
DBS is closely involved with third party collaborations on digital wallets containing everything an individual would need to quickly and safely onboard with a new employer. Including:
We took the opportunity to get a gauge on the experiences and opinions of our attendees.
What remains the most time consuming part of the hiring process?
Referencing – 66%
Obtaining information from candidates – 16%
Criminal record checks – 16%
Proving qualifications – 0%
Would you employ someone with a criminal record?
Yes – 6%
No – 2%
Dependant on the conviction & role – 90%
Are you positive about criminal record checks becoming an entirely digital process?
Yes – 77%
No – 10%
Don’t know – 12%
According to two thirds of our attendees, referencing still remains the most time consuming part of the hiring process, showing that more needs to be done to accelerate this process.
90% of our attendees were open to the prospect of hiring someone with a criminal record, but it depended on the manner of the conviction and the role for which they were recruiting. This is promising in the drive towards fairer and safer hiring practices for people with a criminal record.
Digital criminal record checks are a positive thing according to over three quarters of our attendees, while 12% were unsure, and 10% thought it was a negative development.
I appreciate the rationale around online documents, however why can we not use online documents provided by official government websites – i.e. online proof of NINO letters?
David - The issue we have is with online documents, it's the wild west. Fraud in terms of somebody trying to use a document they'd created themselves but also abuse of vulnerable people - e.g. somebody could be talked into presenting their secure details and giving somebody access to their online accounts to "view documents". Nobody else in government or the private sector has been able to grasp this nettle. This is why we're trying to move to genuine online ID to move past this. Keith mentioned legislation allowing access to broader government information for online ID checks - that will be a real tipping point in terms of quality and accessibility of the ID checks we can do online. If we can access HMRC and DWP data we get much closer to having the information we need. We need to be able to offer ID assurance to everybody, not just those with an in date passport, which is why we're working closely with government on this.
As a volume employer across Scotland, England & Wales – are there any plans in the roadmap to DS and DBS to collaborate on the changes to try to give employers one process?
David - I have recently had a conversation with my opposite number in Scotland on improving our guidance to make it clearer who goes where. I don't foresee us having a single point of reference any time soon and there are good reasons for that as legislation and responsibility is devolved, however as more people work flexibly it's worth reviewing that guidance to ensure it's as clear as possible and people know which organisation they need to go through.
Laura - we do have regular communication cross-border, but there's not going to be a single UK-wide service because we're a devolved administration.
There are similar products but also different ones currently in Scotland - i.e. PVG scheme for regulated work and ongoing monitoring services don’t exist in England, Wales or Northern Ireland. There's not a high uptake on standard or enhanced products in Scotland because most of this falls into PVG. We're simplifying the products but there is still parity with the UK. Level 1 is comparable to a basic or standard DBS in the English and Welsh framework. Level 2 will have elements of enhanced and PVG. PVG is enhanced checks with ongoing monitoring to enhance our safeguarding services so while they seem different they are comparable. What we will be doing is ensuring that as we develop and launch these products we'll absolutely be consulting and engaging with employers to make sure everything is clear.
Do DBS plan on addressing the length of time Enhanced checks can take to speed them up?
David - Absolutely - information needs to be accurate but also timely. We've been ahead of our targets for a number of years but have seen challenges in staffing at certain regional police forces, so some users might have seen delays to enhanced checks in certain areas of the country. We do now have a number of extra resources in those areas and should see an upswing in performance in the next 6-8 weeks. We're acutely aware that delayed checks are a safeguarding risk so we're constantly looking at improving this.
]]>By diversifying your hiring to workers based in different countries and cultures, you can also access new and different approaches to how your business operates, as well as engage people with a myriad of different experiences and histories that can bring fresh ideas to your business.
However, one of the biggest challenges of hiring overseas remote workers is keeping them engaged. If they’re not in the office, or unable to join their colleagues for training or company social events, then ensuring they still feel like part of the team and a valued employee is top priority to ensure they are able to produce their best work.
When your employees are based remotely, ensuring communication channels are open is incredibly important. Since they can’t turn to a co-worker at the adjoining desk for a chat, or pop into their manager’s office to ask a question, or join the team for after work socialising on a Friday, it’s important to put as much energy and focus into maintaining communication with overseas workers as possible.
Ensure that your overseas worker is able to get in touch with you if they need you to answer questions, provide materials, or greenlight stages of work by not only being very clear on how exactly they can get in touch, but also by being communicative and prompt with your responses. If a remote worker can’t complete their work because they’re unable to get the information or authorisation they need from you, it’s unlikely they’ll being doing their best work or feeling happy to stay around for very long.
Regardless of where they are in the world, if an employee feels forgotten, undervalued, or out of the loop, they’re unlikely to do their best work. Make sure that your company culture is shared among employees across the business, whether working in the office, from home in the UK, or on the other side of the globe.
This means ensuring that any opportunities for training or promotion are shared, as well as any office parties or social events. This may mean rethinking how social events take place to ensure remote workers can join in, and what exactly they entail.
For example, organising online or hybrid events for staff can improve accessibility. Additionally, workers from overseas may have traditions and holidays from their own culture that they want to share with their UK colleagues. Being open to new ideas and embracing the different cultures that exist within your overseas workforce can ensure they feel included and valued.
When an employee can see how their work is making a difference, they’re more likely to feel engaged and proud of the work they do. As a good manager would with any other employee, make sure that overseas employees are able to hear about and see examples of the impact their work is having, whether that’s sharing a piece of positive customer feedback, stats on improved business performance, or feedback from colleagues. Since overseas employees are less able to see for themselves how they’re performing within the business, letting them know and keeping them in the loop is vital.
Being based in a different country to your employer comes with challenges, including working within a different time zone, or working in a second language. To keep your overseas workers engaged and committed to your business, ensure you are offering sweeteners to keep them happy. Perks such as flexible hours, wellness packages, or training and development can make a huge difference to an employee’s engagement levels.
Small employee benefits help to ensure overseas workers are kept happy, and willing and able to do their best work.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks for workers of all kinds, including remote and overseas workers.
With screening and checks happening 24/7, we can vet your candidates within a timescale that suits your business, and our AssuredID service offers an easy and accurate way to verify a candidate’s ID digitally and remotely.
For more information, get in touch with our team.
]]>The expenses incurred through the recruitment process in the form of advertising, agency fees, company time and resources, any charges for interview rooms, as well as onboarding and training costs, can add up to a considerable outlay. According to CIPD, the average cost to hire in the UK is £6125, rising to £19000 for more senior and management roles.
However, the cost of recruitment also includes the cost of an empty seat, the cost of temporary staff to cover the vacancy, and loss of productivity while the new hire gets up to speed. Therefore, the longer the whole process takes, the more cost you’ll incur – saving time in your recruitment process also means saving money.
As an added advantage, a quicker, more efficient recruitment process is also preferable for candidates, too, meaning you’re not only saving yourself money, but strengthening your employer reputation as you do so.
Here are our suggestions for cutting costs and streamlining your recruitment process.
The average length of a recruitment process in the UK, according to research carried out by Totaljobs, is 6.4 weeks, with 25% of businesses finding a lengthy process a challenge. Of course, the time to hire is dependent on a number of factors, including the skills required, salary, geographical area, and industry sector.
While there are some parts of the process you have little control over, the areas you manage should be made as quick, smooth, and streamlined as possible.
For example, efficiencies can be built into the application consideration and sifting process. Carefully plan your recruitment process to ensure applications are considered quickly, and as closely after any deadlines as possible to allow for interview stages to follow promptly.
Tech solutions such as Applicant Tracking Software can help to sift applications, as well as the use of scheduling tools to ensure the relevant team is gathered to make decisions on applications.
When sifting applications, be firm about the number of interviews you can hold. Costs associated with interviews such as administration and scheduling time, room hire, refreshments etc. as well as the time high-level staff are away from their normal roles to sit on interview panels can be significant when every applicant that meets the basic criteria is invited for interview.
Instead, invest some time into considering applications on a deeper level, and select only the most experienced, most qualified, or most interesting applicants. Be careful to avoid any unconscious bias in this process by removing any identifying information such as names, ages, nationalities or other information that might affect your judgement of a candidate.
Advertising for positions can be a significant expense, so any ways that reduce the need to use costly agencies or pay for ad space are going to be worthwhile.
A talent pool or network of people who could potentially be suitable for your business is a great way to reach candidates, so it’s important to ensure talent networks are maintained.
For example, the applicant who wasn’t quite right for your last vacancy might be perfect for your next one, so it’s important to ensure that contact is maintained with previous applicants. Students and soon-to-be graduates are also excellent people to engage and keep in contact with via specified mailing lists.
By building and maintaining a talent pool of potential candidates, you’re more likely to find qualified, engaged, applicants for your next opening without the high advertising costs.
While initial outlay for extra onboarding and screening might seem to be increasing recruitment costs, in the long run you’ll likely see a number of benefits, including lower overall costs.
One of the biggest causes for high recruitment costs is high employee turnover. Therefore, it makes sense to target the cause and work at ensuring you’re hiring the right person in the right way.
An in-depth and well planned onboarding period helps new hires to feel more comfortable in their role and their workplace, feel more valued and therefore more loyal, and be more able to reach full work capacity sooner.
Thorough screening helps you to identify candidates that may pose a risk to your business, by highlighting any discrepancies between the experience and qualifications they have put forward and the records and references that former employers and training institutes provide.
By streamlining some parts of the process and investing more time into others, you can cut recruitment costs considerably, and at the same time provide a smoother, more thorough, and more engaging experience for applicants.
At Reed Screening, we have years of experience in providing fast, smooth, and thorough employee screening and background checks for workers of all kinds.
With screening and checks happening 24/7, we can vet your candidates within a timescale that suits your business, and our AssuredID service offers an easy and accurate way to verify a candidate’s ID digitally and remotely.
For more information, get in touch with our team.
]]>Right to Work fraud involves the use of fake or forged documents to gain work illegally. According to the Home Office, the dangers around illegal working include leaving people vulnerable to exploitation, which means that unscrupulous employers can undercut and damage the business prospects of compliant businesses and drive wages down for lawful workers. In the most serious cases, illegal working is linked to modern slavery and human trafficking.
On an individual business level, the risks are potentially devastating, not only in terms of the legal ramifications, but in terms of reputation and security, too.
Right to Work checks are a legal requirement for employers, and the legislative and financial implications of hiring an illegal worker can be significant.
If you employ someone who you know (or have reasonable cause to believe) does not have the right to work in the UK, you can be punished by up to 5 years in prison and landed with an unlimited fine. This includes if you were found to have any reason to believe that a worker did not have permission to enter or remain in the UK, if their leave had expired, or if their papers were incorrect or false.
However, many employers who are hiring people without the right to work in the UK are doing so completely unknowingly, often because they did not carry out the correct checks, or didn’t carry them out to the required standard. In this case, if your Right to Work checks were found to be inadequate, you could be fined up to £20,000 for each illegal worker found under your employ.
In the period between 1st October 2022 and the 31st December 2022, penalties worth £5.8 million were issued across the UK.
Not only could your business incur significant financial costs if caught employing an illegal worker, you could also suffer considerable reputational damage.
If the Home Office finds that you have been employing illegal workers, they may include your details in a quarterly report naming businesses that have been issued with penalties, designed to deter other employers from hiring illegally.
Additionally, the press often report of businesses that have been visited by Immigration Enforcement.
Aside from the reputational damage of being penalised by Immigration Enforcement, there are other ways that right to work fraud can damage your reputation. If an illegal worker was hired using a false ID document, your business could have links to organised crime gangs.
Fraudulent ID documents are either authentic passports or driving licences that have been stolen and used by someone posing as the person they belong to, or they are forgeries, often created and sold by individuals with strong links to organised crime.
For the vast majority of customers, suppliers, or business partners, a company with any connection to criminal gangs is hugely unappealing.
If an illegal worker has made it onto your payroll with a fake ID document, it raises serious doubts about the trustworthiness of that individual.
Using a fake or forged ID document suggests that the worker has links with organised crime gangs or other criminal practices, and hiring them puts the security of your business at risk.
For example, if the worker has access to customer information, they can steal that data and sell it to gangs, who can use it commit identity fraud.
Additionally, if a worker has lied about who they are, or their immigration status, it’s important to consider what else they could be being untruthful about. For example, if they have committed right to work fraud, they could also have committed qualification fraud, which, depending on their role, puts the personal safety of clients and colleagues at risk.
It’s clear that right to work fraud is potentially very damaging to businesses financially, reputationally, and in terms of security. Therefore it’s important to put in place robust measures to ensure the risk of Right to Work fraud occurring is minimised.
Over the past 12 months, digital Right to Work checks have been used increasingly by businesses to check that new hires have leave to work in the UK. Over this time, more and more fraudulent ID documents have been exposed, as the technology that powers digital Right to Work uses AI and machine learning to spot forged or stolen documentation to a greater degree of accuracy.
However, digital Right to Work options are currently only usable by people in possession of a valid UK passport, which means that 1 in 5 work seekers in the UK are currently unable to participate. Therefore, face-to-face checks still need to be available to work seekers, and this is where fraudsters are most likely to attempt to gain work illegally.
Therefore, while work is being done to make digital ID more inclusive, it’s important to ensure your staff receive training on how to spot fake ID, and that thorough records are kept, so if Immigration Enforcement do make a visit, you can show that you have taken every step possible towards preventing fraud from happening.
To ensure your business protects its employees, reputation, and business performance when working against dishonest candidates or fraudulent employers, robust screening and secure processes are key.
Pre-employment screening can help you minimise the risk, both in terms of legal liability and in terms of lost productivity and performance from an unsuitable hire. At Reed Screening we specialise in providing fast, accurate screening services that give you the confidence that your employees can be trusted, allowing you to get on with growing your business.
To find out more, get in touch today.
]]>Keith Rosser – Director of Reed Screening & Chair of the Better Hiring Institute
Rob Brooker – Head of Fraud and Forensics, PFK GM
Gavin Burton – Co-founder and Director, UK Identity Fraud Advisory (UKIFA)
Founded in 2020, UKIFA (UK Identity Fraud Advisory) was founded to help protect individuals and support businesses. They provide free advice and guidance for work seekers, businesses, and the general public around ID fraud. Services include:
The recent developments in recruitment, in particular, the introduction of more digital systems, has led to a change in how fraud is being committed.
The benefits that developing digital hiring systems such as digital ID, digital DBS checks, and digital Disclosure Scotland checks can enhance experiences for both employers and employees. However, with new processes come new risks.
Keith explained that the way in which fraudsters are already adapting to the new systems this early in the journey of digital recruitment is offering us signposts as to how it can be managed in future. The new digital information bill, which is currently being processed through the House of Commons, is bringing in some clear provisions that will help tackle fraud in hiring, including:
As well as this, it’s important that we have provisions, duties and responsibilities for the technology companies in the digital ID marketplace to have the latest technology to help combat fraud, to share fraud information across the ecosystem, as well as provide information and assistance.
Since digital ID verification was introduced as a valid method of proving an employee’s Right to Work, increasing numbers of fraud cases have been identified, as the technology is more effective at spotting forged or stolen documents than face to face checks.
In a study of 70,000 candidates, 83% opted to use the digital route for checking documents, while 17% preferred the face to face or postal options. While there are plenty of perfectly valid reasons to opt for manual processes (not least because currently digital ID verification technology can only be used with a valid passport), fraudsters will also opt for the manual processes too, as their fake documents are less likely to be exposed.
There are a number of actions organisations such as the BHI and UKIFA are taking to fight fraud in digital hiring.
From a business perspective:
From a job-seeker perspective:
Fraudsters are exploiting the face to face and postal routes of ID verification with fake documents. According to Cifas’ Fraudscape 2023:
UKIFA can help businesses by:
Feedback has provided insights into common concerns that applicants have around using digital ID:
UKIFA has compiled guidance for individuals such as Keeping my documents and details safe, and Applying for work safely.
Rob spoke about the ways that honest work seekers are scammed out of their money or ID data, as well as becoming involved in criminal activity.
The facts around recruitment fraud include:
After the COVID-19 pandemic, the job market has changed considerably, with some skills becoming highly sought-after, while other positions were being made redundant. Therefore, we’re seeing a lot of people looking for work, with more than two thirds searching solely online, including on social media.
The goal for fraudsters is to extract data from applicants, including their name, address, date of birth, bank details, phone number, and family information, in order to sell it to serious organised crime gangs.
To obtain a work seeker’s data, fraudsters can go to great lengths, such as setting up and going through a multi-level, long-term interview process, including telephone, virtual, and in-person interview stages, offering applicants the job, and once they’ve sent their ID details, suddenly disappearing.
Unfortunately, this kind of fraud is not prioritised for investigation by the police, and therefore organisations like UKIFA exist to provide assistance and guidance to victims of such scams.
Fake employers and job adverts designed to swindle work seekers out of money are a growing threat. Common features of fake employment include claims that you can earn lots of money with little time and effort, and jobs that require employees to buy a starter kit, tools, or goods in order to earn.
The tricks that many fraudsters adopt to scam money from applicants include:
A common story is that a work seeker will be offered a job that feels like a genuine Work-From-Home position, but they’re really being used to launder illegally gained money for a criminal gang. These positions include buying and selling IT hardware and transferring money between different accounts.
One victim then found themselves being asked to conduct interviews to recruit more people to carry out the same work.
It’s likely that victims will not be paid for their work, and may have given money to pay for training, equipment, or goods, with a false promise of reimbursement.
Gavin spoke about how convincing forgeries of ID documents can be made, and what employers should look out for.
When looking at a British passport, there are three key areas that forgers can target.
MRZ (Machine Readable Zone) – this is the area at the bottom of the passport page written in code. It contains check sums to ensure that it is properly encoded. This is quite simple for fraudsters to replicate because the algorithm it uses is published in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO – the governing body for regulations around travel documents) manual.
VIZ (Visual Inspection Zone) – this is the part of the passport that contains personal information including photograph, date of birth, and passport number. This can be read using optical character recognition extraction and is designed to enable interoperability between different international borders.
Chip – the biometric chip contains data groups including MRZ data and a digital portrait that are currently read only. This means that when the passport is scanned at a border, for example, the scanner can only extract the data, it cannot interact or alter the data that is on the chip.
Data from the MRZ, VIZ, and Chip can be cross-checked with each other.
Different companies offer different levels of ID verification depending on the level of risk and need. For instance, some companies will just scan the MRZ of a passport, which provides a lower level of confidence in the veracity of the document, as fraudsters can change the MRZ relatively simply.
The most thorough checks scan all three zones, and cross check the data to ensure it all matches. It then asks the user to upload a selfie, which the system then checks against the portrait on the VIZ, and the digital portrait stored on the chip, providing a higher degree of confidence in the document.
Additional checks include:
Negative/positive data sources – checking the data stored in the document against credit reference agencies, or data that’s been involved in fraud which might be found in CIFAS’ database.
Document liveness checks – checking that the image stored on the document in the VIZ and the chip is not a digitally altered image taken from a stolen passport, for example.
Screen detection – checking that the image uploaded to the IDVT has not been photographed from a computer or television screen and is of a physical document in the user’s possession.
Hologram detection – many official ID documents contain a hologram in a particular position. Some technology may ask users to tilt the document for the purpose of hologram detection.
Artificial Intelligence – mapping of specialist fonts, background patterns, and exact colour hues, to check against official documents.
Openly on social media, there are numerous advertisements for ID documents for sale, comprising genuine and completely false ID documents, of many different nationalities and document types.
Every advertisement is a potential scam, and cases where genuine documents are for sale suggest that theft or other crime has been committed to obtain them.
According to research carried out by Beruku, from November 2022 to date, 2621 documents have been found being advertised on social media, of which:
62 individuals found on advertised UK drivers licences were listed as company directors and attributed to over 100 companies.
Also online is the significant threat of high quality raw materials being available for purchase from abroad at a minimal cost. For instance, blank drivers license cards, and high quality hologram stickers can be purchased for pennies – authorities are currently tracking purchasers to crack down on the creation of forgeries.
We took the opportunity to get a gauge on the experiences and opinions of our attendees.
Do you think digital identity checks are more secure than face to face?
Yes – 77%
No – 22%
Have any candidates expressed concern with digital checks?
Yes – 42%
No – 57%
Have you encountered false identity documents in the last 6 months?
Yes – 15%
No – 84%
It’s clear that employers feel confident in the security of digital ID checks as opposed to face-to-face methods with 77% finding them more secure, however almost a quarter of our attendees disagreed. This indicates that while a majority are assured that digital checks are an improvement, work needs to be done to ensure more employers feel secure in their use.
For candidates, this work is more urgent, as 42% of attendees said that candidates had expressed concern with digital ID checks. This shows that information and assurance needs to be passed to candidates and applicants more readily to ensure high uptake of digital processes.
Among our attendees, the vast majority (84%) had not encountered any false documents in the last 6 months, however, it’s important to be vigilant, as 15% said they had.
Digital hiring is a fast-moving area, with new developments happening all the time. Reed Screening is hosting regular events where you can keep up to date with the latest news and share your opinion on policy and process changes.
Below are a few of the upcoming events you can get involved with:
One way of understanding Gen Z behaviour is by looking to social media platform TikTok, which has been the seedbed for a number of workplace trends that employers should be paying attention to, especially if they want to attract and retain employees from younger generations.
When an employee is fulfilling their job requirements but doing nothing more – no overtime, no initiative, no volunteering for extra projects or responsibilities - they may be quiet quitting.
Of course, relying on employees to go above and beyond their pay grade every single workday is unreasonable, but when an employee has lost all passion, ambition, interest, and engagement in their job, it’s important to investigate. Instances of quiet quitting can bring down team morale, and affect business performance.
Because quiet quitting is by definition quiet, it can be difficult to spot, so it’s important to pay close attention to employee behaviour, attitude, and work performance.
Quiet quitting is a symptom of deeper problems for an employee. It could be a response to burnout, to feeling undervalued or unheard, or to lack of alignment with company culture of ethics.
The opposite of quiet quitting, loud quitting involves the employee making it known both to the boss and the rest of the team around them that they are looking to move on to a different position elsewhere. This is usually in the hope of gaining a promotion, pay rise, or other perk from the employer as a way of making them stay.
For employers, loud quitting poses a greater risk to the morale of the rest of the team, so dealing with instances of loud quitting straight away is advisable.
It is a risky tactic for disgruntled employees to take, as employers can always call their bluff, however, ascertaining exactly what the problem is can provide valuable feedback.
Loud quitting can be an indicator of an easily solvable problem, such as the need for a pay rise, or the desire for more responsibility, but it can also allude to deeper issues that affect employee happiness, or indicate a poor fit for an employee in a particular role.
When an employee is rage applying, they are sending off CVs and applications to a large number of companies with the aim of being offered a better position and leaving their current job as quickly as possible.
Employing this tactic comes with its pitfalls, as the quick and unscrupulous manner of rage applying means that little research has been conducted into the companies being applied to, and there has been little thought towards tailoring CVs and personal statements. This means its possible that employees might find themselves in a less favourable role, or being offered no new role at all.
How easy this is to spot for employers depends entirely on how vocal the employee is about what they’re doing. It may be similar to quiet quitting, and require some level of observation, or they might be open about their intentions. Either way, it’s best to try and catch this before your employee finds another position.
Rage applying, as the name suggests, can be a reaction to a specific incident rather than a symptom of more long-term issues, but it’s important to get to the bottom of what is prompting this behaviour in order to ensure employees are satisfied within their work.
Adoption of any of these trends means that an employee is unhappy at work, and the best way to deal with that is to have a frank and open conversation about how things can be improved.
By giving the employee in question the opportunity to provide honest feedback, you can identify pain points and work together to improve circumstances in order to keep them on the payroll.
Of course, sometimes an employee is simply not a good fit for a role and it’s impossible or impractical to create a satisfactory environment for them, and sometimes once an employee is no longer engaged with a company it’s difficult to regain their interest. In those instances, the feedback provided can provide a good basis for hiring and retaining Gen Z employees in future.
To avoid dissatisfaction in the first place, statistics show that Gen Z employees respond best to workplaces that cater to their needs in the follow ways:
Technology - According to research conducted by Dell, an enormous 91% of the Gen Z population say that technology would influence job choice among similar employment offers.
Flexibility and workplace wellbeing - According to a survey carried out by The Workforce Institute, 1 in 4 Gen Z participants stated they would work harder and stay longer at a company with flexible schedules, while a third of respondents said they would never tolerate being forced to work when they didn’t want to, not being able to use vacation days when they want to, and having no say over their work schedule.
Inclusivity and diversity - According to Yello, 88% of Gen Z employees see diversity as a major factor in a job. Gen Z are pioneering identity politics, and taking control of and celebrating their own identities. This means that your recruitment process needs to be mindful of this and be open, accessible, and inclusive to all.
Ethics - Research shows that ethics play an important role in Gen Z’s choice of work, with a recent Bupa study revealing that 54% of Gen Z employees stating that “if they were in a role for an employer that did not take action on ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) issues, they would take a pay cut to join a business in keeping with their ethics – should the opportunity arise.”
At Reed Screening, we can help you to digitise and streamline your recruitment journey with online screening services, and digital checks. Get in touch today to find out how we can help you drive technology and appeal to the Gen Z workforce.
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