Pre-employment screening: meaning, checks and costs

Skipping pre-employment screening is how organizations end up with a fake diploma in the finance team or an unvetted admin on the production servers. This page explains what pre-employment screening means, which checks suit which role, where screening is required by law, what the GDPR lets you check, how long it takes and what it costs.

Pre-employment screening (often shortened to PES) is the set of checks an employer runs on a candidate before they start work. It verifies identity, the right to work, qualifications and work history, and, where the role justifies it, criminal record, integrity and financial background.

Every screening answers two questions. Is what the candidate told us true? And is there anything that makes them unsuitable for this particular role? The second question is why screening is tied to the role, not the person: a payroll lead and a warehouse picker need different checks.

Pre-employment screening vs background check

The terms are often used as if they mean the same thing. In practice, a background check is usually one check, such as a criminal record or a reference. Pre-employment screening is the whole set of checks you run before a hire. Related terms:

• Employment screening is the same process seen from the employer's side across the whole employment relationship, with the rules on what you may and may not check.
• In-employment screening repeats some checks during employment, for example when someone moves into a more sensitive role.
• Security vetting is a deeper investigation carried out by a government body for roles with access to state secrets or critical infrastructure. Employers cannot run it themselves.

Who carries out the screening?

You can run checks yourself: ring referees, ask for diploma copies, request a criminal record certificate. That works for a handful of hires, but it is slow, hard to keep consistent and easy to get wrong under the GDPR. Most organizations use a screening provider, which runs the checks through verified sources, keeps an audit trail, and returns one report per candidate. HR still makes the hiring decision. For a short introduction, see our help article what is pre-employment screening.

A screening is built from individual checks. Pescheck offers more than 15. These are the ones employers use most.

• ID check: the identity document is genuine, valid and belongs to the candidate
• Right to work check: the candidate is allowed to work in the country where the job is
• Criminal record check: there is no relevant criminal record, through the official national certificate
• Diploma check: degrees and certificates were actually awarded, confirmed with the institution
• Reference check: job titles, dates and performance, confirmed by previous employers
• CV check: employment history has no unexplained gaps or inflated roles
• Integrity check: the candidate's own statement on integrity-related matters
• Credit check: financial position, for roles that handle money or have signing authority
• Insolvency check: the candidate is not listed in a bankruptcy or debt-restructuring register
• PEP and sanctions check: the candidate is not on a sanctions list and is not a politically exposed person
• Adverse media check: public news coverage that is relevant to the role, such as fraud

See the full overview of all background checks.

Screen for what the role justifies, not for everything a provider can deliver. The more access to money, data, systems or vulnerable people a role has, the deeper the screening. Use this as a starting point:

Write down which checks apply to each role group and why. That screening policy is the first thing a data protection authority asks for if a candidate complains, and it keeps screening consistent across hiring managers. Our guide how to draw up a screening policy gives you a checklist to start from.

For most roles, screening is a business decision. In some sectors, it is a condition for doing the work at all, and you must be able to show the regulator that you did it.

Financial services

Banks, insurers, payment firms and investment firms must assess the integrity of staff before appointing them to integrity-sensitive roles. EU anti-money laundering rules require employee screening as part of a firm's internal controls, and supervisors expect a written policy on which roles are screened and how. Board members and key function holders also go through a fit-and-proper assessment by the supervisor. In most countries the duty covers contractors and temporary staff, not only employees. More on screening in financial services.

Healthcare

Care providers have to make sure that the new staff are fit to provide care. That usually means checking the national professional register for doctors and nurses and asking for a criminal record certificate for anyone in direct contact with patients. More on screening in healthcare.

IT and critical infrastructure

Under the EU NIS2 directive, organizations in 18 critical sectors, including digital infrastructure, managed IT services, energy and transport, must take security measures that include human resources security. In practice, supervisors expect staff with privileged access to systems and data to be screened before they get that access. More on which staff to screen under NIS2 and screening in technology.

Children, vulnerable people and security work

Working with children or vulnerable adults almost always requires a criminal record certificate that looks specifically at relevant offences. Roles at airports, in private security and in defense need a check by the competent authority before the person can start.

Pre-employment screening is lawful across the EU, as long as it meets the GDPR. Four rules matter most.

• A valid legal basis. Most employers rely on legitimate interest, or on a legal obligation in regulated sectors. Consent is a weak basis in hiring, because a candidate is rarely free to say no.
• Proportionality. Collect only what the role justifies. That is why the screening policy per role group matters.
• Transparency. Tell the candidate which checks you will run, why, who carries them out and how long you keep the results. Do this before you start, ideally in the job ad or the offer letter.
• Storage limits. Delete results once the hiring decision is made, unless you hire the person and have a reason to keep a record.

Criminal records and Article 10 GDPR

Article 10 GDPR says criminal conviction data may only be processed under the control of an official authority, or where EU or national law allows it with safeguards. As a result, employers in most EU countries do not see a candidate's criminal record. A government body assesses the record against the role and issues a certificate. You only learn whether the candidate passed for that role, not what the underlying offence was. Read more in our guide to the criminal record check.

What you may not check

Special category data under Article 9 GDPR is off limits for screening: health and medical history, religion, political views, trade union membership, ethnic origin and sexual orientation. Searching for a candidate's private social media without a role-related reason is not allowed either.

A screening provider is a processor under the GDPR. Ask for a data processing agreement, check where data is stored and look for ISO 27001 certification. See also how Pescheck handles GDPR and your data.

With Pescheck, screening runs in six steps. You set up steps 1 and 2 once. After that, starting a screening takes a minute.

1. Set up a package per role group. Choose the checks for each role group based on your screening policy.
2. Tell the candidate. Mention the screening in the job ad or the conditional offer, so it never comes as a surprise.
3. Invite the candidate. Enter a name and email address or start the screening from your ATS. The candidate gets a link to a secure portal.
4. The candidate fills in their details. They upload their ID, add referees and education details, and request any certificates. It takes most candidates about ten minutes, on a phone or a laptop.
5. Checks run automatically. You follow progress live in the dashboard and get a notification when the report is ready.
6. Review and decide. Read the report, talk to the candidate about any discrepancy, and then make the decision. Results are deleted after the retention period you set.

How long does pre-employment screening take?

Most screenings are complete within one to three working days. For example:

• ID check, PEP and sanctions, insolvency: within minutes
• Criminal record certificate: often within hours, depending on the country
• Credit check, adverse media: usually the same day
• Diploma check: one to three working days, depending on the institution
• Reference check: depends on how quickly referees respond
• International checks: longer; some countries still require manual requests

The biggest delay is usually the candidate or a referee, not the check itself. Starting the screening at the conditional offer, and asking candidates for referee details up front, keeps the start date safe. More in how long a background screening takes. Hiring abroad? See international background checks.

Pre-employment screening with Pescheck costs from €24 per candidate. You pay per screening, with no subscription, set-up fee, or minimum volume.

• Standard: ID check and criminal record check, from €24
• Enhanced: ID, criminal record, integrity check and right to work, from €55
• Complete: enhanced plus reference check and adverse media, from €137

Every package can be adjusted, and you can build your own from more than 15 checks. Large volumes, API access, and dedicated support are available on an enterprise plan. Full details on the pricing page and in what a screening costs.

What affects the price?

• Number of checks. Each check you add raises the price per candidate.
• Countries. International checks cost more, because some countries require manual requests, notarization or a sworn translation.
• Government fees. Official criminal record certificates have fixed fees set by each country.
• Volume. Organizations that screen regularly pay less per screening.

The cost that rarely makes the business case is your team's time. Chasing universities, reaching referees and keeping track of who is waiting on what usually costs more than the checks themselves. Compare that with the cost of a bad hire, which can reach 2.5 times their annual salary once you add recruitment, onboarding and lost work.

More than 2,600 organizations screen their candidates with Pescheck, from scale-ups to NATO and the Port of Rotterdam.

• Fast for HR. Start a screening in a minute, follow every check live and get one clear report per candidate.
• Easy for candidates. A short, mobile-friendly portal, so candidates finish quickly and drop-off stays low.
• Built for compliance. ISO 27001 certified, GDPR compliant, a member of the PBSA and licensed as a private investigation agency in the Netherlands.
• Works with your tools. Connect Pescheck to your ATS or HR system or use the API.
• One provider for every country. Run international checks from the same dashboard.