Tien Essentiële Pre-Employment Screening Controles

A background check for pre-employment screening goes a lot further than a VOG (Dutch Criminal Record and Certificate of Good Conduct). In this article, you will read about the ten crucial checks of good pre-employment background checks, with the aim of recruiting qualified and reliable personnel.

As an HR professional, you want to have insight into the possibilities and requirements for screening your employees. Here, it is important that you know what you can and cannot ask, examine and check. A background check goes further than a VOG, where only one check – the criminal record – is relevant. A good background screening, however, involves no less than ten checks. Which ones they are, you can read below.

The ten checks of a good pre-employment screening

1. Verification of identity
During this check, you prove the identity of the candidate by means of data. PESCHECK, for example, uses identity data from no less than 196 countries for this check.

2. Check for listing on international PEP and Sanctions lists
The PEP and sanctions lists check includes politically exposed persons. The Sanctions lists include people who have previously been involved in unwanted trade, money laundering or terrorism. For this check, you have to consult different databases.

3. Certificate of Good Conduct for Dutch residents
This is a statement indicating that the candidate’s behavior does not interfere with the job, internship or hobby. For this, it is checked whether there is a criminal record.

4. Criminal Record / Letter of Conduct, international
ACriminal Record provides insight into the criminal history of the candidate.

5. Online presence, Google check / Adverse Media
In the adverse media check, we investigate whether the candidate comes forward online and/or can be linked in various sources to certain keywords. Global media sources such as newspapers, magazines, social media, web articles, and search engines are checked to see if the candidate is portrayed negatively.

6. Data Check Netherlands
This check provides insight into property ownership, current and previous addresses and whether there are any Chamber of Commerce registrations.

7. Qualification and Diploma Check
During the qualification check, you check and verify that the diplomas or certificates have actually been obtained. Find out if your candidate has what they say by checking their professional qualifications. With this quick and easy way to do so, you can focus on more important things like finding an excellent new employee!

8. Driving license Check Netherlands
This concerns a check whether a driving license is valid.

9. Credit check national / international
A credit check provides information about the candidate’s creditworthiness and solvency.

10. Reference / CV Check
The reference check is a process where we contact an individual’s work and references in order to verify information about the person.

Integrity Statement and Declaration of Consent

Besides these checks, there are two other important parts: the integrity statement and the declaration of consent. The integrity statement consists of a number of questions relating to the integrity of the candidate. The questions are answered and signed by the person concerned. This makes it a legal document. Additionally, you also have to deal with a declaration of consent. Screening can be very invasive to the privacy of the candidate. Therefore, screening is only allowed under certain legal conditions (GDPR). The candidate must agree to this by means of this declaration.

This information is part of our practical guide to an effective screening policy. Do you want to hire candidates with integrity or screen existing staff for abuses and falsehoods? Read the entire guide and you will know exactly how you should approach this as an HR professional. Don’t feel like reading this document in its entirety or do you still have questions? Feel free to contact us and we will help you take the right steps.