March 23, 2010 marked a success for the event “Senior HR Forum: Talent Acquisition Trend in 2010” organized by eeVoices Limited, FlexSystem Limited and Graval Limited.
The event was kicked off by Greg Basham, CEO of eeVoices Limited, sharing the best practices in pre-employment screening. In challenging HR managers to see themselves as the first line of defence as internal risk managers to avoid hiring people with inaccurate information Mr. Basham recounted a number of alarming statistics in this region including 62% admitting to exaggerating their resumes to get to job interviews and 33% of that group saying they did this “a great amount.” Where there is no prior history of rigorous pre-employment screening Mr. Basham indicated that up to 70% of the files have serious problems falling to about one in two over the next six months as the word spreads that the firm is doing proper due diligence. His bottom-line – “You don’t want to be the employer of choice for those with something to hide.”
Mr. Basham related that one of two things happen with bad applicants. “Either they take their chances that their former employers will believe they cannot legally tell the truth or they will keep quiet to save face.” Others fill out the forms and email a few hours later to say they have another job. “These people will seek out and find employers who 80-90% don’t do due diligence checks.” Pre-employment screening also helps with talent management, career planning and retention as well as being able to call competitors and get detailed advice on how best to work with their new hire.