Author’s Blurb: I find employment background checks to be a bit intrusive, but I understand how it can be necessary for certain types of jobs where crucial P&C information might often be shared. I think it’s reasonable to check someone for a history of fraud or worse, but not necessarily educational or work experience qualifications.
Many organisations are focused on recruiting to fill the gap and ensure their businesses have enough manpower, but they don’t realise that they’re being exposed to many risks when employment background checks aren’t part of their hiring process.
This is what Shirley of Talentvie told Vulcan Post, and she elaborated on the types of risks these companies might face.
A few of them are fraud (experience/position title falsification in resumes), false credentials (fake degree certificates), and negligent hiring (which could lead to a potential labour lawsuit).
“These bad hires will affect the company brand and reputation, trust and safety among the team, create a drop in productivity, high turnover rate, and high cost,” she added.
In Malaysia, employment background checks are only mandatory for financial institutions under Bank Negara regulations.
For other industries, based on her observations and speaking to hundreds of companies, less than 20% of them practice background checks.
“As fraud begins to rise and Malaysia is developing, we see the opportunity and importance of conducting background checks before hiring to help mitigate risk or bad hires,” Shirley said.
Making HR Life Easier
Here’s the thing though. You could totally carry out each of these checks yourself, at the cost of your own time due to going from one organisation to another.
Editor’s Update: Parts of the above paragraph have been amended to reflect greater accuracy.
So, what benefits does Talentvie bring to the table for employers?
Firstly, what may take HR weeks to obtain takes Talentvie only 5 to 7 working days.
By having complete access to databases and information, Talentvie can save time and costs for HR to focus on more value added work like recruitment and staff engagement.
As a third party, Talentvie is also neutral on the work that they do, presenting only the information for HR to consider. This immediately prevents any bias during the initial screening of results.
Businesses may also be touchy about sharing information on their ex-employees, especially if it’s a competitor that’s asking for the information. Therefore, by taking on this job, Talentvie mitigates any inconveniences or rejections from competing businesses when getting the information.
To make it easier for clients to understand Talentvie’s reports so they can make the right hiring decisions, the background check report comes with a summary of findings, and is also colour coded.
A red code means that a major discrepancy was found in a candidate’s background check, and a yellow one means that there were only minor discrepancies.
Out of the 200 cases Talentvie has examined, about 7% turn up red while 11% turn up yellow.
It Starts With Consent
For Talentvie to begin the screening process, they first need signed consent from the candidate, and this is how they also ensure that they’re not infringing on people’s privacy.
The work will then be delegated to different specialised teams according to the types of checks required (there are 16 of them).
Talentvie subscribes to credit reporting agencies to obtain information like credit socres, bankruptcy, business interests, civil litigation, etc.
Regarding criminal records, they have access to a world compliance database that provides not only local criminal records but also international integrity and sanction lists.
Once all the information is collected from various sources, the reporting team will check the information to ensure that it is accurate before compiling it into a clear and concise report.
A standard employment background check will usually take about 5 to 7 working days while a full check could take up to 7 to 9 working days.
Depending on which of the 16 checks a client wants to do, Talentvie has various packages to cater to different position levels and industries.
The pricing can range from RM70 to RM500, depending on how in-depth the checks needed are.
Not Just For Larger Companies
If you think that there wouldn’t be much demand for employment background checks by SMEs and smaller startups, you’re kind of right.
The demand mainly comes from MNC companies, Shirley shared, as they usually standardise their processes with their HQ.
However, this doesn’t mean that Talentvie is overlooking the opportunity to get SMEs and even manufacturing companies to use their services.
They’re constantly reaching out to business owners and HR leaders to share the benefits of their services, and some strategies they employ are digital marketing, case studies, newsletters, and networking sessions.
Employment background checks remain Talentvie’s main focus, but they also offer tenant background checks (takes about 1 to 2 days) and corporate due diligence checks.
To grow the company, they’re first looking to establish a solid customer base in Malaysia and installing a proper infrastructure and process for regional growth.
They’ll also be working to raise awareness on the importance of employment background checks to businesses in the non-banking industry, and they’re planning to expand Talentvie’s services regionally, especially in Vietnam and the Philippines.
Bottom Line: If I was looking at this from an employee’s POV, I can’t say I find much reason in background checks, especially not for low-security jobs. However, putting myself in an employer’s shoes, particularly one who could face more risk in hiring, I understand how Talentvie could provide a solution for hiring woes.
- You can read more about other Malaysian startups here.
Featured Image Credit: Talentvie
