Pre-employment screening

Integrity check of applicants

Advantages for the company and its employees

• Protection against applicants who have already made deliberately untrue statements about themselves during the application phase.
• Protection against applicants who are unsuitable for positions of trust.
• Protection against the infiltration of organized crime groups or radical / extremist / terrorist associations / groups or secret services into key functions of the company.
• Protection against potential reputational damage for the company.
• Demonstrating a sense of responsibility towards customers, business partners and employees.

Arguments for professional pre-employment screening

• Before signing, lawyers on both sides rightly examine the employment contract in detail and charge a corresponding fee. However, the focus is only on the legal and formal aspects and not on the question of who the contract is concluded with! However, even a perfect employment contract is of little use if the person with whom it is concluded does not have integrity.
• The reputational damage caused by negative media coverage in print media, TV, radio or social media due to employee misconduct can quickly cause high financial losses for the company. Loss of sales and the termination of business relationships due to business partners' compliance regulations as well as the cost of restoring a company's reputation quickly add up. Checking an applicant's integrity can prevent nasty surprises. In many cases, the investigation of such incidents reveals that the person responsible has not behaved correctly in the past.
• The damage caused by a disloyal/criminal employee leaking information from the company can be enormous, not only in research & development or the technology sector, but in all areas of sensitive company data. In addition to the financial damage caused by lost sales/profits etc., reputational damage is often the more serious consequence. Under certain circumstances, the behavior of employees may also result in criminal consequences for the company managers. Here too, checking an applicant's integrity can prevent nasty surprises. Professional pre-employment screening can detect indications of intensive contacts with competitors or even secret services, as well as the potential for blackmail due to personal weaknesses.
• The liability risk for managers in connection with the recruitment of employees should not be underestimated. As part of the conscientious conduct of business, company managers (both those directly responsible, such as the head of HR, as well as executive bodies such as management boards and supervisory boards) must avoid or avert damage to the company. This duty is fulfilled by professional pre-employment screening. When investigating incidents, it is often discovered that the employee responsible has already exhibited similar behavior in the past or that a previous employment relationship may even have been terminated due to the same misconduct. In these cases, it is natural to conclude that the damage to the company could have been avoided if a review had been carried out before the employee was hired. If this had been done, the employee would not have been hired in the first place. Realistic liability and compensation scenarios can be derived from this logical consideration - with a corresponding risk to the private sphere of those responsible.