Skip to content

Everything about employment screening

Employment screening is an important practice that involves verifying an applicant’s relevant data before they start their employment. By doing so, you can ensure their integrity and know who you hire.

Employment screening

Employment screening is the verification of a potential employee’s relevant data that relates to the execution of the candidate’s job. The screening provides certainty about the candidate’s information shared and allows you to make better informed hiring decisions based on facts. Are you moving forward with the potential employee?

On this page, we will expand on everything you need to know about pre-employment screening:

  1. Why conduct employment screening?
  2. Is consent required to screen?
  3. Validata’s pre-employment screening services
  4. Validata’s employment screening software
  5. Example screening report
  6. Employment screening background checks
  7. Employment screening and the GDPR
  8. Frequently Asked Questions about employment screening

Book a demo

Why conduct employment screening?

  1. Risk management: Investing in the screening of applicants in advance, offers great added value in the long term. By objectively checking the relevant personal data, you know for sure who you are hiring and potential risks come to light.
  2. Mis-hire, or bad hire: In today’s labour market it is often a matter of acting quickly to become the best in the market, but perhaps you have also experienced the other side of the coin: an employee who got through the job interview flawlessly, but in reality is not suitable for the role. This is something you want to avoid at all times.
  3. Quality management: Job interviews remain the most important way to gain an impression of whether a candidate fits in well with your company culture. However, by adding screening to the recruitment process, you guarantee that the quality and integrity within your organisation remains intact.
  4. (Increasing) Laws and regulations: The laws and regulations regarding (hiring) personnel are increasing rapidly. It can be a complex process to comply with these regulations, especially because you do not want to lose focus on your core business. Outsourcing to a professional screening party ensures that you always comply with relevant laws and regulations and that you use an experienced party in this field.
  5. Remote working: Since working from home has become increasingly common, the way in which organisations recruit new employees has also changed. Many recruitment and onboarding processes have been digitised and therefore take place online. It remains important that the right candidates are chosen for a job. By screening you take thorough precautions.
  6. Internationalisation: If you decide to expand internationally as a company, you automatically have to deal with different countries of residence, different laws and regulations, cultures and personal data. Screening is then a proper solution to convey a uniform policy regarding integrity and quality.

Is consent required to screen?

In general, an employer does not need the consent of an applicant to conduct a screening. Their consent is not a valid motive, because consent must always be given freely and this is not the case for a job application procedure. In fact, withholding consent may result in the employer rejecting the applicant for the job.

As stated in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), any processing of personal data is based on a legal basis. In order to screen – or process personal data – there must be a legal basis; in this case, the legitimate interest. For an employer, this interest is ‘being able to rely on capable and incorruptible employees’ and mitigating certain risks.

However, the extent to which the employer can screen you is bound by a set of rules. For example, the content of the screening must be “proportional”, which means it must be in proportion to the job and the risks involved.

Validata’s pre-employment screening services

The screening of candidates can be a complex, sensitive, and also a labour-intensive process. To facilitate this data verification, you would need the help of various data suppliers and must also maintain the contact with the applicant. Outsourcing the screening process means that an organisation does not need to engage in these partnerships and that this data is stored in one central place. With Validata’s pre-employment screening services you are unburdened and can be sure that data is verified as efficiently as possible.

More about pre-employment screening

Validatas programvara för bakgrundskontroll

Validata has developed a software for pre-employment screening that ensures an efficient screening process where your data is always secure.

Fast and efficient
Transparent for employer and candidate
GDPR-proof
Access anytime and anywhere
Integration with other software

Through our API it is possible to integrate employment screening into your existing workflow and collect reports and data from within your existing ATS-/HR-tool, in one central place.

Read about our screening software

Example screening report

Once all of the candidate’s data has been verified, Validata delivers a screening report containing the results. At that time, both employer and candidate are notified and can download it directly from our secure application. This report presents the objective findings per screening check.

Download a screening report example

Example of Validatas screening report

Employment screening background checks

The background checks within a pre-employment screening vary per sector and depend on the position a candidate will hold. For example, a retail employee should be screened less extensively than the director of a financial institution.

Some of the checks that Validata typically includes in a pre-employment screening include:

  • Address check
  • Credit check
  • Criminal background check
  • Education check
  • Salary check

In addition, depending on the sector and position, a pre-employment screening can always be extended to include other background checks. We would be happy to think along with you and ensure that you have a screening profile that meets your organisation’s needs.

View all background checks

Employment screening and the GDPR

During a pre-employment screening, relevant personal data is collected and processed. The GDPR requires companies to be more aware of how they process and store data. Privacy and screening are thus inextricably linked:

Secure software

For the development of our secure environment, we have taken technical and organisational measures to safeguard personal data against loss or any other form of unlawful processing.

Data Protection Officer (DPO) at your disposal

Validata employs a dedicated DPO who advises on the correct processing of personal data and ensures that we comply with all (inter)national privacy laws and regulations.

ISO certified

Validata is ISO certified (2700 & 9001). This guarantees high quality management and information security.

Frequently Asked Questions about employment screening

How long does a candidate screening with Validata take?

After the candidate has provided the required data, the average turnaround time of a screening at Validata is 1-2 working days. Elements that have a longer turnaround time include criminal records from abroad and the verification of foreign diplomas.

What does a screening entail?

A employment screening involves verifying certain information about a potential employee before they actually start working for you. The data screened must relate to the applicant’s job performance.

How is the result of a screening reported?

Once all of the candidate’s data has been verified, Validata provides a screening report containing the results in our online environment, Valluga. In the report, we present the objective findings per background check.

This site is registered on wpml.org as a development site.
Select the region you are in: