Frequently Asked Questions for candidates and employees

Often organisations need to verify certain personal data before entering into new business relations. A screening is ultimately a background check and could include a (future) employer verifying a (potential) employee’s diploma, recent work experience, and or criminal record amongst other possibilities. A screening can consist of various background checks depending on your position and responsibilities.

According to GDPR legislation, an employer may request the screening of a (potential) employee and process such personal data if it is in their ‘legitimate interest’ as a client or employer. 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” and the employer is obliged to provide information. To note: the screening is therefore not allowed without the candidate’s knowledge. You can view our privacy statement for more information about how we handle your personal data. Validata meets all GDPR legal requirements.

When your (future) employer has registered you for a screening, you will immediately receive an activation email from Validata. This is an automated process. In most cases, if you have not yet received anything, the employer has not yet requested the screening. It may be that the employer has entered your email address incorrectly. In this case, it is best to contact our Support department to provide the correct email address. They can also check if you have a screening pending.

Validata screens candidates within an online environment called Valluga. Both the employer and candidate have their own account within Valluga. Once an employer has requested a screening, you will receive an email from Validata with instructions on how to provide the necessary information. Once the information has been provided, Validata will verify your data.

As soon as a screening element is complete, the results are immediately visible in Valluga for you and the employer. When all screening elements are complete, a report will be produced and made available to both you and the employer.

Depending on your organisation’s sector and your role and responsibilities, different background checks are applicable. From identity checks to verifying your recent work experience or diploma, employers can also ask for a statement of integrity or even a credit check. Interested in all the checks we offer employers?

View all background checks

If you live and work in Sweden you will need to provide Validata with your Swedish Personal Number (personnummer). Once you have entered it in Valluga, we work with Verifiera to search for the relevant legal information. When Validata contacts Verifiera, you will receive a text message from Verifiera asking you to identify yourself through BankID. The relevant legal or criminal data will then be published in the final report and made available in Valluga.

You do not have to upload any such documentation unless this is specifically asked of you in Valluga. Some employers may specifically ask for such an extract and some may not. If you are asked for this, you will be sent very clear instructions.

A ‘Certificate of Good Conduct’ is essentially a certificate from the government saying you have not committed any crimes. What information these certificates contain and what they look like vary from country to country. Also, not all countries use such certificates. Often Certificate of Good Conduct and Criminal Record are used to find the same information.  In Sweden, the CGC can be compared to an extract from the National police authority.

In our online environment, you must enter your account and go to the ‘education’ section. Here you can see all your submitted education(s). You can then select ‘proceed’ and after you have clicked ‘proceed’ you will see the possibility to upload your diploma.

If you have completed your education in Sweden and you have an extract from Ladok, you must upload the Ladok extract (preferably in English) instead of the diploma.

This means that we have additional questions regarding the data you submitted in the screening. Please log in to the screening and review the checks where it states ‘action required’.

During our reference check, we verify if you have worked at your stated previous employer(s). We check this directly at the source i.e. your previous employer or organisation. Consequently, your referee’s email address should include the name of the organisation. Private or general email addresses such as support@, servicedesk@, and customerservice@ are not allowed. If you no longer know anyone at the organisation, you may submit the HR department as they can also confirm your previous position.

This is an informative email to update you on your ongoing screening process.  If you received this mail it means that one or more of your referees have not responded to the reference request. Please contact your referee and request them to respond as soon as possible. It is not possible to change the contact details of your referee(s) in this process.

During a work experience check, the referee is asked to verify the following questions:

• Are the start date and resignation date of employment correct?
• Is the position and name of the organisation shared correctly?

The referee may be asked additional questions that have been specified by your (new) employer. Please contact the Support department to find out if your (new) employer asks additional questions during the reference request.

Due to security reasons, the activation link in the email is only valid once and for 24 hours: upon activating your account. Did you log out and would you like to log in again? Please visit this page: login.validatagroup.com. Here you can enter your username (your email address) and personal password.

A clock or ‘status processing’ refers to ‘waiting for reply’ from an external data supplier or referee(s). When a clock or the status processing appears, editing this screening element is temporarily not possible.

If your mobile phone number is not recognised, a wrong number might have been submitted when requesting the screening. If you see this notification, it is best to contact Validata Support. They can immediately edit the telephone number so you can log in again.

If you receive these reminders, you might have adjusted a screening element but forgot to submit the new data. Did you add extra input for certain elements? Click ‘submit adjusted data’ so we can continue your screening. These reminders will stop automatically.

These errors can occur when you try to log in using the web browser Internet Explorer/Edge. We, therefore, advise you to log in via the web browser Google Chrome.

Based on your submitted work experience, the period(s) or gap(s) between your work experience are automatically filled in. For example, if you state that you worked from September 2013 to September 2015 and from November 2015 to today, you will be asked about your (work) experience gap in October 2015. Does this period not correspond with reality? Then, the wrong date could have been filled in. Please check these details before submitting your screening.

Both you and your employer will receive access to the report within Valluga, once the screening is complete. You can log in to our website to check the interim status of any check, view the final report, and download it.

During your screening, you submit the necessary information. If this information does not correspond 100% with the information at our data suppliers, an exclamation point or question mark will appear.

A question mark means that we could not verify your data with complete certainty. An exclamation point refers to an important attention point for your (future) employer: please check and discuss it with them. In most cases, it concerns a minor default that can be easily explained.

We advise all of our clients to discuss the screening report and any deviations with the candidate. If this discussion has not yet been scheduled, you can initiate it yourself.

Unfortunately, we cannot make further adjustments that could influence the results of the screening report. Therefore, we do not reopen completed screenings. It is important to check all the details before you submit them.

No, we will do this for you. Your (future) employer receives the screening report at the same time as you.

Requesting a certificate of conduct often takes longer than other screening elements. Therefore, we create an intermediate report without the certificate of conduct. This means that all the screening elements will be visible to you and your (potential) employer.

Please note: If your screening states ‘waiting for certificate of conduct’, the screening report has been released. No further adjustments can be made to the preliminary report.