Can you trust your candidates’ claims?

A recent Yahoo Finance article reported that Canadians overwhelmingly say they’re ‘completely honest’ when job hunting. The Xref Recruitment Risk Index: a 2017 Canadian Industry Perspective report found that 93% of us claimed total honesty when it comes to resumes and references, compared to 30% of Australians.

But it could be that Canadians are stretching the truth when it comes to that proclamation of honesty, especially when it comes to references. The same study states that 50% of Canadian job-seekers said it’s more important to choose someone who will give them a good reference. 17% admitted asking someone who was completely unrelated to their previous employment to provide a reference, while 38% had been named by a friend to provide a reference on their behalf.

On the flip side, the report found that only 34% of HR professionals said their organization does reference checks consistently across the company for every new hire. More often, recruiters are turning to candidates’ social media profiles instead, but some jurisdictions’ privacy commissioners are advising against this practice.

In fact, Donovan Molloy, Newfoundland and Labrador’s privacy commissioner, recently released a new set of guidelines on doing employee and background checks via social media.

The short version: don’t do it. “There’s all kinds of stuff there that could be used potentially to discriminate against people,” Molloy said to the CBC, in its article Don’t check Facebook before hiring, says privacy commissioner.

So if you can’t trust references, and you can’t sleuth social media, what can you do to confirm a candidate’s claims?

Many organizations, especially those that are more risk-averse, are increasingly turning to a combination of reference checks and background checks to thoroughly vet their candidates’ histories before bringing them on board.

Njoyn will be introducing interfaces to background check organizations over the coming months, including First Advantage, Garda (Mintz Group) and Verified First.

Users will be able to initiate a background check against  a given candidate from within Njoyn, and then be able to view the results. These services allow you to confirm a myriad of facts about a candidate, from criminal records to employment and education verification, professional and trade accreditation, driving records, and even international security risk.

These organizations are experts in their field, and cognizant of federal and provincial laws regarding human rights and privacy, helping your organization remain compliant while also reducing your risk of hiring an unsuitable candidate.