The simplest way to perform incredibly comprehensive enhanced background checks

The Basics of Enhanced Background Check

If you’re conducting an enhanced corporate background check on an individual, these seven questions are a good place to start.

1. Does this person’s education and employment history match what they disclosed?
2. Has this person been directly involved in a regulatory investigation or action?
3. Is this person connected to any person or company that has been directly involved in a regulatory investigation or action? If so, how?
4. Does this person hold any directorship or shareholder positions that could result in conflicts of interest?
5. Has this person been mentioned negatively in the media?
6. Has her or she faced any (civil or criminal) litigation charges?
7. Have they been declared bankrupt by a High Court?

These initial inquiries lay the groundwork for a more in-depth exploration into a candidate’s background, as we’ll outline in the subsequent section.

What’s Included in an Employment Background Check? 

This multifaceted process, designed to provide employers in Singapore with a comprehensive understanding of a potential employee’s history and suitability for a role, examines various aspects of their past to mitigate risks and ensure a safe and compliant work environment. Here’s a breakdown of the key aspects typically included in a background screening in Singapore:

Reference Check

To provide valuable insights into a candidate’s professional past, a reference check is usually performed as part of the corporate background screening. This involves reaching out to individuals familiar with their previous work, ideally, direct supervisors or HR representatives. Through targeted questions about their responsibilities, achievements, teamwork abilities, attendance, punctuality, and reasons for departure, valuable qualitative feedback is gathered. This information helps you evaluate the candidate’s suitability for the role and assess their potential cultural fit.

Employment History Verification

A fundamental part of any corporate background check is confirming the accuracy of a candidate’s claimed work experience. This involves validating the roles they held, the responsibilities they undertook, and how long they worked at their previous companies. To ensure a thorough background screening, this process usually includes contacting former employers or utilising specialised databases. This helps you validate a candidate’s professional journey and identify any inconsistencies that might be important for you to know.

Educational Background Verification

With diploma fraud becoming a bigger concern, screening a candidate’s educational background ensures the academic qualifications they present are authentic. This can be achieved through the use of accredited platforms and directly contacting educational institutions to check degrees, diplomas, and certifications. Plus, for some jobs that require specific qualifications, MOM might even mandate verification through these recognised platforms to guarantee the candidate’s credentials are legitimate.

Criminal Background Check

Assessing a candidate’s criminal history is the standard procedure in a corporate background check. In Singapore, it primarily involves obtaining a Certificate of Clearance (COC) from the Singapore Police Force, which details any criminal convictions within the country. For foreign workers undergoing background screening for a job in the country, the process might also necessitate checks with law enforcement agencies in their countries of origin, contingent on the job requirements and the employer’s risk assessment.

Social Media Screening 

A more recent addition to corporate background checks, social media screening involves examining a candidate’s publicly accessible online presence and social media profiles. This can offer insights into their public conduct, opinions, and potential warning signs that traditional checks might miss. However, it’s crucial that social media screening is conducted ethically and legally, focusing on job-related concerns and avoiding discriminatory practices during the background screening process. Ultimately, the goal is to identify any publicly available information that could jeopardise your organisation’s reputation or safety.

Credit History Verification

For specific roles, a corporate background check often includes Credit History Verification, which evaluates a candidate’s financial responsibility and past. This type of check is typically warranted for positions within the banking and finance sectors or those involving fiduciary duties and access to sensitive financial data. When verifying credit history in Singapore, you can utilise reports from the Credit Bureau Singapore (CBS), a reliable source of credit information. This can help assess a candidate’s financial stability and integrity, a crucial consideration for roles that demand financial trust.

Global Sanction Check

Lastly, this is particularly vital for roles in finance, compliance, and those with cross-border responsibilities. A Global Sanction Check, a crucial part of a thorough due diligence check, involves screening candidates’ backgrounds against international watchlists and databases of sanctioned individuals and entities involved in activities such as terrorism financing and money laundering. Ensuring that potential employees do not appear on these lists is essential for maintaining regulatory compliance, mitigating the risks of financial crime, and protecting your organisation’s reputation in the international arena.

How Long Do Employment Background Checks Take?

This can vary significantly. While some basic checks might be completed within a few days, more comprehensive corporate background checks, especially those involving international verifications or manual record retrieval, can take several weeks. The complexity of the role, the number of checks required, and the responsiveness of third-party sources all influence the overall timeline.

Step-by-Step: How to Conduct a Compliant Background Check in Singapore

To conduct a compliant corporate background check in Singapore, you must first obtain the candidate’s clear consent, preferably in writing or electronically. This ensures they understand the scope and purpose of the background screening.

Next, carefully determine the specific checks required, based on the responsibilities and potential risks associated with the particular role. Depending on the complexity of these checks and your internal resources, engaging a certified background check provider with expertise in Singapore’s regulatory landscape can be a wise decision.

Following this, gather all necessary documentation from the candidate and proceed with thorough verification of its authenticity through official channels. It’s also vital to diligently document all findings throughout the process and to implement robust measures that safeguard the confidentiality of the sensitive information collected, adhering to the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) for legal compliance.

Legal Framework for Employee Background Check in Singapore

The legal landscape for conducting corporate background checks in Singapore is primarily governed by the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). This act establishes rules for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data, requiring organisations to obtain consent and provide clear notification to candidates about the purpose of the background screening. The PDPA also sets limits on the amount of personal data that can be collected, how it can be used, and for how long it can be retained. Furthermore, if you’re hiring foreign individuals, you must adhere to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) work pass verification obligations, which mandate certain checks to ensure the legitimacy of work pass applications. Failure to comply with both the PDPA and MOM regulations can lead to significant financial penalties and reputational damage.

Common Mistakes to Avoid During Employment Background Check

To ensure a legally sound and effective corporate background check process in Singapore, it’s crucial to be aware of common errors that can undermine your efforts. Here are some frequent mistakes to avoid:

• Failing to obtain proper and explicit consent: This primary misstep directly violates the PDPA before commencing any background screening in Singapore.
• Asking discriminatory or irrelevant questions: This can lead to legal repercussions and harm your employer’s reputation.
• Over-collecting sensitive personal information: Gathering data beyond what is reasonably required for the role breaches data protection principles.
• Trusting unverified references or documents: Relying on these without independent validation can result in inaccurate evaluations and potential risks.
• Skipping checks for temporary or remote workers: Overlooking background screening for these employees can leave your organisation vulnerable to unforeseen security and compliance issues.

Common Challenges in Background Screening

Achieving thorough corporate background checks often presents several hurdles for organisations. For instance, the presence of siloed databases and the complexity of accessing comprehensive cross-border records can restrict the breadth and precision of the information obtained. This, combined with reliance on manual search methods, can lead to an incomplete understanding of a candidate’s history, thereby significantly elevating the risk of overlooking crucial details and making comprehensive checks extremely difficult. Additionally, individuals with problematic backgrounds may actively attempt to conceal their past, and basic screening procedures might lack the sophistication to detect these hidden issues. Furthermore, standard processes often struggle to identify indirect connections or subtle warning signs embedded within intricate networks, ultimately hindering a comprehensive risk assessment in background screenings.

Overcoming Your Background Screening Challenges with Handshakes

Navigating the complexities of corporate background checks requires a strategic approach to overcome common obstacles. Handshakes, a data analytics company in Singapore, offers a suite of intelligent solutions specifically designed to streamline this critical process, providing deeper insights and alleviating the burdens associated with traditional methods.

By addressing the challenges of siloed data, manual processes, and the difficulty in uncovering hidden risks, we empower you to conduct more thorough and efficient background screening.

While we do not provide employee background checks, should you only need to know a person/vendor’s directorships and shareholderships in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam and China, we provide Entity Profile Reports. They list all businesses the person is involved in – uncovering their role, and the status of those entities.