Why re-screening is the key to long-term employees

Screening prospective employees to find out if they’re the right fit for aged care organisations is commonplace, but employee suitability shouldn’t stop at just the initial hiring process.

By not regularly screening your employees, you could be exposing your organisation to unnecessary risk.

Aged care providers that do not conduct regular ongoing background screening can miss the warning signs that an employee is no longer competent to remain in their role or is unsuitable for an upcoming promotion.

Background checks are a hiring no-brainer; you want to ensure candidates are who they say they are. But after you’ve hired someone you should be re-screening them on a regular basis.

While someone’s education credentials and previous employment history will remain constant throughout their career, it’s possible that other things may shift.

I would advise all aged care providers to really give serious thought to ‘who’ is working for you long-term.

Having employees who have lied about their background or their qualifications is serious, potentially criminal, and can have huge ramifications for the organisations who employed the individuals.

An employee’s criminal, driving and financial records can change over time, and, in many instances, this won’t impact the ability of the individual to carry out their role.

While we usually focus on the price paid by the individual at fault, an organisation can still suffer significant brand damage, even if they’re found not to have breached any laws and did the right thing by reporting a crime as soon as they became aware of it.

If your organisation fails to carry out ongoing background screening, you could be putting your clients in jeopardy, with you being potentially liable for any fallout.

Organisations’ obligations include:

• Providing a safe working environment: It is an employer’s duty to protect the interests of clients, stakeholders and staff. Employers are responsible for maintaining a safe working environment, including ensuring all employees are appropriately screened on a regular basis. One-off checks before an individual is hired will not suffice long-term, as any changes to their criminal or financial history, for example, may not be uncovered until it is too late.
  
  Government regulations within specific industries are also important. If found to be non-compliant — such as not conducting the appropriate level of screening, or not re-screening employees regularly — then hefty fines, reputational damage or prosecution could result.
   
• Promotions should always involve re-screening: Background check policies that include re-screening are important, but so are in-house promotion policies. New responsibilities that come with a promotion may not necessarily include a specific check that could prevent an individual from getting the position. But a problem might be uncovered in the original hiring process that impacts their ability to do their job safely, for example a criminal conviction.
  
  Another example could be an aged-care worker applying for a senior role within the organisation — this new position may require the employee to drive a company car to collect and return residents to a certain location. When the employee first joined the organisation, a driver’s licence check may not have been needed as the employee had no driving duties, or the check was completed at the time but they have had their licence suspended. Not completing a re-screening check like this could have devastating consequences for both the organisation and its residents.
   
• Different checks for different industries and duties: Aged care organisations will need to work with their hiring managers and HR team to determine the order — and frequency — of ongoing checks.
   

Michael Ivanchenko is CEO of Kinatico, a provider of know your people solutions comprising pre-employment screening, verification services and workforce compliance management internationally. Kinatico provides real-time workforce compliance management via its core software-as-a-service RegTech solution Cited.

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