Is It Really Required To Do Background Checks Every Single Time I Change A Job?

background verification

The average tenure of an employee at a company has risen in recent times to around 4 years (4.3 for men and 4 for women). Considering this, it could be anywhere between 12 to 14 job changes in anyone’s career.

Is it really required to have 12 background checks done on the same person throughout her/his career? Can we not have a central database where any new employer could go and have a look to check the authenticity of the employee?

Why do we need a central database, anyway?

For one, doing background verification on the same person every single time she/he changes a job makes no sense. There is only one change, in most cases, of employment during a job change.

The education history usually doesn’t change except for any additional certification taken. The employment history has changed by 1 (the last employment). The address may have changed, which could easily be verified through an address document. And, the identity, well, is the same.

Once a person is verified, let’s say, with all the checks confirmed as accurate; the only check the next employer has to make is the previous work experience.

Yes, we are considering an ideal scenario here, but the difference in any other case is not a massive deviation from this. There could be an additional change in address or addition of education.

These are checks which could very easily be done on top of a complete background check done in the past.

Is it required then to have a complete background check on an employee every time?

Complete Background Check: Need or Not

 

Photo by nikko macaspac on Unsplash

How hard could it be to have a central database?

It turns out that it is really tough to build a central database. There are multiple reasons for this.

1. Companies who have had the background checks done on an employee don’t want to share the data. Why? Several reasons again! It could be due to their policy, or because they spent the money doing the checks and take the data to be of great value. More on this later in the post.

2. Any database where we could save the data could be compromised in a later time if the system is vulnerable. Which most systems are, give or take.

3. And, finally, a central database could make the power fall into the hands of people handling the database. Which brings us back to the problem of the authenticity of the data.

How could companies think differently?

To understand how big of a shift it is to have a central database, we need to understand the current flow of any background check.

When an employee joins any company, there is a request raised to do a background check on the employee. The standard checks which go into the process are identity check, education check (something we think is totally unnecessary, more on this later), employment check and address check.

All of these checks take time, except the identity check which could be done instantly, thanks to SpringVerify. The time taken can range from anywhere between a few weeks to a few months.

This is the time which the company loses money on. The cost of background checks apart, there are costs of keeping the employee on-board. The additional costs in having some of the educational checks run, which by the way are entirely flowed, is also taken by the company. The costs of verifying any alumni by the HR in terms of time is on top of this.

These are costs every company has to take for every employee on-boarded. If there was a central database, these costs could be saved. The verification could very well be done once, and the companies could pay a fraction of the amount of actual verification to know if the employee they are hiring is trustworthy.

The Way Things Could Be Better

The background checks, once done, could be saved for future use, if the companies allow that is, for any other company to use for their prospective hires.

There could be systems built which could save the data with a guarantee of keeping the data immutable and safe for future use. We at SpringRole use Blockchain to protect profile data, which inherently could not be changed in a later time.

Consider the benefits this could have on the entire hiring industry as a whole.

– This would help in saving money, a lot of it, in background checks and time wasted verifying these checks.

– It would promote inherently a sense of maintaining a legitimate profile by the candidates as this becomes a norm.

– Over time the process will make sure that the verification process becomes an industry standard, and the candidate would get it done by trusted authorities on their own. And, the employer would have to refer a database to verify.

The Future

We believe the future is moving towards the internet of value. Where it would be imperative to have an authenticity to anything produced. Blockchain is one of the stepping stones to this revolution.

The definition of work will change, and the way companies work with people will be re-imagined. People will work with more people, and there would be a greater need for authenticity and trust.


About SpringRole

SpringRole is enabling everyone’s #VerifiedProfessionalProfile on the Blockchain. It is a decentralized attestation-based professional network platform powered by the blockchain.

SpringRole is the platform where people can view, share, and get attestations on their professional profile, thereby creating a verified resume that they can share and use. The organizations themselves verify a user’s educational qualifications and work experience, which is written directly to the blockchain. To assess a user’s skill set, SpringRole has a system of weighted endorsements that let users objectively look at people’s profiles and evaluate their skill level.

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