Australia’s peak non-government standards development body has stepped up efforts to ensure those entrusted within an organisation with resources or assets are worthy of that trust.
AUSTRALIA’S PEAK non-government standards development body recently released draft standards for employee screening, designed to guard against a range of potential risks by ensuring the integrity, identity and accurate credentials of staff.
The Standards Australia Committee’s (SAC) draft employment screening process guidelines cover corporate governance (fraud and corruption controls) and risk management and require a greater degree of diligence from HR professionals.
“While much of the information required to be collected is common sense, there will be no room for ‘comfortable assumptions’ about any person’s history or background,” said Patrick Farrell, managing director of Caliper Human Strategies Australia.
“A further implication for the HR professional is that it will expose them to become involved in a much broader range of screening activities.
“For example, performing screening checks on existing employees where they may be being considered for promotion or finalising a probation period. This may place some strains on the relationship that employers have with their employees, particularly if they have not been subjected to such checks before.”
SAC’s draft follows proposals by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) for standards governing the fitness and propriety of responsible people in financial institutions.
APRA’s proposed standards are designed to weed out executives who have been declared bankrupt, failed to manage personal debts or held responsibility in a failed institution. Anyone with a civil or criminal conviction related to dishonesty in dealings with financial institutions will also be barred.
Although many people will welcome these developments, Farrell said they will inevitably cause upsets. “The ‘why me, why now?’ question may land squarely back with the HR person,” he said.
HR professionals can bring their employment screening processes up to speed by ensuring that their processes are well structured, transparent and legally robust. The most difficult task for HR professionals may be being the bearer of bad news.
