Have you ever found yourself in a recruitment process where the prospective employer asks for permission to carry out a police check on you? Although it is not a common practice, there are numerous reasons why an employer would want to perform a police check. As a job applicant, you must be aware of your rights in case such a check is included in your application and interview challenges.
To prepare you well for any eventuality here is all you have to know regarding police checks;
- To begin with, a national police check is a summary of anyone’s police history data in Australia. Police checks can be performed on Australian citizens or any person living in Australia. This is a government service given to either a person or company for work, voluntary activities, and employment-related licensing and registration reasons.
- Why do employers require police checks? A vast majority of company owners find police check essential to minimize the risk of fraud, theft, and other criminal activities carried out by prospective new workers.
However, in organizations where workers get involved with the elderly, children, or other vulnerable individuals, police checks are critical for organizations to avoid hiring past criminals. In case a business owner feels that a police check is relevant for a certain job, they are needed to state so clearly in the advertisement, in details sent to candidates, and in recruitment directives to agencies.
- The rights of prospective applicants. It is essential to know that apart from police checks for prosecution and investigation reasons, nobody is allowed to check anyone else’s records without their express permission.
This is to means that the dispensation of a criminal record for employment reasons can only be carried out with the signed consent of the applicant. Also, in case you are asked if you have a criminal history, the Human Rights Commission states that you should not give any information unless it is required by law that you do. In that case, you would have to diverge your criminal history.
Advantage of Preforming a Police Check before Hiring
It can be said that there is no sure way to prevent various risks that may occur from hiring employees whose background is not clear from the word go. However, doing a police check on prospective employees and contractors could save companies plenty of misfortunes.
It is a way of protecting the organization’s assets, employees, and structure from individuals with any sort of considerable criminal record. The small fee used in a police check is an insignificant expense in comparison to the damage and danger exposure a person with criminal behaviors can cause in an organization.
Take Away
Nothing can compare to the safety of a company’s reputation as well as that of the employees and other resources. It is in the best interest of any business venture to perform due diligence on prospective employees and it can also be essential to carry out annual checks on existing employees just to be sure that you are not exposed to any risks in the daily running of your company.