The team from Sterling RISQ (from left): Susan Lim-Cox, Oliver Koh, Olivia Chaw, Candy Macalincag, Lynn Ee, Choonlin Wong, Marina Ishak, Beryl Quak, NurhaidaRoslan, and ShuraimBasir

The team at Sterling RISQ was thrilled to receive the Gold award in the Best Background Screening Provider category of the HRM Asia Readers Choice Awards for the third year in a row. “We’re ecstatic on the win,” Lynn Ee, Marketing Manager of Sterling RISQ said. “We were definitely humbled by the continuous support of our clients, who have placed the responsibility to hire safer in the global workforce with us.”

Ensuring the right candidates are able to join a hiring organisation’s team as quickly as possible is critical to success in the modern business environment. This pressure on speed to hire and accuracy of selection is even further heightened by the need for companies of all sizes to harness the power and opportunities of technological advancement. The costs of an incorrect CV or skills claim can be devastating.

“Sterling RISQ understands this dilemma and seeks to empower businesses of all shapes and sizes to make smarter, faster and safer hiring decisions by providing its comprehensive suite of screening services utilising next generation technologies,” Elizabeth Fitzell, Asia-Pacific Managing Director for Sterling RISQ, said. The company aims to consistently “put the customer in the room” to ensure that its product and service offerings are always built with the customers in mind.

Despite having three awards already under its belt, Sterling RISQ won’t be resting in 2020. It plans to emphasise its vital rescreening capabilities in the new year, ensuring organisations stay ahead of internal threats as they develop.

“This continuous screening is facilitated by the growth in various technologies, including digitisation of records, API integrations, and the like,” Fitzell said. “In 2020, we will continue to invest in the latest technological platforms. This adds on to latest social media screening search that employs advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to comb thousands of websites for both user-generated and third-party content to reveal toxic online behaviour, or unbecoming activities.”

This article first appear on hrmasia.com

In 2019, Sterling RISQ is proud to announce the appointment of Milo Zhou as the Chairman for Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) APAC council which covers more than 50 countries. With this appointment, Milo Zhou is the first ever Chinese Chairman of PBSA APAC.

Currently serving as the General Manager of Sterling RISQ China, Milo Zhou have accumulated 6 years in the background screening industry through roles in operations and management. Under his leadership, his team in Sterling RISQ China have managed thousands of screening cases from clientele consisting of world-renowned conglomerates, creating a safer business environment.

Milo actively engage in PBSA’s activities in the past 4 years, taking on the role of Chair for PBSA’s Communication and Membership Committee to promote the council activities and onboard new members from China; conducting surveys to understand and communicate member’s needs to the boards for action. These contributions have allowed him to gain the trust and recognition from industry professionals and leadership to unanimously appoint him as Chairman.

Milo said “I am deeply honoured to be elected to take over the helm as chair for PBSA’s APAC council, where I will continue to help grow and shape the council’s strategic directions to create greater awareness of how background screening can help promote compliance within the region.’

Milo also champions the use of the PBSA accreditation program, a widely recognised seal of approval bringing national recognition to an employment background screening-affiliated organisation for its commitment to achieving excellence through high professional standards with accountability that results in continued institutional improvement.

About PBSA, APAC Council

Founded as a non-profit trade association in 2003, the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) was established to represent the interest of companies offering employment and tenant background screening services. The Association currently represents over 880 member companies engaged in employment and tenant background screening across the United States.

The APAC Council began forming in 2009 and after nearly two years of hard work it was officially ratified in September 2010. The APAC Council follows the same guiding principles as PBSA:

• Promote ethical business practices.
• Promote compliance with appropriate legislation within the region.
• Foster awareness of issues related to consumer protection and privacy rights within the background screening industry.

There has been an ongoing debate on who is considered the millennial generation, a Pew Research Centre has defined the generation to consist of individuals who have been born between the years of 1981 to 1996.

As with every generation, there are unique defining characteristics that define one from the other. The millennial generation are known as “digital natives” symbolising individuals who have grown up using technology like the Internet, computers and mobile devices.

This does not come as a surprise as Millennials were born and grew up at a time where the internet bubble was born, growing and burst! The first laptop, the first touchscreen, and the smart phone were launched.

1995 saw the second dotcom boom emerge; the first recognizable social media site, Six Degrees, was created in 1997 enabling users to upload a profile and make friends with other users. In 1999, the first blogging sites became popular, creating a social media sensation that’s still popular today. Today, online content and social networks are ingrained in our daily activities with an estimated 35 billon social media users worldwide.

Through the use of technology communication has evolved from letters to emails, phone calls to text messaging, and the creation and use of social media to stay in contact and network. An opinion in the past might be passed on verbally, but now more often than not, it appears on the newsfeed of your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or even as a video on YouTube and is available to a much wider audience.

In 2019, the most popular social platforms were reported to be Facebook and YouTube, tied at 74%, with Twitter in third place at 37%.

This is also a time where millennials are well into adulthood and now make up close to 50% of the workforce; with the youngest being at the age of 23. Yet the trend of narrativizing their own lives on social media is not going anyway, with 64% of millennials using social networking every day and owning an average of 8 accounts each.

Social media is no longer just a network of social activities, but a throve of information for the workforce. Based on Career Builder’s 2018 social media recruitment survey, more than 80% of job seekers will research an employer online before applying for a role and 70% of employers use social networking sites to research job candidates during the hiring process and throughout their employment.

Reportedly, the survey also shows that more than 50% of employers found content on Social Media that lead them not to hire a candidate. Conversely 47% said they are less likely to interview job candidates if they are unable to find information about that person online.

Increasingly, both employers and employees alike seek to develop their brand through social media channels. Employers are also keen and taking actions to protect their brands as seen by the growing number of actions up to and including dismissals due to posting on social media accounts. These cases at times involved medical professionals or even celebrities who are constantly under public scrutiny.

As HR professionals untangle the complex web of recruitment in this digital age, it is a growing understanding that one has to take responsibility for their social media profile and voice, and recognise that public social media posts are no longer just for personal viewing.

Yet, it can be hard to draw the line between an employee’s personal life and work life online, and to make matters more complicated, there is not yet a social consensus on which aspects of social media life, if any, are off-limits to employers.

The internet holds a wealth of information about candidates, and online profiles and activity can paint an insightful, though not always entirely accurate, picture of a person through posts that support a candidate’s qualifications, display reviews of their work, activities and interests. It can also expose harassing or discriminatory behaviour or dishonesty, which may be reasons to reconsider a candidate.

This leaves talent managers in a tough spot, as the wealth of information on social media platforms may lead to unintended exposure of “protected” information that influences the hiring decisions such as race, religion, ethnic origin, age and other similar types of characteristics.

However, if 50% of your company hires are millennials and present on social media, the non-usage of social media screening is almost akin to turning a blind eye to information which can reduce the chances of incompetence, fraud, violence and disruptive behaviour in the workplace, and at the same time find employees who will contribute positively.

To mitigate and avoid exposure to sensitive information, HR professionals have to exercise great care when considering whether and how to sue social media screening for potential candidates. Consideration of things like the segregation of information to ensure sensitive and protected information are not taken into account in the hiring process. Additional steps can be taken such as accessing only publicly shared data or having separate personnel to screen the candidate information based on a set of structured compliant requirements which have been approved by your legal team. However, the danger of “seeing” information which should not be used in the selection process remains high if the screening is done in-house.

The complexity in social media screening, lack of manpower and legal resources and the growing emphasis on social media screening has led to the outsourcing of social media screening process to 3rd party professionals background screening companies.

This facilitates a more sophisticated and objective process and eliminates the risk of personal bias or reputational disrepute that a company might otherwise face, preventing a costly lawsuit and loss of reputation. And, of course, assists companies to hire and engage with the best fit candidates for their company.

We must all recognize that hiring processes are evolving as we move on from generation to generation, and social media screening is simply a component of an evolving screening process. As always, screening exists to make our workplaces and our society at large safer.

Author Bio

Elizabeth Fitzell is the Managing Director for Sterling RISQ and NCC and joined Sterling in 2016 as COO for RISQ Group. She now leads Sterling’s APAC region, with responsibility for delivering best in class background screening and identity solutions for clients and driving business growth for Sterling RISQ and NCC

Lynn Ee is the marketing manager for Sterling RISQ and oversee the marketing efforts of Sterling’s APAC region. With a keen interest in the digitalization of human resource through technology, she is the voice for Sterling RISQ’s background screening and identity solutions in APAC

This article first appear PBSA’s September Newsletter – The APAC Background Screening Report (https://preemploymentdirectory.com/pubs/apac/2019-09/APAC-Report-Sept-2019.html)

While it’s an increasingly common buzzword these days, cultural-fit is something many of us find hard to define, and it’s often even more difficult to build into the hiring process. Steve Smith, MD EMEA, Sterling looks at how companies can use talent strategies to bolster constructive company culture

Why are company culture and fit important?

Cultural fit is something that can’t be ignored by businesses, an assertion supported by numerous studies and statistics. Susan Heathfield, co-founder TechSmith Corporation and best-selling author highlights the broad definition of a candidate with cultural fit as one “whose values, beliefs, outlook and behaviour are congruent with those existing within the current organisation”.

It seems that identifying and actually hiring this candidate can prove far more difficult.

In fact, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the result of a hire that turns out to be a poor fit can cost an organisation between 50-60% of the person’s annual salary. In addition to this, low-level engagement as a result of a bad hire can lead to a 33% decrease in operating income while, conversely, a highly engaged workforce can improve a business’s performance by up to 30%. The paramount importance of company culture was also outlined in a write up of the SHRM research in the Harvard Business Review, with the author stating that “culture fit is the glue that holds an organisation together. That’s why it’s a key trait to look for when recruiting.”

Steve suggests there are many ways that organisations can use talent strategies as he has experienced first-hand at Sterling. Many companies undergo significant cultural change in order to transition from an environment of siloed activity to one of greater collaboration, by using a variety of methods to build this into the recruitment process.

Defining your purpose

Once you’re clear on the importance of company culture, what’s crucial before embarking on any hiring activity, is to define your purpose. This means being clear on why your company exists, what it stands for, and where you want to go as a business, and then ensuring this is aligned with all parts of your employee life-cycle. How this is best achieved will be depend on the dynamics of your firm. You could run focus groups, surveys or workshops involving the whole company, for example. It’s best to draw from as many internal resources for this stage of the process, and canvass opinions from all levels of the organisation – not just the C-suite. What’s important is that you end up absolutely certain of your purpose, values and mission as a company, and the culture you need to build to realise this.

The recruitment process

Once this has been achieved, the next step is to build cultural fit into all levels of the recruitment process. This is arguably the most crucial part of cultural transformation as every new hire you make will have an impact on your culture. One of the most effective ways to do this is to start introducing interview questions based on values. This will help you tease out candidates who are more likely to be a good cultural fit and give you something more objective to look at as a safeguard against bias.

Here are the type of questions that will help assess cultural fit in an interview. These will give away key indicators of whether a candidate is a good fit for your workplace:

• What type of culture do you succeed in?
• What values are you attracted to and what’s your ideal workplace?
• How would you describe our culture based on what you’ve seen?
• What best practices would you bring with you from another organisation? Do you see yourself being able to implement these best practices in our environment?

Alternative hiring methods

Another method to embed company culture in the recruitment process is by using technology to enable alternative hiring methods. Have candidates send in videos instead of cover letters, or conduct interviews over video instead of phone. These methods are most effective if they get a candidate to display elements of your company values and affinity to your culture. Using these preliminary screening methods to put across your culture in a more explicit way will also help you screen out many unsuitable candidates before having to assess them in person.

Background screening

Finally, picking the right background screening package can play a large role in ensuring that your recruit will gel with the company. Background checks can be instrumental in this regard, often creating the foundation of trust and safety needed to nurture a great company culture. Furthermore, the way you go about your employee screening process says a lot about your company, and will contribute greatly to candidate experience.

Simple but effective

Ultimately, finance executives already know the importance of a productive, engaged workforce, and the value of not only bringing in the best talent but also fostering growth and engagement among the current workforce.  However, without a well-established set of values, and dedicated approach to building these into the hiring process, this goal is going to be much harder to achieve. By sticking strictly to the simple guidelines above, you can rest assured that the candidates you eventually bring in are a perfect fit for your company culture.

This article first appear on dof.online.co.uk

Business.com named Sterling among its exclusive line-up of the best background check companies of 2019 for the SterlingNOW self-service background screening solution. The accolade coincides with SterlingNOW’s first birthday celebrations last week.

Optimized for Trust

For businesses that need a convenient and cost-efficient way to run up to 100 top-quality background screens per year, SterlingNOW delivers a superior level of protection built on a foundation of trust, integrity, and industry expertise. SterlingNOW offers the Sterling screening trusted by clients for over 40 years, including Fortune 500 companies, now tailored to the needs of small businesses.

Scope of Services

Says Business.com correspondent Skye Schooley, “SterlingNOW, by Sterling, offers an easy-to-use platform for small businesses to order self-service background checks with quick turnaround times. A variety of businesses in the financial services, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing and transportation industries, to name just a few, can benefit from SterlingNOW’s self-service opportunities. Businesses that benefit the most from SterlingNOW are those that need quick, self-service background checks and typically require fewer than 100 checks per year.”

Key Features

Three key features of SterlingNOW are highlighted in the Business.com article featuring the winners:

• Helpful video demo
• Convenient online portal
• Variety of screenings

For the complete review, read the original article on Business.com.

This publication is for informational purposes only and nothing contained in it should be construed as legal advice. We expressly disclaim any warranty or responsibility for damages arising out this information. We encourage you to consult with legal counsel regarding your specific needs. We do not undertake any duty to update previously posted materials.