Have you “lied” about the languages you know on your CV?  Exaggeration of language ability is pretty common, but can it ever cross the line?  Came across this gem on the BBC and needed to share.  Here’s an excerpt:

Several years ago, Facebook started allowing users to add ‘languages spoken’ to their profiles.

One thing became abundantly clear: I had, apparently, been living a life populated with polyglots.

All at once, everyone I knew started claiming to be multilingual – despite the fact that I had never heard these people mutter even a word of a foreign language before. (My favourites were the people who said they spoke both US English and UK English.)

This trend doesn’t end with Facebook profiles either. The embellishment seeps into the workplace, surfacing when people apply for jobs. On LinkedIn and in job applications, many people don’t think twice about slapping down a greatly exaggerated foreign language ability.

But can this backfire?

Read the rest of the story here.

Background checks matter.  Here’s why.  There’s no shortage of cases in recent years of individual employees causing massive brand damage to their employers’ business. Currently, the Royal Banking Commission in Australia is once again throwing the spotlight onto poor corporate governance and the expected cavalcade of detrimental outcomes. While senior leaders continue to fall on their sword and share prices begin to slide, all of us are examining how we can use these cases as a lesson for our own corporate brand.

One side-effect of these widely publicised governance failures is that it allows forward-thinking organisations to carve out a market position as an ethical and governance best practice leader. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, reputation accounts for up to 75% of a company’s value. Research from Real Business also shows that corporate governance, including perceptions of fairness, ethics and transparency, now accounts for 17.2% of a company’s overall reputation, second only to perceptions of their actual products and services.

So, how do we go about creating a positive perception of our corporate governance? Obviously, good corporate governance is the first place to start, as our business’ reputation is developed slowly and steadily over a number of years. Put simply, there are no shortcuts in building your reputation.

What we can do, however, is be more transparent about the processes and practices behind our corporate governance (background checks play a role here). It’s easy to pay lip service to “consistently excellent levels of ethical behaviour”, but any cynic who reads that on your websites and shareholder reports will know that it only takes one rotten apple to prove otherwise.

To mitigate these concerns, it’s worth letting your stakeholders know about the lengths your business is going to in order to attract and retain a highly ethical workforce. So, can background checks save your corporate brand?  In a word, yes. A major reputational safeguard is your pre-employment screening processes, as these can outline the steps your business is undertaking to ensure that unethical, and potentially criminal applicants aren’t slipping through the cracks.

Background checks stand behind good process.  If a particular individual is exposed for negligent, unethical or criminal behaviour while employed by your business, one of the first steps your business can take is to highlight your pre-employment screening processes. If those screening processes have been carried out in full, and the employee has been given the right level of ethical and conduct training, you can respond to media reports on the front foot by illustrating that best practice corporate governance procedures were followed. While this doesn’t give you an automatic free pass, it will greatly reduce the potential brand damage your company could suffer.

By partnering with a world-leading pre-employment screening provider, you can be sure that the recruitment processes you publicise are of the highest quality in your marketplace. This provides shareholders with a greater sense of security in your governance practices, while also being an essential component of your brand position for customers. On top of that, a robust and stringent recruitment process indicates to potential applicants that you’re serious about hiring the best, making you an employer of choice and influence.

We are always on the lookout for ways to improve employee happiness, engagement and productivity –this article from Fast Company fits the bill.  One thing to note is a key feature behind our screening methodology is also a key element in what supports employee happiness: trust.  It turns out that finding ways to build trust is probably far more effective than more direct approaches to “happiness”.

Read more here.

We’re always on the lookout for good resources to help organisations improve governance, develop best practice and protect themselves.  One critical area is the issue of employee fraud.  Here’s an excerpt from CPA Australia’s white paper on the subject with a link to the full document below:

Employee fraud is more common than most businesses think. It can have differing impacts on the success of a business. In the most serious of cases, employee fraud can lead to business failure and destroyed careers. Misplaced trust, inadequate hiring and supervision policies, and a failure to implement strong internal controls create an environment that is ripe for an employee to commit fraud. Employee fraud is therefore about opportunity. Subsequently, businesses should take steps to reduce this opportunity.

The following guide includes:

• an overview of fraud, including common examples of fraud

• examples of strategies to reduce the risk of fraud

• information on what to do when a fraud is detected.

Businesses designing strategies to reduce the risk of fraud will have to balance their desire to minimise such risks with the business needs. In other words, a business must avoid becoming so focused on reducing the risk of fraud that it impairs the ability of the business to meet its commercial objectives.

Read the rest of the white paper here.

As exposure to risk becomes a growing concern for organisations worldwide, employers should consider more extensive, best practice procedures during the pre-employment screening process to avoid future pitfalls.

A recent report indicates The Global Employment Screening Services Market accounted for $3,012 million in 2016 and is expected to reach $4,743 million by 2022.  The CAGR growth rate is estimated to rise by at least 8% by 2025. This market growth may be explained by increasing cases of fraudulent claims, expanding regulation, growth in hiring, and emerging markets and new employment sectors.

This growth may also represent an underlying shift in how companies perceive and weigh employee risk.  We may be moving away from a mindset of correction after the fact to one of prevention of a problem in the first place.  The additional benefits of this include increased efficiency, arguably a boost to productivity and a reputational safeguard.  Employers are recognising that the protection of their brand starts with screening, and the implementation of a best practice screening process also helps them build trust across their organisation and into their relationships with business partners and clients/customers as well.