International Services: What’s the Skinny on International Background Screening?

International background screening continues to expand at a rapid rate. For some organizations, screening is handled as a “one-off” for a single hire with an international background, while other organizations require comprehensive screening solutions on a global basis. Whichever category you fall into, partnering with a company versed in international screening is essential.

International complexities are significant and in most cases, there is no silver bullet to address the impact on time, cost and process variations. Here are six key topics to keep in mind when including international background screening in your HR process and policy.

·         Verifiable Source – An employer has a legal duty to exercise due diligence when hiring candidates, regardless of domestic or international background. Studies have found one in four (25%) applicants provided false credentials in their international education and employment history, underscoring the need to ensure a verifiable source confirming documentation authenticity.

·         Language Barriers – Results are returned in English, however, records access, reporting, verifications and interviews are handled in the native language. When reports are returned they are translated to English. Maintaining local resources “in-country” to handle variations in dialect, translation and communication are essential to reporting quality.

·         Country Regulations – Due to country-specific regulations, consent forms vary and change fairly frequently with little to no notice. In addition, permissible purpose and information access varies as well. For example, if the person will be working as an ex-patriot versus an inter-country employee, the rules may vary and thus access to information.

·         Record Keeping – Not all international record keeping meets the same standards we are accustomed to in the United States. For example, in parts of Mexico, criminal records are literally pieces of paper shoved into boxes with no indexing or formal organization. Internationally, there are many areas where information is unreliable due to corruption. Caution and diligence are paramount to international reports access, to avoid the issue of bribery to obtain records, which is a violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

·         Consumer Privacy – Privacy laws are still not the norm in most of the world outside of first world countries, but this is changing rapidly as more and more countries adopt strict privacy legislation. The European Union has, arguably, the most strict privacy laws in the world. Argentina and Uruguay have passed privacy legislation nearly identical to the EU laws. Staying abreast of the changes will help improve compliance internationally.

·         Data Security – Data transfer across national borders is a hot topic. This is part of what prompted the agreement between the EU and the U.S. Department of Commerce to create the Safe Harbor program for requests between the two entities. Working with organizations certified with Safe Harbor will help increase your compliance.

Even though there is no silver bullet for international background screening, Aurico understands the rules, the country-specific documentation requirements and maintains the internal knowledge to help improve report quality, turnaround time and minimize costs.

Learn More: http://www.aurico.com/Background-Screening/International-Background-Screening.asp