Background check: what it is, importance and how to do it
Background check is the background check to validate information about people or companies that are about to become a business partner, customer, collaborator or business partner.
This prior verification is extremely important to remain in compliance and mitigate potential legal, financial and institutional risks that may affect the company in charge of the negotiation/contracting.
It is worth remembering that, in a highly competitive and technological market, decision-making has become increasingly based on automated and intelligent data analysis.
This is because it is necessary to research and analyze an immense amount of information, coming from different sources.
If done manually, the background check can be a time-consuming and time-consuming process for the company, in addition to not offering the necessary precision and security in this type of check.
Thus, for the background check to be carried out efficiently and correctly, the company must have the appropriate digital tools for this task.
These solutions will collect and understand the information relevant to this process, expanding the company’s ability to comply with the regulations and legislation that govern the sector in which it operates.
In this post, understand what a background check is, learn why it is important, learn about the types of background checks and learn how to do it in practice. Follow up!
What is Background Check
Background check is an English nomenclature and can be translated as background check or background check.
As the name suggests and as mentioned above, it is a process that aims to find and validate information about people or companies that will relate to your organization.
Thus, the background check can be used, for example, in the selection of candidates for a job vacancy, in the due diligence of suppliers, partners and partners or even in the customer onboarding process.
In order for the company to have this information in hand, any traces of occurrences, irregularities or pending issues that may indicate possible problems of a financial, legal, commercial or criminal nature are evaluated.
This involves, for example, consulting documents and other information in databases (such as CPF, CNPJ, CNH, criminal records, among others), on social networks, along with references in other companies, etc.
The validation of this information, when carried out within the company itself, involves several areas, such as Human Resources and the Financial and Legal sectors.
Why do background checks?
Companies that do not perform background checks and do not validate information provided by employees, partners and/or customers are exposed to many risks.
Without a proper background check process, the organization is more likely to suffer attempted scams, fraud, theft and even cyber crimes that can affect its entire chain of operations.
In addition, due to the connection with compliance practices, the company may end up losing business opportunities and suffer penalties for not complying with the laws, rules and regulations that govern its operations.
Adopting the background check practice also helps to deliver a better customer experience.
That’s because background checks simplifies the onboarding process and allows the company to avoid risks and more quickly approve customers who don’t have potentially harmful backlogs.
Hiring background check
This type of background check is more common in the United States to minimize threats that new hires can bring to the workplace.
It is interesting to note that the analysis can be carried out at any time in the employee’s life cycle with the company, and not only at the time of admission.
How it works is simple: before hiring, information such as academic and professional records, criminal records, traffic records and, in some cases, even toxicological tests are checked.
In the corporate world, the hiring background check is most used in the admission process for strategic positions and/or dealing with values and information critical to the company.
Financial background check
This modality is usually done by companies that offer financial services as part of Know Your Customer (KYC) procedures.
For this, institutions verify the identity of their leads, analyze their credit history and also the possible occurrence of financial crimes.
The objective here is to prevent fraud and illicit operations – and, therefore, the process must be repeated and constantly monitored.
Criminal background check
In this case, background checks are carried out in specific situations, such as those involving large amounts of money or when required by law.
Here, sources such as the Civil and Federal police, courts of justice and the National Bank of Prison Warrants (BNMP) will be consulted.
If necessary, the company can also consult international lists for restrictions and sanctions.
Conclusion
For more informed decision-making and to be aligned with the compliance policy, it is essential that organizations conduct background check processes.
Whether hiring new employees, selecting new suppliers and partners or managing new customers, background checks are essential to reduce risks and protect the company’s business.
Today, tools such as Big Data, AI, and Machine Learning allow data collection and analysis of the information collected to be done in a much more agile and secure way.
This brings benefits not only to the company’s decision-making process but also allows it to direct its efforts and resources to more strategic areas.