A background check can answer many of the questions you may have about a candidate or a business. Used correctly it can reveal serious discrepancies or important information and enables you to make better and more correct decisions.

There is no guarantee of an easier selection process. The results of the background check may make you doubt the documentation you previously received, new information may appear, or you might need to take action that you had not planned or foreseen.

1) Select the criteria

Pre-define what results / criteria to be accepted, and which require a new assessment / evaluation.

2) Select the consequences

Determine the reactions / actions that will be used, and how the process should take place. Such reactions could be a new evaluation, follow-up questions to the candidate, notification to a specific body / higher level or cancellation of the ongoing process.

3) Carry out assessment

When results/reports from a background check are reviewed, it is important to remember that these are never better than the base material. If a resume is vague or incomplete, it will produce an inadequate background check. If information is missing, there is nothing to check.

The fact that mistakes, errors and discrepancies have been detected in a background check does not mean that the candidate can not be hired. The company must take an independent stand, and is responsible for the use of the results.

4) Rate the findings / results

To use the results effectively, a rating can be smart. Whether using a simple color scale (green = verified, yellow = missing, red = deviation) or classified by name. What you call things, is less important, as long as you know the meaning.

Remember that the reason for a deviation / missing confirmation might be that the wrong information is given (candidate has been renamed, typos, incorrect translation). It is important to remember that t could be that the source is wrong, and not necessarily the candidate. The faults may be on both sides.

 
The information you have is correct and without error, and confirmed by a relevant source. This means that what a candidate says matches what a source can confirm.

 
Sometimes information cannot be verified. That does not mean there are errors or discrepancies. The source (school or company) may be unavailable; bankrupt, closed or merged. It may also be that the archives only go a certain number of years back in time. Candidates may have studied at school, although the school can not verify.

 
The source is available, and contact is achieved, but the source confirms something other than what the candidate says. The deviation can be ranked by severity or probability of failure, whichever one has the most importance. Remember that differences often result from defects not lies or deliberate manipulation, but just as easily carelessness, misunderstanding or ignorance.

Meditor – use of results

Meditor’s aim is to always contact a source that is relevant and appropriate for the purpose. Since we do not perform reference checks, we avoid sources provided by the candidate. For reasons of privacy we avoid calls to public addresses or unmanned mailboxes, whose content unintentionally can be spread internally.

We can not guarantee that the source gives us an answer that is correct, but based on experience and methods, we consider our sources to be reliable. They are familiar with us, our staff and procedures, and respond to us when they have the time and the opportunity. Should we still get answers that seem wrong or incomplete, we continue the dialogue until we have answers that can be used by our client.

Our screeners are very specific in their requests, and specify exactly what we are looking for. It happens, however, that sources give us a fuller answer than we asked for. We do not manipulate/edit such replies/confirmations, but include it in our reports, although the content may be beneficial or detrimental to the candidate.