September

Switzerland's biggest bank UBS said it had expanded the number of employees that are subject to internal background checks to around 15% of its workforce in a move than came in the wake of numerous scandals. Under the new policy, roughly 9,000 bank employees will be subject to internal vetting, said a UBS spokesman. UBS is also beefing up policing of its employees as it grapples with a probe into potential rigging of the global foreign exchange market. The spokesman said UBS had already been vetting some current employees and that the expansion was part of the bank's operational risk strategy.

Sixty two percent of employers report having been affected by a bad hire in the past year. The impacts are in time, money and morale. According to CIFAS, the average total cost of internal fraud was ?483,000 in 2013, the average cost of a redundancy settlement ?12,000 and the cost of a UK Border Agency fine for an illegal worker ?20,000. As a result, a bad hire can cripple an SME or an already-frail business. Comprehensive and systematic background checks of prospective employees are vital as a cornerstone in the prevention of fraud and as protection from costly mistakes.

According to figures released by Higher Education Degree Datacheck, 31% of graduates knew someone who had lied about their qualifications on their CV and 37% considered it common practice. Employers who fail to have adequate safeguards in place risk exposing their business to dishonest and under-qualified staff. However, there are some simple, low cost and effective ways of minimising this risk such as: making it clear in the offer letter that the offer is conditional on verification of their qualifications and that it may be withdrawn if any misrepresentation comes to light, and carrying out ongoing checks on existing employees.