GDPR – legally compliant applicant background checks to protect your business interests

A pre-employment check is the legal examination of job candidates prior to the actual hiring or signing of the employment contract. A pre-employment check (PEC) is also often synonymously referred by experts as follows:

Why are applicant checks so important?

It is estimated from PES experts that statistically speaking, between 25% – 45% of all CVs of applicants have inconsistencies and have been “optimized”. This estimate is based on empirical values and on statements from the national and international PES network. As a result, at least one in four CVs have errors or inconsistencies; a terrifyingly large number.

Most of the “optimization measures” are carried out by applicants are:

Project-related reviews of employees, subcontractors and contractors (including freelancers) based on customer specifications

Case study: An industrial customer and client from the USA commits its German / European service provider to carry out the following checks within a reasonable period of 30 days, for example:

– ID Check & Identity Check

– License Check & Qualification Check

– Address Check & Address History

– Directorship Check & Shareholder Check

– Database Check (Sanctions Lists Check, Compliance Checks; Global Watch Lists Check)

– Credit History & Creditworthiness Check

– Employment Check & Employment History

– Education Check & Education Verification

– Criminal Records Check

What is allowed and what is not allowed?

What do you have to pay attention to as a service provider of a US customer or client in this context?

As a German company, for example, you are subject to German or European data protection regulations and the corresponding national jurisdiction. In this respect, it is important to make it unmistakably clear to the US client that certain checks here in Germany or Europe are not legally feasible. This concerns, among other things, the checks of a crime register or criminal records, furthermore, in the USA there may be certain licenses for the exercise of a certain activity or make it absolutely necessary, here in Germany or Europe the situation in this context can be quite different.

In addition, further special points have to be taken into account from country to country. For example, no inquiries and credit checks may be carried out on French citizens or natural persons in France; it is, in turn, permitted within a certain framework for companies.

All HR-relevant checks, such as the most recent employer(s) and positions or functions, the highest university degree, any reference checks, etc., require the written consent of the target person to be checked. In Germany, nothing is possible in this context without express consent of the target person.

In principle, however, one can say that many things are still legally doable, yet in Germany and Europe one has to operate within relatively narrow legal limits and requirements. This fact does not necessarily meet with understanding or affection on the part of US-American clients, but it does not change the situation that is relevant for us in Europe.

Finally, a few figures from a non-representative survey with large German companies:

Do you ask for the original documents of the applicants?

Do you require references from applicants?

Do you ask for a criminal record statement?

(Note: All data are approximate and do not claim to be complete and correct.)

Better safe than sorry

Our experience is showing that a preventive vetting process by a pre-employment check & screening expert is much more beneficial and cost-effective than a damage limitation in the aftermath. It is, of course, naive to believe that by means of a preventive candidate vetting process, all risks and dangers can be identified and excluded in advance.

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Our Promise

Excerpt from our promise for the EU GDPR – legally compliant and ethically sound implementation of pre-employment screenings and personal background checks:

– Post-employment screenings are not permitted and are neither offered nor carried out by Privatimus GmbH.

– Privatimus GmbH treats the personal data of the persons to be checked confidentially in accordance with the statutory provisions and protects them from access by third parties to the same extent as its own confidential information and data.

– The number of persons accessing or viewing personal data (within the scope of a review order) is limited to an absolute minimum.

– “Data Economy”: Privatimus GmbH undertakes to collect a minimum of data and information about target persons. Only the data and information necessary for the implementation of the verification measure will be collected.

– All project and personal information and data will be automatically deleted by Privatimus GmbH 90 days after completion of the order, insofar as there are no legal retention periods to the contrary. No hard and/or soft copies will be retained by Privatimus GmbH.

– Candidates’ private content and details remain private; they are not collected and reused.

– The transmission of confidential and personal data or documents is exclusively encrypted. For this, Privatimus GmbH uses a so-called Secure File Sharing Portal of an external specialist provider.

– All data will be stored in Germany.

We will be happy to send you our complete warranty promise separately by email.

Please contact us via email or our contact form.