Northgate to stop 'bad recruitment'
Cost of recruitment errors revealed as NorthgateArinso launches new service to stop ‘bad recruitment’
UK businesses risk wasting up to £2 billion every year recruiting employees who have omitted important information from CVs, according to new figures from NorthgateArinso.
NorthgateArinso has found that 5 per cent of job seekers are rejected because of potentially damaging information that would not normally be discovered through typical background checks. This five per cent, multiplied by the average cost of recruitment and the volume of recruitment in the UK, equals a potential cost of £2 billion every year .
The figures have been unveiled at the launch of a new service from NorthgateArinso, enabling employers to make thorough checks of CVs and candidate references. NorthgateArinso PeopleChecking can (with the permission of the candidate) verify employment history, academic qualifications and professional memberships, as well as financial and criminal records and driving licence endorsements. This allows employers to avoid the cost of recruitment errors and time-consuming reference checks.
According to MORI, 33 per cent of organisations claim they don’t have time to check employee references. In the same survey, 7.5 million people in the UK admitted to having potentially misleading information on their CVs.
“The fact that employees are still bluffing on CVs, and employers are still failing to check their facts underlines the need for better background checks,” said George Elkington, director of business development at NorthgateArinso PeopleChecking. “The cost of a good background check could be just £50, which as we’ve seen is very low compared to the cost of recruiting the wrong person.”
PeopleChecking saves employers’ time by using web-based systems and workflow technology to streamline the referencing process. The service is based on NorthgateArinso’s technology platform, and has been launched following the company’s acquisition of AST Check, completed this month.
“British businesses can’t afford to waste this much money in the current economic climate,” Elkington concluded. “The scale of potential wasted cash is huge – in fact it’s double the entire seasonal wage packet for the English Premier League football teams.”
