Culture & Education | Tuesday 25 September, 2018 3:45 pm |

Everybody knows that the first day in a new job can be daunting for the employee, but people don’t often spare a thought for the employer who is probably experiencing a similar thing. Hiring any new member of staff is always a calculated risk and background screening can help you to mitigate this, ensuring that the people you’re hiring really do have all the great qualifications they claim and that they are who they say they are.

We take a look at 3 mutual concerns that you and your new hires may have on day one, explaining how our suggested best practices can help with these concerns.

1. Office Access

When starting a new job, one of the first things that your new employee will be given is a set of office keys, an access fob or perhaps a PIN code for access doors in the building. Within just a few minutes, they may have access to the whole office, and with it part of the responsibility for keeping the office secure from external threats.

Best practice: To ensure that only those permitted to be in the building are in your office, issue visitor badges at reception and encourage your employees, new and existing, to challenge unknown persons. Explaining an office tailgating policy will also help to keep new employees vigilant against unknown persons.

1. Data Access

Once they’ve had their IT induction, your new employees will have their own user account set up, and will usually have access to shared company files on your network drive. Using a shared drive is a good way to share data with people in different locations but robust data security should be set up to keep your company’s private and confidential information safe. In reality, many employers will work on a trust basis and will give all of their users full access to the company’s files from day one.

Best practice: Limit the access of new users to only required data/files and encrypt any private and confidential documents with a password. New employees don’t need the worry of accidentally deleting crucial information so restricted access is a benefit to all concerned.

1. Laptops

Many offices opt to use laptops instead of PC workstations due to their portability, which makes it easier for people to hot desk or work remotely. This also allows your employees to either lock their laptops away in secure locations or take them home, for added security in case of an office fire. Commercial grade laptops can be high specification to cope with business use and are often very expensive, so taking them home each day could be a worry for you and your new employees.

Best practice: Encouraging new employees to lock their laptops away in a secure place (e.g. a locked drawer at their desk) takes away the mutual worry of the employee taking an expensive laptop to and from work each day.

Background screening helps you to trust your new hires from day one, allowing you to give your new starters a warm welcome, rather than a cautious one. A robust company-wide background screening policy allows you to have confidence in all of your hiring decisions and helps you to facilitate a safer workplace for everybody, staffed by qualified employees, whose first day worries are now long behind them.