Prior to a job offer being extended, specialist recruiters will conduct a range of checks to ensure that the information provided by the candidate is factually correct. Reference checks are done by contacting the candidate's former employers to get a sense of their work performance and personal abilities.

Network Recruitment has found that, in some instances, job seekers are going to extreme lengths to find employment bytampering with their qualifications and payslips. As a result, running background checks have become a crucial part of the recruitment process.

As important as it is for organisations to have access to information about the candidate, it is equally important for the candidate to have access to information about the potential employer to enable them to make an informed decision about their next new work environment.

Although candidates are encouraged to research the organisation before their job interview, there is only so much information they can obtain from a corporate website, social media platforms, press releases etc. "As much as it is a risk for organisations to hire candidates without conducting background checks, it's a risk for candidates to accept a job offer without having sufficient knowledge of the organisation," senior engineering specialist recruiter, Disi Khoza, Assistant Branch Manager at Network Recruitment explains.

Network Recruitment has seen some candidates who accept a job offer leave the job within months after discovering the company culture, management style, or the role and what was expected was different to what they believed. According to a study done by Leadership IQ, 46% of employees do not make it through their first 18 months of employment due to company culture, management style or the actual job itself.

To avoid this kind of staff turnover, Khoza suggests that organisations consider implementing an 'employee shadow system' where candidates are taken on a tour of the new workplace to observe the work environment, engage with potential co-workers and ask their own set of questions. This approach gives the candidate the opportunity to dig deeper and establish for themselves if it would be a good company fit. In addition, employees may give you valuable feedback about the candidate that could result in direct time and money savings.

"Should candidates' also be allowed to conduct a reference check on a potential employer?" by, for example, contacting a previous employee to obtain more information about how the organisation operates in practice.

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Disi Khoza is an Assistant Branch Manager at Network Recruitment. 

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