Background Check

Yes. It is always a best practice to obtain Data Subject’s consent for employment background check. As background checks often involve complicated data privacy, labor and human right protection related regulations and matters across different countries, it is always important to ensure as an employer we are operating at the industry best practice to avoid any potential issues and best candidate experience.

Yes, for two key reasons:

1. Background check often requires searches for data involving different countries. For example, the Data Subject was borned in China, worked in the United Kingdom and currently resides in Singapore and is applying for a job in Hong Kong. Even though the employer is based in Hong Kong, the data collection and sources could be located in other countries.
2. There are data privacy laws and regulations such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) from the EU that apply across territories.  

Thus, as a summary, it’s important to ensure your background check process is operating at a global compliance level.

It depends on different position roles and industries. Traditionally, due to ease of operation, reference check is a common practice in which employers in Asia do this themselves. For highly regulated industries, criminal record checks if data sources are available in the country plus other regulatory checks are very common. For executive employment screening in Asia, due to the risk level involved, more rigorous and thorough background checks are usually being run in.

Yes. Indeed, some employers do take a hybrid approach in their employment background check practice in which part of the employment screening is completed in-house while others are outsourced. As a recommendation, if budget allows, for the best candidate experience and screening results for your background checks, utilizing a 3rd party background check vendor to take care of the whole process would be a great option.

A single background check item could cost from USD20 to USD200+ depending on the country’s data source and service requirements. Employers in Asia would often include a different set of background check items depending on different position roles in their background check program across Asia.

You will be aiming for a minimum budget of USD150 depending on the country coverage and service scope. As a senior executive often possesses extensive work and professional experience possibly working in different countries, plus employers often would like to have a more extensive scope for the searches due to the risk level involved, executive screening is often among the most expensive yet popular background check for organizations.

Employers in Asia most commonly request a background check at the following times:

• During final evaluation 
• Job offer prior to onboarding
• Right after onboarding

There are different risk factors involved to pursue background checks at different stages of the talent acquisition process. Speak with our consultants today to learn more or read ahead in our blog posts and knowledge center about the pros and cons in this topic.

While employment screening for hiring purposes is a major and most common reason for employers to do background checks, background checks are often being run for existing employees or as an annual re-screening for different reasons such as satisfying certain industries’ regulatory requirements.

Employment background checks are getting more popular these days in Asia. Traditionally, only established organizations have set up the right protocols to manage their hiring risk with effective background checks but now this practice is wide-spread for organizations among different sizes in different industries.

This depends on what background check you are pursuing and the thoroughness of the data collected in the first place. A typical database related background check in Asia takes around 3 to 7 days to complete. For employment and education checks which rely solely on the response of the related parties, the average turnaround time is 7 to 14 business days however this could vary. 

For background checks that require authorities to reply, the required time is specific for each individual country. Generally speaking, employers in Asia often would like to maintain the service turnaround time to be within 14 to 20 business days to match up with their recruitment needs. As there are often multiple data sources available for these checks, decisions are being made to tailor the search scope and methodology to achieve the desired result.  Connect with eeCheck today to find out more on this matter or read ahead in the country specific pages or blog posts in our website.