News

We at Greenfields Risk Management try to keep our clients as informed as possible to news that may effect them within their Vetting process, below are articles in various publications that are very relevent to todays vetting procedures

May 2008

With May arriving so does the better weather, this month there has not been much to report, however we do have some very interesting articles that you should read:

http://www.recruiter.co.uk/Articles/336818/Job+losses.html

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/trusted-banker-siphoned-off-14m-court-told/2008/04/09/1207420485879.html

http://www.forbes.com/2008/04/04/kerviel-societe-generale-face-markets-cx_ll_0403autofacescan03.html

April 2008

There has been a few problems of Fraud within the FSA over the last twelve months but it looks like the FSA are starting to get to grips with what should be done on Due Dilligence within the work place, more and more companies are starting to do annual checks on there staff on Criminal Record Bureau checks along with annual financial background checks.

Although a lot of FSA companies still not doing enough Pre checks on their staff we at Greenfields have seen some upturn on companies approaching us to do more compliance and Pre Employment Screening checks on their staff prior to them starting. Companies are now asking recruitment agencies to do more checks also, recruitment agencies have had an easy ride till now only having to do ID and Address verification, and as per the DTI employment agencies act 2003 and they still only by law have to do these checks, but companies have got wise to this and they are asking them to do employment references etc, the problem being recruitment agencies dont have the manpower to do these checks, so we have been advising our clients to send them to us and we charge the agency.

This in turn means that the agency is the organisation that carries the cost of the vetting and does not come under your budget.

We also have some very interesting articles that will be of interest to you:

http://www.recruiter.co.uk/Articles/336603/Corporate+theft.html

http://www.fraudadvisorypanel.org/newsite/events.php?id=3

March 2008

With the days becoming longer and the flowers starting to blossom march is always an exciting month, however with Fraud raising its ugly head more and more companies have now realised that checking their staff is more a must rather than just having the experience. We have seen a massive upturn in the PES (Pre Employment Screening) sector, we are now sighning up at least 2-3 new companies a week in all different industry sectors, although this is happening their has not been any movement in compliance industry sectors.

As always we have listed some very interesting articles that will keep you more informed:

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2008/011.shtml

http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2008/02/fraud_prevention_expert_accuse.html

Also we do have some news updates on CRB document checking:

http://www.crb.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=4869

February 2008

With all of the catching up that all companies have had to do through the beginning of January things are starting to really move on within some industries, the biggist shift that we have seen is Recruitment agencies, they are now having to set up PES Teams (Pre Employment Screening). Recruitment agencies are now finding that companies want more thatn just finding the right candidate, they now are beeing asked to do Pre Employment Screening on the candidates that they are placing with their clients.

Recruitment Agecnies are now using companies such as ours as they find this faster and far more cost effective.

Below are some interesting articles:

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/Statements/2008/response_tsc.shtml

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/Speeches/2008/0124_dw.shtml

http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/business_news/7489.cntns

http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/business_news/7507.cntns

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c5fcd8e0-c242-11dc-8fba-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

January 2008

Happy New Year to all

With a new year Greenfields have now employed another 10 members of staff to cope with this vast expanding industry, we are rapidly growing as is Pre Employment Screening, companies now see the need to do more checks on their staff and the old days of taking people at face value are long gone. It is now more important than ever to make sure the person you hire is not only the right individual but someone who is not going to damage your company.

Below are some informative links that you should read:

http://www.sii.org.uk/web5/infopool.nsf/HTML/qnovember07

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/Speeches/2007/1204_vr.shtml

http://www.recruiter.co.uk/Articles/335769/Illegal+immigrants.html

http://disclosure.gov.uk/Default.aspx?page=4830

December 07

Christmas parties and Christmas spirit is all the rage at the moment, people thinking of what presents to buy has now come upon us. Greenfields would like to wish everyone a Happy Christmas and a Happy new Year. With recruitment starting to slow down for the holiday season their are only a few changes in the FSA sector, you will find these articles listed below via the hyper links. The new year will bring some interesting changes within Greenfields as we open up some other divisions.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/policy/bnr_firm-framework.pdf

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/arrowguide.pdf

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/other/letter_changes.pdf

Other articles of interest are:

http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/business_news/5525.cntns

http://www.stephensons.co.uk/site/news_and_events/legalnews/employee_or_self_emplyed_mutuality.html

http://www.stephensons.co.uk/site/news_and_events/legalnews/whistleblowing_and_reasonable_belief.html

November 07

With Christmas rapidly approaching us and then the new year companies are now putting in place their recruitment statagies and structures, one of the most active areas that we have noticed is the legal industry, this month alone eight new clients have signed up with us requesting us to cover their employment compliance screening checks. Also with the amount of influx from European workers companies are looking to us to help them solve european vetting, ie: employment references overseas and within Europe.

We have this month some articles that are almost a must to look at, see below links:

http://www.symposium-events.co.uk/pages/attending/HR052/overview.htm

http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/business_news/7239.cntns

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Carlsberg-accountant-jailed-for-366000.3444366.jp

http://dofonline.co.uk/economy/finance-director-stole-to-fund-lifestyle.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/bankingfinancial-SP-A/idUSN1643696820071017

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2007/112.shtml

October 07

With October now upon us and attention now turned to organising Christmas parties and the bad weather really getting prople down, it is no surpise that companies may be on a slow down on the recruitment front, however those comapnies still hiring individuals need to still be vigilant to the fact that over 70% of CV's have false information on them. With this in mind companies are becoming more aware of what is on offer to them in the way of compliance screening. Greenfields is growing at a rapid rate of knots and within September we had to increase our staffing by another nine staff to support companies within their vetting process.

The big News within Greenfields is that we launched our Recruitment division, this allows recruitment agencies the opportunity to outsource all of the vetting whether it is just the referencing or complete compliance and background checks, with our SLA's in place we have proved that we save almost 40% of their time doing the checks on their behalf.

With the only major change being within the FSA marketplace hence, financial services firms already preparing for the weighty impact of the pervasive and long-awaited MiFID (or Markets in Financial Instruments Directive), which is scheduled for implementation Europe-wide from November 1st this year, FSA related companies are looking for companies such as Greenfields to minimise the risk of the staff that they hire.

Other than that we have a select links that will be extremely informative to you, The Companies.

http://www.contractorcalculator.co.uk/contractors_financial_services_security_checks_262810_news.aspx

http://www.recruiter-magazine.co.uk/Articles/334725/Clamping+down+on+candidate+fraud.html

September 07

Greenfields has had a tremendous month, since the beginning of August 07, we have grown our company almost 30%, this to us speaks volumes for our service, almost 27 new clients in all industry sectors have signed up to Greenfields and are now having us do all their screening. As far as 'new' goes there is only one major thing happeneing within the FSA which will come into affect on the 1st November 2007 which is MiFID (or Markets in Financial Instruments Directive), it has been long awaited within the FSA, any more in depth information will be stated on the FSA website.

We have quite a few very interesting articles that will be very informative:

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Doing/small_firms/general/library/roa.shtml

http://comment.ft.com/2/OpenTopic?q=Y&a=tpc&s=646099322&f=141094803&m=5991045151

http://www.personneltoday.com/Articles/2007/06/05/40936/jobseekers-admit-to-lies-on-cvs-to-get-right-job.html

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1115165

August 07

With the summer finally here there isnt too much to update, however with the BS 7858 screening if a company has gone into insolvency and the reference cannot be taken it must now be filled with two personal references. Other than that there hasnt been any other major changes within screening and vetting. We do have some very interesting articles though:

http://money.guardian.co.uk/workweekly/story/0,,2141051,00.html

http://www.personneltoday.com/Articles/2007/07/17/41497/Screening%2Bout%2Bthe%2Bbogus%2Bstaff%2Bundercover%2Bjournalists%2Bcan%2Bdamage%2Byour%2Bcompanys%2Bprofile.html

July 07

July has'nt seen too many changes in industry compliance rules and regulations however we have some extrely interesting stories that will explain more why doing complete background checks on potential staff is a must.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/article1933894.ece

http://www.ft.com/cms/6c2bf1ce-91b7-11da-bab9-0000779e2340.html?a=tpc&s=646099322&f=141094803&m=5991045151&r=5991045151

http://www.hrreview.co.uk/articles/hr_strategy_and_practice/majority_of_workers_steal_from_employers_177.html

June 07

June has been a very busy month, more and more companies has realised that outsourcing their Pre employment compliance function not only saves them money but at least 40% of their time. With an ever increasing fraudulant marketplace, companies have to reassure themselves that who they have employed is going to be right for their company.

One of the articles below is of a big interest to companies as at least 40% of data is stolen from companies, which brings the need for Pre employment checks to the forefront as you need to know that the individual you hire is trustworthy. It still surprises us that some companies that we speak with dont even take references on their new staff, in fact the old saying goes you wouldnt invite a stranger in to your house, and leave him to the family jewels, so the same thing applies to candidates that you employ, make sure you thouroughly check them out before hiring them.

http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=10889049&sub=false

http://www.liquidmachines.com/content1382.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,268946,00.html

May 07

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/Speeches/2007/0424_jt.shtml

http://news.hereisthecity.com/news/business_news/6691.cntns

April 07

With new budgets for recruitment coming in this month it has been an extremely busy month, we have found that vetting staff has become the buzz word of 2007, we have sighned up at least five new companies per month and Greenfields is now expanding at a rapid rate of knot's.

There are not many articles of interest this month but there are a few. Also Criminal records Bureau checks are also increasing, companies are now using this facility to do more stringent checks on their candidates.

http://www.crb.gov.uk/pdf/dn_mar_07.pdf

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/04/09/ap3594861.html

http://www.acfe.com/documents/ethicsline/truth-can-hurt.pdf

http://www.iir-financialtraining.com/IIR-conf/Default.aspx

March 07

With the only major changes with Pre employment screening being the SIA liscensing. From January this year the BS 7858 screening is the credit checks having to be done with every SIA liscence application and the referencing going from 10 years to 5 years. Being as this is the only major change it does not mean that companies should relax their Pre employment checks, as it is we have had more enquiries so far this month than ever before. The threat of employing somone with false information on their CV is still there. With it now being proven that over 70% of all apllications recieved last year having lied on their CV, the threat is still a big one. England tends to follow America and Pre Employment Screening now being the biggest buzz word within the recruitment across America. Pre Employment Compliance companies are still relativly new within the UK and companies still are not fully aware as to what they should check prior to employing an individual. CRB checks have doubled this year as companies now realise that is one way to fight off fraud within their company, however just doing this check still leaves you as a company very vunerable as reference checks and other checks would give you total confidence in the individual you have hired.

Below are some very interesting articles for this months newsletter.

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2007/025.shtml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6090514.stm

http://www.hrmreport.com/pastissue/article.asp?art=268485&issue=172

February 07

There hasnt been much to tell so far in February but there are however some very interesting articles that lets us know that screening is so important

http://www.hrmreport.com/pastissue/article.asp?art=268486&issue=172

http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=135051&d=11&h=24&f=254

http://www.mlro-convention.co.uk/event_view_link.asp?eid=55

January 07

Happy New Year to all. With a new year comes new challenges, Pre employment Compliance checks are becoming such a market trend, we have seen over the last year a massive increase of companies requesting all forms of compliance checks done on new and existing staff.

Listed below are some articles of interest:

http://www.microsoft.com/business/executivecircle/content/article.aspx?cid=2025&subcatid=304

http://www.itcinstitute.com/display.aspx?id=398

http://www.masslaw.com/news1107.cfm

December 06

"Happy Christmas", with only a few more weeks left of 2006 their has been many changes happening within the Pre Employment Compliance Arena, with more and more companies using companies such as ours Pre employment screening is such a hot topic, more companies are checking out their staff with a massive upturn in Basic CRB checks, we have seen almost a 150% increase in companies requesting Basic CRB checks on their staff, and around 75% of credit checks within the Financial services industry sector.

We wish you all a Happy Christmas and a Prosperous new year

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2006/110.shtml

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/21/business/21radio.html?ex=1298178000&en=e17273c6993a9393&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1186550,00.html

http://forums.contractoruk.com/thread10017.html

November 06

November has not only brought in the colder weather front but more and more clients in all areas of industry are now using us as their third party provider of compliance within employment, companies are finding that using a Pre Employment Compliance company such as ours keeps them legally compliant. We have also found more FSA registered companies are using us more than before.

http://www.realmarket.com/required/clientlogic3.pdf

http://www.personneltoday.com/Articles/2006/10/17/37683/Weekly+dilemma+Staff+monitoring.html

http://www.fraudadvisorypanel.org/newsite/PDFs/submissions/FAP%20Response%20to%20New%20Powers%20Consultation%20(Final)%20Oct06.pdf

http://www.bba.org.uk/bba/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=143&a=7511

http://www.symposium-events.co.uk/pages/attending/EM005/overview.htm

October 06

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/Library/Communication/PR/2006/093.shtml

http://www.symposium-events.co.uk/pages/attending/HR021/overview.htm

http://www.conference-board.org/e/detail.cfm?pressid=1213

http://jobsadvice.guardian.co.uk/cvsurgery/story/0,,1181530,00.html

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/127/116573.htm

September 06