A Twisted Kinda Logic

My constant pursuit of a contract that will finally allow me to purchase Mauritian or Costa Rican citizenship and further my studies in the field of Hamockology and Palm Tree Appreciation requires quite a bit of sales activity.

This morning I was speaking to the HR director of a fairly large company. This was in its self a minor triumph as getting to the decision maker in a company can be a pain.

In this case I was lucky as I know his PA very well so she managed to make sure he was in available and able to take my call.

We specialise in background research and intelligence regarding individuals and corporates, specifically where the client and subject of our enquiries are based in different countries. A subset of our specialty is pre-employment screening.

Having done a fair amount of research in to the company I had a broad understanding of the type of new recruits they take on and their exposure to confidential information, high value stock and reputational risk.

Mr. Director was certainly interested, or at least a very good actor, and we had a good conversation. I was asked to provide some documentation regarding the company and we agreed to meet up for lunch in the near future.

The part that astounded me was that he then went on to explain that although they currently had no pre-employment screening vendor and he was very interested in our services, the company was experiencing significant budget cuts. As a result of this he believed it would be something of a challenge to obtain approval and finance for a pre-employment screening policy!

It is precisely because of the current economic climate that people need to be more cautious about new employees. Greater unemployment makes it more difficult t obtain employment. This in turn leads to a greater risk of people embellishing their CV’s and being somewhat economical with the truth regarding their history, qualifications and abilities.

I should add that this company recruits from overseas, allows such recruits access to highly confidential information. They also pay salaries that are recognised as being far above their industry average. Finally they are also a company that currently have three ongoing employment tribunal cases two of which revolve around a level under-performance that indicates definite misrepresentation at the application for employment stage.

Employment law here in South Africa is such that it is after employing someone for a year easier to give your children up for adoption than it is to sack someone that truly deserves it.

Mr. Director and I will discuss this subject when we meet. I feel sure that he is “on-side” with my firm and appreciates the need for stringent pre employment screening protocols. I am simply amazed that a company such as this one seems not to have heard the old adage that an once of prevention is better than a pound of cure.