How different is Private Investigation from Background Screening

How different is Private Investigation from Background Screening

I received many queries on my previous article “Living in a 100% safe world“.

Broadly the queries can be summarized into 3 questions. These are:

1.      How different is Private Investigation from Background Screening?

2.      How much is background screening likely to cost?

3.      How easy is it to get the background screening carried out?

Let me address these questions here.

Firstly on the differences between Private Investigation and Background Screening.

Private Investigation essentially entails services revolving around investigatory law services. Private investigators often work in areas such related to civil and criminal cases including although not limited to adultery, embezzlement, tracing absconding debtors, collection of evidence for court cases, investigation of allegations of abuse of workman's compensation, etc etc

Much of the work of Private Investigators is done under cover. Often an undercover investigator conducts investigations of suspected criminal activity while impersonating an incognito third party. The investigator use various means to document their investigations including carrying hidden cameras, recorders, etc. Also due to the dangerous nature of their job responsibilities, private investigators keep their real identities secret sometimes even throughout their active careers.

Background Screening does none of the above.

Background screening, primarily is the process of verifying the employment, education, criminal, commercial and financial records of an individual. Background checks are often requested by employers on job candidates for employment screening, especially on candidates seeking a position that requires high security or a position of trust, such as in financial institutions, schools, hospitals, government agencies, in fact every-where. These checks are typically administered by companies specializing in background screening. The results of a background check typically include past employment verification, education qualifications, criminal history, bankruptcy details, civil ligation / court cases involvement and credit information. The primary objective of background checks is to provide organizations the information to assist them in the hiring decision of candidates.

However, as I had mentioned in my previous article, the services of background screening can and is being extended to other areas such as due diligence, tenant screening and new areas that I have suggested like kith and kin screening and personal screening.

Next on the cost related question.

Background screening costs vary depending on the checks / components that an organization or an individual wants to carry out as well as the country where the checks are to be done. Typically the components of background screening are:

-         Employment Details

-         Education Attainments

-         Professional Qualifications

-         Civil Litigation

-         Bankruptcy

-         Criminal

-         Credit

-         Global Watch List

-         Financial Regulatory

-         Directorship / Conflict of Interest

-         Identity / Passport Check

-         etc

Each of the components have different costs for different countries in the world.

Most organizations will set up packages for different groups of hires, such as low risk, medium risk or high risk candidates, depending on the seniority levels and risk exposure levels. For instance employees having access to confidential data of a company could be classified as high risk staff although he may not be a senior person in the organization. For instance system support staff having access to databases are generally regarded as high risk staff.

Depending on how the packages are set up, the costs can range from, say S$ 30 – 40 to perhaps + S$ 200 or so.

Lastly, how easy is it to get the background screening carried out.

There are different types of background screening companies in the industry. The larger industry players are more rigorous in their procedures and the entire contracting procedures can take months. These companies also take considerable time to getting their clients started up to use their services and in training, and in the overall onboarding process.

The smaller companies in the background screening industry are more nimble and efficient, and quick in the set-up and onboarding processes, and the contracting process can take just a few days sometimes even 1 day. The smaller companies exhibit very efficient set up processes. Also the services provided by the small companies are equal to what larger companies provide. That is, the smaller companies are in no way inferior to the large companies and the pricing of background screening is less than the larger companies (sometimes even half for the various components listed above)

The smaller companies are shaking up the industry and with the very quick turn-around time of providing services, these companies are giving the larger companies a really tough time. The smaller companies are also taking way market share very rapidly from the larger companies.

For the new services that I had mentioned in my previous article, such as Personal Screening, this is essentially a Business to Consumer (B2C) service and can be provided by the smaller companies very easily. It can be set up and good to go within 1 day. The smaller companies also enable payments via credit cards by individuals as well as by businesses and this helps to speed up the process even further

Hope the above 3 questions have been answered sufficiently! If there are any further questions, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]. Please feel free to write me an email and I will respond by the next business day.

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