Understanding the Lawfulness of Electronic Signatures for Recruitment Proposal in the United Kingdom

How to eSign a document: electronic signature lawfulness for Recruitment Proposal in United Kingdom

- Today, let's learn how to make sure that you pass your next background check. Hey, YouTube. This is Matt from Elevation Career, and thanks for joining me. Do you know that passing the interviews, getting the offer, and signing the contract does not guarantee that you will have a job? There is still one more step that could go wrong, and that is background checking. In today's video, I'm gonna share with you rock-solid tips to make sure that you pass your background checks with flying colors. For those of you who are not 100% sure what a background check is, it is the process that gets kicked off once a job seeker has signed the contract and is waiting to join the company. Depending on the employer, the background checking process can take anywhere between a few days to even a few months. Usually, this is what the process looks like. When the company makes an offer, and the candidate accepts it, the employer will then ask a professional background-checking company to start off the process. The background-checking company will ask you to provide a list of information. And then, they will check the details you provide, especially your compensation details, as well as your CV to ensure that everything is accurate. Once the checks are completed, they'll report their findings to the employer. If everything is cleared, all good. If there are some issues, usually they'll ask you for more information or documents to clarify. However, if there are too many discrepancies or problems deemed too severe, the employer will likely withdraw the offer. In other words, if you fail the background check, the employer can and will often rescind the offer, putting the job seeker in a predicament. Based on my experience, most people will not provide false or inaccurate information on purpose. Instead, the most common reason for a (failed) background check is often careless mistakes that could have been easily prevented. So, how do we ensure that we get through this final step smoothly? How can we make sure to avoid any mistakes and unnecessary surprises? I have three points for you today, plus a bonus tip, so make sure you watch until the end. Number one, the first thing you need to check is that your resume is accurate. Again, one of the main areas of a background check is confirming the content of your CV. When it comes to background checking, I have found that the following details are the main areas of interest. Number one, dates. Please double-check that all the dates in your CV, especially the employment and graduation dates, are correct. You only need to mention the year and the month instead of the actual date. The less detail you provide, the less room for error. If in doubt, refer to proof documents such as your employment contract instead of trying to go by memory. A common mistake is if the date was at the end or beginning of the month, it's easy to remember it wrong. For example, if your start date was, let's say, the 31st of March, it's easy and very common in such a case to remember it incorrectly as April. Again, the safest thing to do is to recheck the dates against a written proof. Next, job titles. The other item you need to be careful of is the job title. Make sure that you include your official title given by the company. I understand that sometimes the official title may not accurately describe what you have done. For example, some companies use titles such as Engineer Level 1, or Assistant Manager, or Associate, all of which provide little idea about your actual work or expertise. In such cases, what you can do is indicate your actual or more accurate titles in brackets next to the official ones. Let me show you. Here is a sample resume. For example, if you are a Full-stack Java Developer, but your official title is Software Engineer, you can write Full-stack Java Developer in brackets next to Software Engineer, like this. Again, your official title is Software Engineer, and the more descriptive, accurate title is in parenthesis. Another example, if you were a Business Analyst, but your official title is, say, Project Manager, again indicate Project Manager as your title, but within brackets, write Business Analyst. Suppose you do not include your official titles. This can become quite tricky during background checking because your supporting documents will only contain the official titles, which can lead to a lot of back and forth, explanations, and et cetera. You can save a lot of potential hassle simply by following this tip. And lastly, certificates. When it comes to certification, just remember one thing. Please ensure that all your certificates are still active. If they have expired already, indicate it in your resume to avoid any misunderstanding. Number two, compensation. Compensation is the most sensitive element of background checking. You need to double-check, triple-check every detail about salary that you provide. The compensation figures should neither be rounded up nor rounded down. If your salary is, for example, $78,205, write it exactly as is, $78,205, not $78,200, not $78,000, and certainly not $80,000. The best way to do this is to check your pay slips or other written documents first before inputting any number. More often than not, the background checking company will ask you to provide supporting documents at some point anyway. So, have those documents and proof ready, and based on them, indicate your numbers. One question that I sometimes receive is, "Is it okay to round down my salary? Clearly, I'm not trying to inflate or lie about my numbers, right?" Well, the answer is absolutely not. The point of a background check is not only about inflating salary, it is also about providing correct, accurate information. I personally know of some companies that have withdrawn offers due to inaccurate salary, even it was lower than the actual figure, because they questioned the lack of detail. You never know the policy of each company, and this is a classic case of "Better safe than sorry." Again, only supply accurate figures based on supporting documents. Before I go to my third and final point, if you found this video helpful, why not be kind and click the like button below and leave a comment. Now to our final point, how about more serious situations such as DUI, bankruptcy, or criminal records? Well, with these kinds of issues, it really depends. It depends on factors such as when the record was made, how serious the offense, and the circumstances, as well as whether the records are even still valid. In most cases, though, it is safer to disclose such information upfront because, chances are, the background checking company will know about it. I mean, this is precisely the kind of information that they're paid to dig up. Of course, if you reveal such info, you do run the risk of the potential employer withdrawing their offers, too. And there may be times when you're not required to divulge it either. So, if it is feasible, my recommendation is to seek legal advice in these situations. Before we finish as promised, here is the final bonus tip. Keep and file all your supporting documents, documents such as payslips, employment contracts, any letters indicating promotions or changes in title, university degrees, transcripts, certificates, reference letters, and et cetera. If you have this document ready to go, you can potentially save significant amount of time and hassle because you can easily confirm all your details before providing them to the background checking company and supply whatever documents that are required by them quickly. If you ever felt nervous or awkward about salary negotiation, check out my video on this screen or the one that I will include in the description. See you soon.