We carry out pre-employment checks if a Client requests them alongside a BS7858 screening check. They are a series of quick checks to establish an Applicant’s identity, address and that they have provided enough documents to verify the most recent three years of their career history. We don’t request any references from previous employers at this point though, that comes later in the full screening.

We aim to do these checks within 72 hours, but this is not a requirement by law or the BS7858 standard, it’s our own internal target. Having them done this quickly keeps the screening process moving and, if successful, enables clients to get their staff on site in a shorter timeframe while the rest of the screening takes place.

Here’s what we do:

• Initial Checks + DBS – we carry out an ID check, Credit check, apply for the DBS certificate and verify that the applicant has provided us with documents for each period of employment for the most recent three years of their Career History. References are not sought from previous employers at this point. We contact the Applicant directly if we need them to clarify anything, or if they need to provide extra or alternative documents.

 

• How many documents to upload for employment periods:
  • For an employment period of 1 to 6 months, upload one document dated from the start of the period and one dated from the end. These must be two different documents e.g., you could use a payslip and a P45.
  • For an employment period of 6 to 12 months, upload one document dated from the start of the period, one dated from the middle and one dated from the end. This means three documents in total e.g., you could use two payslips and a P45 for the end of the period.
  • For an employment period of 1 year or more, upload one document dated from the start, end, and each year in-between. Remember: the documents you upload to cover the start and end of the period must always be different e.g., a payslip and a P45.

  Please note:

  • If you don’t provide the correct document(s) for any period during your pre-employment check, we’ll let you know and ask you for extra or alternative documents. This may delay your start date.
  • The best evidence for career history checks are PAYE records (which you can download for free in a few minutes) and your 5-year NI records from HMRC, which you can ask HMRC to post to you (and may take two weeks to arrive).
  • See our full list of Acceptable Documents for a BS7858 Career History check.

 

• Acceptable documents include: payslips, PAYE records*, a contract of employment, formal correspondence with an employer, P45 or P60, bank statements, accountant’s statements, invoices, self-assessment tax returns, educational qualifications or certificates, passport stamps, travel or accommodation receipts. These document must show the Applicant’s name, address and date.

 

• You can see our list of Acceptable Documents here. Please note: this list is UK-centric so if you are a non-UK Applicant, especially if you are living and working overseas, we may invite you to provide alternative documents if you aren’t able to provide documents issued by the UK authorities.

 

• *PAYE records are an excellent form of evidence and we encourage all applicants to apply for them here for free before they start the screening process: www.gov.uk/personal-tax-account/
  1. Log in and click on the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) box. If you don’t have an account, you can create one.
  2. Then click “Check previous tax years”
  3. Then click “Check income details sent to us”
  4. Then click “Print this page” – which will add your name to the document.
  5. Save them as PDFs and upload them to your application.
  6. Download a record relating to each period listed in your Career History in your application because this displays each month and year you received salary and paid tax and helps us verify your employment.