Increased Crime Leads to Explosive Growth in Background Checks

The growing crime rate is also affecting working life, and to minimize the risks, employers need to be able to carry out relevant background checks. That is the assessment made by the employers’ organization Almega.

According to Rebecca Henriques, labor law attorney and labor market policy expert at Almega, companies must be able to justify the need for background checks, but at the same time, she notes that it is the employers who are responsible for security.

“Foregoing necessary checks can, in practice, mean exposing the business and employees to unnecessary risks,” she told Kollega.

When background checks are done correctly, where the candidate receives transparent information and the check is limited to what is relevant for the position, it becomes a balance between personal privacy and the security needs of the company, she believes.

At Almega, they hope that the government inquiry into background checks will result in a set of regulations that both clarify and strengthen background checks in working life.

Temporary Rules

Until this is in place, however, the government needs to introduce temporary rules to combat criminals, says Rebecca Henriques.

Companies working with background checks have their own association, Bakgrundskontrollföretagen (BKF), where an industry standard and a common code of conduct have been developed. According to the association’s chairman, Johan Söderström, checking previous criminal activity is necessary to assess the risk posed by an individual.

He hopes that the government investigation will conclude that “professional actors” will continue to have access to personal data, but also that it will show the need for a well-regulated market.

8,000 Percent

Over the past ten years, the word “background check” in job advertisements on the Swedish Public Employment Service’s Platsbanken has increased by more than 8,000 percent.

“It’s absolutely absurd. In far too many cases, the background checks are much too extensive,” says Susanna Kjällström, union lawyer at the Unionen trade union.