Before you commit to hiring someone new, there are certain pre-employment checks to carry out. You are legally required to conduct some checks, while others are optional but advisable. Business Gateway’s free guide to pre-employment checks for employers can help you to navigate the correct course for your recruitment needs.

After examining why pre-employment checks are so important, the guide looks in detail at how businesses should go about making such checks. Crucially, it explains that an employer can make any job offer conditional on the results of pre-employment checks.

This guide to pre-employment checks explains how to:

• make identity checks
• check references
• check qualifications
• make health checks
• apply for a criminal records check
• check eligibility to work in the UK
• withdraw a job offer if conditions aren’t met
• abide by data protection requirements

Yes, if you are thinking about starting, or already run, a business in Scotland.

This is a free and impartial service.

Any business based in Scotland that plans to recruit employees.

Set aside 14 minutes to read this in-depth guide to pre-employment checks.

Conducting certain optional checks can help you to find the best candidate. But you must make sure that the checks you use are relevant to the role and do not discriminate.

Visit the Business Gateway website for more information on pre-employment checks for employers.