Your past could haunt your job search

No job aspirant, for sure, would want a skeleton in his closet to get revealed, but that is exactly what your potential employers in the UAE might be interested in.

As a number of headhunting and recruitment firms in the UAE would have us believe, many companies and firms in the UAE looking for new employees are, of late, not taking the CV on the face value. Instead, they are looking beyond a candidate’s core qualifications and are doing background checks, or for that matter reference checks, to examine a candidate carefully before taking a call on hiring him/her.

So is your CV just not enough to get you a job now? Perhaps, yes.

“A CV is the ticket that gets a potential candidate to the interview phase but is not the sole thing that an employer takes into consideration when hiring for a specific position,” Amer Zureikat, Vice President (Sales), Bayt.com, the regional job website told Emirates 24|7.

Although companies used to go for reference checks of employees even during downturn years but it was limited to senior level positions including CEOs, COOs, board members, etc.

In the current times, however, as the downturn has deepened and companies have now got more time, they have also got more cautioned in their recruiting process. Subsequently, reference checks have filtered lower down the employment scale, not limited to senior positions.

“More and more companies are asking us to look at references and to check back on a candidate’s employment history.

Generally, there’s a caution on the market both on a candidate’s side as well as on employer’s side. However, that doesn’t mean background checks are done for every hire and for all positions. Moreover, not all companies are going for background checks. Rather it is more in the case of positions that are more closely involved with companies’ finances or credit control. The more involved in a company’s business a job is, the more likely a client is going to want to check the background,” Mike Hynes, Managing Partner, Kershaw Leonard said.

“Companies are generally more risk-averse now and there is thus a greater concern about making a costly wrong hiring decision. A few years ago the emphasis was more on rapid expansion whereas now organisations are often looking to take more time over the hiring process,” added Cliff Single, Commercial Manager, BAC Middle East.

A reference check is a formal procedure aimed to get more complete picture about a candidate, and to confirm that they are suitable for a position they are being interviewed for, recruitment firms add, and when done in a professional and confidential manner, it can give additional insight into the candidate, especially on the soft skills and personality.

“We have seen situations where references checks have disclosed severe interpersonal issues or even criminal activities on candidates that otherwise would, after interviews, seem to be relevant for the client. Several times, we have seen well carried out reference checks prevent a potentially damaging situation,” Michael Al-Nassir, Partner, Head of Middle East, Africa and India, Pedersen & Partners, an international executive search firm, said.

The economic downturn also played a role in adding more weight to carefully selecting and checking references of candidates as companies need to make sure they add the right executive to their team, he added.

Focus on quality as opposed to quantity is another factor prompting firms to critically evaluate a candidate’s credentials now, say experts.

“Before the downturn, some of the companies were focusing just on the quantity of staff and so they would go for hiring the talent fast. Over the last one year, however, there has been a return to quality and now companies are not only looking at the CVs but would also like to scrutinise a candidate and would like us to do reference check,” said Panos Manolopoulos, Vice Chairman (Regions), Managing Partner Middle East, Stanton Chase International.

So, instead of rushing to hire a candidate, companies now want to take more time and make sure that they’re making the best hire possible. What is also happening lately is that companies tend to do an analysis of a candidate’s cultural fit, which means they’re giving a lot of emphasis on the candidates who’ve the ability to culturally fit in a company, he added.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.