These industries in South Africa attract the highest number of job candidates with criminal records

·19 Mar 2018

Background screening company, Managed Integrity Evaluation (MIE), recently published a report highlighting the difficulty companies face in balancing organisational risk and fiduciary duties, with fair employment opportunities.

The seventh edition of MIE’s annual BSI report is based on the data from the company’s vetting services conducted between 1 January and 31 December 2017. During this time, MIE completed over 2.87 million transactions.

MIE said that criminal records remain the most frequently requested check by MIE clients in South Africa. It conducted 724,507 criminal checks during 2017, of which 9.91% of candidates were found to have a criminal or pending criminal record.

“Over 52,000 (7.18%) candidates whose criminal records were checked had lied about having a record,” it said.

Apart from HR & Recruitment, which consists of various industries; the retail industry received the highest number of criminal check requests – yet has one of the lowest associated risks, MIE’s report found.

The two sectors found to have the highest associated risk are mining (18.09%) and manufacturing (16.50%).

“The growing demand for criminal background checks within public sectors and SOEs is significant, particularly in the fight against corruption,” the report said.

“Although volumes of certain checks have decreased slightly, when compared to data from 2016, this is in line with the tougher economic climate and fewer new employment or appointment opportunities being created over the 2017 period,” said MIE CEO, Ina van der Merwe.

“It is, however, still positive to see that despite clear strain being felt in the economy and marketplace, organisations see the value of making use of background screening,” van der Merwe said.