Most businesses in the UK have to deal with the issue of DBS checks, and other background checks on their members of staff. It’s a necessary evil in the minds of most business owners, a way of protecting their business and customers from the risks associated with a rogue employee. But there’s no getting away from the fact that processing multiple DBS checks for employees is time consuming. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many managers have decided that the way forward is by outsourcing their DBS checks to third party companies. So, could your company benefit from doing the same thing?
Why Outsourcing Makes Sense
There are many reasons why offloading the responsibility for DBS checks onto a third-party company makes sense, even when you take into account the costs to your business. Some of the main advantages are:
Specialist Knowledge – however experienced the people in your organisation whose job it is to manage DBS checks, they won’t have come across the range of situations which the staff in a dedicated business experience every day. Rather than having to look up what to do in an unusual situation with an employee, they should have that information at their fingertips. Specialist staff will also be able to advise whether a DBS is applicable in the first place and give advice on rejected applications. Delays can cost your business money, so it could pay off in the long run to have someone else taking care of your DBS checks for you.
Free Up Staff Time – small businesses in particular rarely have one person whose sole job is processing DBS checks. They will be doing many other tasks too, such as running payroll, dealing with general HR issues, or fact checking CVs. Every hour they spend investigating problems with DBS checks is an hour which they could spend doing other things.
Paperless Office – anything which you can do to reduce the amount of paperwork going round your business is going to improve efficiency. Using a third-party provider for DBS checks takes all the paperwork away from your office, allowing you to track the progress of any application online.
Cost Saving – the main barrier to getting another company to do your DBS checks for you is the potential costs involved. And it’s true that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. But it’s also important to weigh up the cost of paying someone else to do you DBS checks against the other potential savings in terms of efficiency.
Finding a Third-Party DBS Service
There are many different umbrella organisations which can help with DBS checks for your organisation. These bodies don’t even have to be located in the same town or county as you as all applications are managed over the internet. Many larger third-party DBS check organisations have the ability to submit bulk applications, which could also mean your certificates come back more quickly. Get in touch with a range of organisations to ask how they could help – you’re not committing yourself simply by evaluating your options.
