Similar thing happens in housing rentals, a couple I know had to pay £50 for some 'checks', I'm sure they said per application (and per agent no doubt) just to apply to rent a poxy house.
Just another way they can screw money out of people.
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Repeated background check costs ...
Have you ever counted the cost of waiting weeks for the same old background check to be repeated?
Contracting 20 years, average 2-3 weeks delay x number of jobs x daily rate x number of contractors = ????
Personal loss? Loss of GDP, project budget, cost of checks. It must be billions.
Why cannot a set of checks be valid for a given time? Why cannot there be 1 agreed set of data in XML format from which all their bleeding forms can be filled? Why not a validated record of previous addresses, job dates, credit check periods that do not need to be repeated over the 6 year period now demanded by many agencies?
This last experience of mine is 8 weeks lost pay so far and counting. And don't even get me started about accounting for times between contracts... prove you were doing nothing ... painting the shutters ... Can you prove that ... Have us sign a declaration and believe us ... don't imply we are all bloody liars ... Jeeeee...... how did we ever let them start this crap?
I have done a lot of contracts since 1994 and I am totally fed up with the wasted time and lost money. Tot it up. It could run to several hundred thousand that you lose over a career.
Is anything being done to tackle this? Surely there could be one clearing house of contractors background checks so starting in 3 days becomes the norm.
Rant over ... for today ; >)
OK I can hear you say ... stop complaining and do something about it. Start a central clearing function ... OK let's do it.
Requirements:
Certified passport/Visa copy
Cert of Incorporation
VAT Certificate
Professional Insurance
Last 6 years jobs, dates, confirmations
Last 6 years addresses, certified
Last 6 years credit check, certified
Criminal record check, valid for 12M
Proof of activity idle periods > 3M
Blockers:
No agreed format
No agreed central database
Security
No agreement to use it.
Precedents:
Security clearances have a valid period
All constructive suggestions welcome…
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