Employee Screening Policy

This content is controlled for compliance requirements. Please contact the owner (Siobhan McKeown) if you need to make changes.

We screen all new members of the Human Made team, including employees, contractors, and freelancers who join us for specific projects. Depending on the nature of your engagement with Human Made, we will screen for all or some of the following:

• Work references
• Identity
• Right-to-work checks (UK employees)
• Criminal Records
• Global Compliance and Sanctions

Individuals who have access to data at financial institutions may have an additional credit check.

We screen team members to ensure that they have the right to work and to ensure that our teams data and our clients data remain secure.

Additional screening

Additional screening will be carried out in response to specific client needs or if staff get access to a higher level of secure data as laid out in our data classification policy.

Screening Process

Human Made uses an external company called Sterling to conduct the employee screening and background checks. The People Ops team is responsible for collecting the necessary info and documents and triggering the process with Sterling. 

What information will be disclosed?

Depending on your job position, Human Made will conduct all or some of these checks: Criminal, Compliance and Sanctions, and Credit Check. We will outline to you which checks will be undertaken. You will need to provide documents requested by People Ops, who will then trigger the process. The Background check reports are flagged Green, Amber or Red. If the report is Green, no information will be disclosed on the report other than that the checks came back clean. If the results are Amber or Red, the report will include information on what is causing the Amber or Red flag. 

Below you can find Sample Reports provided by Sterling including a Legend with what each color means:

Sample 1: Legend 

Sample 2: Criminal Record Report – Green

Sample 3: Credit Check Report – Red

Who will see my results?

When the background check is complete, the final reports are sent to People Ops. Only People Ops has access to the reports. Red or amber flags may be discussed with relevant leaders or managers, but it will be disclosed on a need-to-know basis and will be treated as confidential.

Red or Amber Flags

People Ops will discuss if a Background check report comes back Red or Amber, they will be relevant leader or manager will then discuss the results and reach a decision.

Where are Background Check Reports stored?

The reports are automatically stored on the Sterling platform: only People Ops has access to them. Sterling Ltd is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office and complies fully with its obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018 and other relevant legislation pertaining to the correct gathering, safe handling, use, storage, retention, and disposal of personal information. (Sterling compliance, data protection and privacy policy)