Personnel Screening
The level of security is directly proportional to the rigor of the personnel selection process.
The security of a state or commercial entity, despite its multifaceted nature, ultimately depends on the reliability, loyalty, and integrity of the people working within it. Among the tools and methods for selecting and vetting job candidates and current employees, the polygraph holds a significant place. Particularly valuable is the so-called preventive effect of the polygraph, which encourages the subject to provide honest answers already at the selection stage and allows for the identification of facts important to the employer but not documented in the biography.
Another objective of polygraph testing is to demonstrate the company’s “work style” to the candidate. The polygraph is a symbol of a tough stance against deception and a symbol of transparent cooperation. During the interview, the organization thereby shows the future employee that absolutely honest work with transparent remuneration is expected here. By creating such an image of the organization, the HR specialist fosters positive motivation for work in the employee.
Based on American experience, the cost-effectiveness of using polygraph tests in hiring is determined by several reasons.
Firstly, screening tests offer a quick source of accurate information about the entire work history of the hire. Polygraph tests, surprisingly, are inexpensive considering the quantity and quality of information that can be obtained through them. An employer who has started using polygraph tests for personnel hiring will never cease their application.
Secondly, as correctly noted by the former president of the American Polygraph Association, L. Mercy, the accuracy of polygraph tests exceeds 90%, which is sufficient to significantly reduce the risk of hiring a malicious individual.
Thirdly, there is a surprising and very common tendency for people to be more truthful and open during polygraph tests than during other personnel interviews and surveys conducted for the same purposes.
And finally, fourthly: more than half of the surveyed individuals who applied for jobs and underwent polygraph testing indicated that candidates understand the necessity of using the polygraph and do not believe that the testing procedure restricts their dignity or invades their privacy.
Overall, the economic viability of polygraph tests conducted for commercial security purposes is currently beyond doubt. According to an estimate by “Reid & Associates Inc.” (one of the oldest firms in the USA providing services using the polygraph), an employer, by using the polygraph, increases the likelihood that the hired employee will be an honest person by at least 25%. Polygraph testing is the best way to make job candidates understand that the firm is seriously committed to combating theft. The level of security is directly proportional to the relentlessness of the selection process.
When discussing business security, regardless of the aspect we consider, we always come back to the reliability of the individual employee. Recruitment agencies partially assist employers in personnel selection. The use of various psychological techniques by these services allows for filtering out unsuitable individuals capable of causing damage to the company.
However, the assessment of a candidate’s social reliability was and remains the responsibility of the company’s manager. Two approaches are most commonly used here. The first, very common at the initial stage of a company’s formation, is selecting employees based on recommendations from friends, acquaintances, or relatives. The second approach involves engaging the company’s security services for additional control or obtaining information from law enforcement agencies.
However, practice has shown that a connection between an employee and the employer through family or friendship ties is no guarantee of boundless dedication to work and the company. And people capable of dishonest actions are mostly not criminals and, accordingly, are not registered with the police.
If a person’s business qualifications and professional skills become apparent relatively quickly, their true intentions, honesty, and integrity can only be judged after a certain time, when the manager is faced with the fact of damage inflicted upon the company and its operations.
A natural question arises: how can one protect oneself already at the hiring stage from individuals with vicious habits connected to the criminal world, intending to harm the company, etc.?
This is where the polygraph enters the arena, also known as a lie detector. Three main areas of polygraph application in private business can be distinguished:
- Pre-employment screening, the so-called screening examination (from English “screen” – to sift).
- Preventive checks of personnel for compliance with company requirements, timely identification of violations of official discipline, prevention of leaks of confidential information.
- Investigation of specific situations related to damage inflicted upon the company.
Foreign experience in using the polygraph shows that the main efforts are directed precisely at the stage of selecting new employees, meaning the primary focus is preventive, aimed at preventing potential difficulties in personnel activities. Our experience in using the polygraph for the selection and vetting of specialists demonstrates the high effectiveness and promise of this direction. Using the polygraph already during hiring allows for identifying whether the candidate has problems related to health, drug use, alcohol abuse, whether they have committed theft of goods or money at a previous workplace, whether they have connections to the criminal environment, whether they are being planted in the company by competitors or criminal structures, and a number of other issues.
In one large firm, they were looking for a new secretary-assistant. A recruitment agency proposed a dozen candidates for the position. After interviews and document review, two pleasant girls with good professional training remained. They were offered to undergo a polygraph examination, to which they willingly agreed. During the check of one of them, whom management was leaning towards hiring, specific reactions were recorded to the question: “Do you take medical or chemical substances to experience unusual sensations?” In a subsequent conversation, the girl admitted that lately she had been taking one of the psychostimulants quite frequently.
In our practice, there have been several cases where a person, seeking employment, as soon as they were informed that a mandatory condition of their hiring would be a polygraph test, agreed to it and then never reappeared at the firm. One can only speculate how many job seekers, realizing that certain unsavory details of their biography would become apparent, avoid those firms that engage specialists to conduct polygraph examinations.
The composition of the questionnaire during a screening examination necessarily considers the specifics of the position the person is applying for and any special requirements put forward by the company’s management. For example, one major banker refused to inquire whether the candidate had a mistress or how healthy he was. He asked: “Better tell me, how prone to gambling is this person, does he play in casinos?” The vacancy involved handling large sums of money. Companies always try to protect themselves from alcoholics and drug addicts; consequently, corresponding questions are mandatory. It is also subject to verification where the candidate worked previously and where they received their diploma – applicants often heavily embellish their persona in questionnaires. For instance, a former SBU employee emphasized his experience working in security agencies when applying for a job in the security service of a company. According to him, he had extensive operational experience. However, during the polygraph check, it became obvious that his position in the security agencies was more prosaic – he turned out to be a former warehouse manager.
Questions like “Did you steal at your previous job?” and “Did you pass commercial information to competitors?” are also entirely legitimate. There is a question that interests many employers, regardless of the company’s profile – whether this individual maintains contacts with competitors or criminal structures. Unfortunately, our life is such that similar situations are not rare. When, after a polygraph examination, the employer was told that this candidate was being planted in the firm, he was very surprised and, frankly, did not believe the polygraph examiner. The fact was that this young man was recommended for the job by a close acquaintance of the company’s director, presented as an energetic, initiative-taking specialist. However, the director still exercised caution; the new employee was, as much as possible, denied access to core information about the company’s commercial activities, and surveillance was established on him. Quite quickly, the secret became apparent.
The so-called “preventive effect” of the polygraph should be noted, which pushes, if you will, compels, the subject during a screening examination to give honest answers and allows for the identification of facts important to the employer but not documented in the biography.
In one company, during the pre-test discussion, which is a mandatory condition of the polygraph examination, a candidate for an accountant position admitted that he had served a prison sentence for theft. This was not reflected anywhere in the questionnaires, and in previous conversations with management, a negative answer was also given to this question. Only the understanding that this might become known during the polygraph check forced the person to admit the criminal record.
Indeed, the effect of using the polygraph lies not only in saving time and resources on verifying data about a future employee but also in the fact that the polygraph can be a reliable source of information regarding personal matters for which there are no archives, and about which a person tries to avoid recording data. For example, anonymous treatment allows a candidate to bring a “clean” medical report, but if they are joining your firm, what archives can we talk about? A firm or bank that pays attention to the selection of its personnel significantly reduces the risk and potential losses associated with the dishonesty or psychological unsuitability of its employees. According to American data, the economic effect of using the polygraph amounts to about 3 billion dollars annually. According to data from one large security firm, as a result of screening testing, one in four job candidates is filtered out.
It should be borne in mind that the polygraph examination is usually conducted at the final stage of selection, meaning that by this point, filtering for all other reasons (qualifications, health, psychological characteristics, etc.) has already been carried out.
When discussing the use of the polygraph in personnel selection, one should not forget about the deterrent effect of the checks. A person, knowing that according to the contract terms, they can be required to take a polygraph test if necessary, and that refusal to take such a test will lead to dismissal, consciously or unconsciously understands that the probability of being caught is very high, and in most cases refrains from committing actions that harm the company. Although in some cases it is simply the fear of being caught, the main effect is obvious – a brake appears that stops a person on the path to causing damage to the company and, ultimately, to committing a crime.
In our practice, we have repeatedly noted that after conducting polygraph checks at a firm where these checks were implemented, even minor thefts ceased for several months.
To date, the structure of demand for polygraph examinations in our country still differs from that in countries that have used polygraphs for security purposes for a long time. There, the main direction is the prevention of potential security difficulties, meaning examination at the hiring stage and conducting periodic checks of already working personnel. Here, the polygraph is often remembered after a theft, information leak, or some other criminal event has already occurred. But it should be noted that recent trends indicate that more and more companies, when selecting personnel, are including the polygraph in their selection system.
Yes, undergoing such a check is exclusively voluntary. The basis for examining job candidates or current employees on a lie detector is the issuance of an internal order defining the application of psychological and psychophysiological testing, as well as the presence of a corresponding clause in the contract or agreement with the employee. Of course, any person may have concerns related to undergoing a lie detector test. However, a good examiner will preliminarily explain the operation of the polygraph, identify possible contraindications for such a check, thereby significantly reducing the subject’s tension. At this same stage, the candidate signs a statement confirming the voluntary nature of their participation in the examination, which is a mandatory condition for this type of testing.
The polygraph, despite its certain exoticism, is being used more widely and actively in the daily activities of commercial firms and makes its own, entirely real contribution to ensuring their security.