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Compliance obligations are among the biggest challenges confronting organisations, and the pressure to get it right is immense.
Automated processes can be both a blessing and a curse. It’s certainly efficient to streamline your processes but, sometimes, a one-size-fits-all approach may leave you open to some pretty big risks that can cripple your organisation.
It is a bonus for industry compliance and safety that police checks are becoming more widespread but, as with the introduction of any new process, the wrong processes can lead to time-consuming data-duplication and security breaches. Enhancing your HR platform with flexible and highly adaptable applications is a clever first step in minimising risk exposure and establishing efficient, cost-friendly processes.
So, where should you start?
Firstly, from a technical perspective, you don’t have to completely abandon your existing HR platform to implement police check information that seamlessly, productively and efficiently integrates with your existing systems. Finding a company that shares this philosophy, and has a proven track record in delivering secure processes, will be the first base you need to cover. You’ll get much better bang-for-buck and far less upheaval by finding a provider that has the expertise and technology to ‘bolt-on’ to existing processes, systems and infrastructure that your organisation already has in use.
A bolt-on approach means you avoid things like duplication or having to manually enter data. Everything is automatically populated, which creates a closed loop environment for protecting information. It also gives your organisation the flexibility to mould the software and infrastructure to meet your specific requirements at any stage in the process.
Less data duplication across different platforms that have multiple system requirements helps alleviate risk because you don’t have multiple personnel tapping into the data in different places along the process chain. Issues like having to manage different passwords and security access monitoring are also alleviated.
When choosing a police check provider, it is very important to ensure they use EAR (Encryption at Risk) security. EAR provides an added level of security for your data against unauthorised access. Many organisations have password security for their servers (hash passwords), as well as client-facing gateways, but, if the hackers get through all of these barriers, the source information is left vulnerable to retrieval. With EAR in place, however, potential hackers are forced to go through more robust levels of risk and security processes to access information. Even if they hack through it all, data encrypted with EAR remains encrypted, and that even includes the source information.
As you can see, there are many things to consider when it comes to introducing police check procedures into your organisation, getting the most from your system and storing the information on your existing HR platforms. Minimising the duplication of steps and data and instead, looking for a highly secure, one-process flow – is a vital first step for you to take. It predominantly comes down to the police check provider you choose to be your partner.
Talk to us at National Crime Check and see how we can meet the challenge.