UAE, Dubai, 7 January 2019 –   Up to 1 in 5 candidates across the EMEA Life Science’s industry have been found misrepresenting information on their job applications, according to recent findings by HireRight, a leading provider of global candidate pre-employment screening services. The findings have been released as part of HireRight’s 2018 EMEA Employment Screening Benchmark Report, which surveyed over 6,000 HR professionals across the EMEA, APAC and US regions. 

Life Sciences, a field ranging from pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to food processing and environmental organisations, has witnessed huge growth in recent years, with the global pharmaceutical industry alone forecast to reach US 1.06 trillion by 2022, according to Deloitte’s 2018 Global Life Sciences Outlook. In line with this projection, 87% of EMEA Life Sciences organisations surveyed expect their workforce to grow in the next 12 months. 

57% of EMEA Life Sciences organisations have reported that retaining good employees is one of the biggest challenges in the region, along with creating an employment brand that attracts talent (57%). As a result, over 50% of business have said they are investing in finding qualified job candidates and creating a positive corporate culture.

Companies in the Life Sciences industry tend to perform a variety of background checks on potential candidates to ensure the most qualified and skilled employees are hired, however, only around two thirds (67%) verify a candidate’s education and qualifications and only 75% said they check previous employment details and references. 

The top benefits of employment screening experienced by companies in EMEA are improved regulatory compliance (71%), better quality of hires (43%), more consistent safety and security and greater employee retention, both at 29%. 

“It is positive to see that the survey respondents recognise the value of conducting thorough background checks on potential employees yet it must become industry standard across the board,” said Steve Girdler, Managing Director of EMEA & APAC at HireRight. 

“There are still 25% of EMEA companies not verifying a candidate’s previous employment history and this could have significant knock-on effects throughout individual industries. With ever-increasing scrutiny on businesses, adopting a few simple but effective steps as part of the hiring process would reduce the risk of discrepancies and potential scandals that can have a detrimental effect on the future of a company.”