Whilst large businesses, and many medium sized businesses have comprehensive pre employment screening procedures in place, many smaller businesses are struggling to process applications effectively. This is leading to a situation where many small businesses are becoming open to a whole range of security issues, from fraud to the risk of employing someone who is not legally permitted to work in the UK.

The situation isn't helped by the fact that today it is very easy indeed to create any sort of educational and employment background you like through purchasing various services and documents online. From degree certificates to fake employment records, it's actually very quick and easy to embellish or fabricate a CV. But it isn't even this gross misrepresentation which is the problem.

Far more common is the situation where people embellish their CV in order to get a job for which they may actually not be qualified or sufficiently experienced. As well as embellishing or adding to CVs is the issue of withholding information, such as time served for convictions is a real problem.

The average CV today now takes a huge amount of effort to unravel and investigate, and this often means that small businesses cannot carry out effective pre employment screening because of both the time involved, and the cost of carrying out such research. The result of this is that small businesses are leaving themselves exposed to a range of potential risks which they are simply not able to afford to take.

Most small businesses are finding their budgets tighter than ever, and the risk of employing someone who is not qualified, or sufficiently experienced, or who may be out to defraud the company in some way or who may not be permitted to work in the UK all means that the business is constructed little better than a house of cards which could collapse at any minute.

But there is a solution, although it's one many small business owners are unaware of, or assume is only available to larger corporations. There are many background screening and pre employment screening agencies in the UK which are able to provide a range of services, from CV checking to reference checking, all at affordable prices.

Because these agencies have the technology, contacts and experience they can often carry out the background checks in a very short space of time, and they can also help advise small business owners on the extent of background checking required for certain positions within the company, helping to provide small businesses with security and safety at a time when anything less could be disastrous for the business as a whole.