Safeguard introduces "honesty tests" people recruiting maids, gardeners
Safeguard, a company known mostly for providing security services to businesses has a service for checking the honesty of potential employees.
In a release sent out to Pindula and other media, Safeguard said the service can be used to check if domestic employees, maids and gardeners, are honest, before employing them. The service is under a division called Investigations.
Safeguard Investigations manager Steve Jennings is quoted in the release:
“When we go to work we have no idea what those who work in our homes may be up to. We trust them to look after our property, to do their work in our absence and often to look after our children. We trust them. Sometimes this trust may be misplaced.
“We may find items go missing from our homes. Our children may be mistreated. If we are hiring someone who previously was unknown to us, it makes sense to do background checks, to follow up on references and to find out as much as we can to guide us in our decision as to whether to hire the person or not.
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Beyond domestic workers, Safeguard says in the release that it offers background checks for job applicants and also offers truth verification tests using something called a Voice Stress Analysis (VSA) test.
As part of its background checks Safeguard checks with the credit bureau to see if a job applicant “is involved in any irrational credit behaviour.” An old unpaid debt could cost someone an otherwise secured promising job. The company also checks if a new person being considered for a job may have been involved in some scams.
Said Jennings:
We use the Voice Stress Analysis test ourselves to confirm the integrity of our own personnel at Safeguard, bearing in mind the importance of honesty within the security profession.
“The Voice Stress Analysis (VSA) test that we use identifies stress in the voice as it passes through the voice folds in the throat when the person being tested responds to a question that has consequences and requires a yes or no answer.
“A lie is often embarrassing, humiliating and shameful to get caught in, so lies tend to stand out in stress measurements.
“Unlike the polygraph that uses various body attachments to measure pulse, respiration and skin conductivity, the VSA system employs a less invasive voice recording method to obtain its result.
“We carry out VSA tests for clients who want to find out the integrity and honesty of a job applicant or of employees in high-risk areas such as finance, till operating, cash offices and transportation.
The accuracy of VSA tests is debated. These tests are apparently considered pseudoscience by some as they are not regarded as following what’s called the scientific method.
There have been many reports in the media and on social media of families and businesses in Zimbabwe losing property to scammers posing as employees, or just dishonest employees taking advantage of their access to rob their employers.
