Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia, has a diversified economy that has been growing rapidly since the 2000s. Its GDP growth rate is among the highest in Asia. It has abundant natural resources and a young workforce, making it an attractive destination for businesses seeking expansion opportunities.
The government’s economic reforms since 2011 have helped to reintegrate the country into the global economy and encourage foreign investment. However, when it comes to the recruitment process in Myanmar, to comply with the country’s employment regulations and laws. This article provides information on employment background checks.
What Is Employment Background Verification?
Confirming a candidate’s CV or job application information is called employment background verification. Employers conduct background checks to ensure the applicant has given true and correct information. This procedure typically includes investigating the applicant’s educational background, job history, and criminal history, among other pertinent factors.
Benefits of Background Checks in Myanmar
In the modern corporate environment, checking a prospective hire’s background has become a norm. Employment screening in Myanmar is a standard practice in every business hiring process. The following advantages of background checks for employers are available in Myanmar:
- Improved hiring decisions: This lowers the possibility of employee retention, fraud, and other workplace problems.
- Enhanced safety and security: The need for safety and security arises from the fact that it reduces the threat of violence within the organization.
- Protecting company reputation: Screening may assist businesses in safeguarding their brand by verifying that they are recruiting ethical and trustworthy professionals. Doing so minimizes problems like theft, fraud, and other behavior that harm a company’s reputation. Conducting a background check allows you to avoid such situations.
- Compliance with legal and regulatory requirements: Background checks help businesses enforce compliance with these rules and prevent possible fines and other consequences.
- Verification of education and employment history: Assessing candidates’ academic and professional records confirm they have the relevant skills and expertise. It can assist in preventing problems like resume falsification and fraud.
Are Background Checks Legal in Myanmar?
When you recruit employees, some candidates might tamper with data on resumes and job applications to secure a job. However, technological advancement makes it hard to identify fraud unless you carefully review every piece of the information a job application supplies.
Background checks on prospective employees are free to be performed by employers in Myanmar, as there are no rules and regulations that forbid or restrict the practice. In Myanmar, it is permissible for employers to hire a third party to perform background checks on prospective workers.
Employers must also guarantee that a background search in Myanmar is fair, appropriate, and legal. To maintain openness and trust in the recruiting process, employers should also notify candidates and get their permission before running a background check.
Things to Know When Performing a Background Check in Myanmar
While hiring talent, employers must conduct an HR background check in Myanmar. While most of the checks vary per the designation, some common forms of background checks are as follows.
Employment history
Myanmar law requires a candidate’s employment history to be part of the personnel screening process to confirm that an applicant fits the position’s qualifications. To verify the information on a candidate’s cv or resume, recruiters regularly look into their employment history. The employers may do the following to conduct a company background check in Myanmar:
- Contact the applicant’s prior employers to double-check employment dates, job titles and responsibilities, and resignation reasons.
- To gather information regarding the applicant’s prior performance and recommendations from former supervisors.
- Verify any administrative action the educational institution has taken against the candidate.
Education History
Verifying educational background is a common practice in Myanmar during employment screening. Ensuring the applicant satisfies the educational criteria for the position facilitates the best recruiting decisions possible. It includes :
- Contact their respective educational institutions to confirm the applicants’ enrollment, graduation, and academic achievements.
- Verify any disciplinary proceedings the educational institution has taken against the applicant.
Criminal record
A criminal history check is a standard component of an employment background check for certain job listings.
- A thorough criminal background check in Myanmar is mandatory for specific jobs managing sensitive data, dealing with vulnerable people, or in law enforcement or security.
- Companies may run a criminal background check in Myanmar on applicants to ensure they have no records that might put the organization or its employees at risk.
Credit report
If a job involves financial operations, employers in Myanmar may do credit checks on candidates during background checks.
- Companies must notify applicants about credit checks to get the applicant’s permission.
- According to the employer, the information obtained through credit checks must be accurate, pertinent, and concise. Also, the employer must take precautions to preserve the privacy of the data.
Social life
The labor legislation prohibits companies in Myanmar from doing social media searches on job seekers as part of background checks. Employers may collect only required and pertinent information regarding the job relationship legally. They should make sure they respect the applicant’s dignity and privacy rights.
Information Essential for a Background Check in Myanmar
It is crucial to confirm a person’s identification, educational background, prior job history, criminal history, financial situation, and social media activity while doing an employee screening.
All recruiters must perform the proper background checks before hiring because many people regularly submit phony documents and make false claims in their resumes.
There are presently no limitations on conducting employee screening. An employer needs a ward approval certification from the applicant’s housing estate and a formal police agreement.
These outline the applicant’s domicile registration and criminal history, if any. Moreover, an employer is permitted to hire a third party to conduct a background investigation on the employer’s behalf. No citizen may be seen, discovered, or probed in a way that would invade their confidentiality and safety or diminish their dignity, according to the Law Protecting Privacy and Security of Citizens (2017). Employers should remember this while doing a pre-employment background check in Myanmar, independently or through a third party.
An employer must acquire some necessary information to conduct a thorough HR background check in Myanmar. Some of this information is as follows.
- Personal information: Full name and address of the applicant written in official documents.
- Employment history: Details on the names of the applicant’s prior employers, including job roles, initial and final dates, and mitigating factors of their employment.
- Educational qualifications: The individual’s educational qualifications, including schools attended, degrees obtained, and any pertinent certificates.
- Criminal records: Applicant’s previous convictions, if any, ID number or passport number
- Credit history: An employee screening also includes a credit check to identify a person’s creditworthiness and financial history. The hiring company could use credit bureaus to verify the applicant’s credit history. They take this action to eliminate any risk that the company might face.
Process Involved in Background Checks
Before beginning any screening tests, employers must take the appropriate measures to ensure applicants are entirely aware of the procedure and have granted their permission. The following list provides a broad overview of Myanmar’s background check procedure for companies:
Determine the details you need to gather
- The next step is to decide what information you might require to judge the candidate’s competency.
- Establish clear guidelines for the screening procedure that your HR team can adhere to as they gather pertinent data.
Collect the relevant documents/information:
- Organizations must follow the correct legal procedures to get information about skilled employees.
- After selecting whatever background checks you wish to perform, gather any relevant papers or information that will hasten the screening procedure.
- The information includes the candidate’s name, address, NRIC number, work and educational background, criminal history, credit history, etc.
Perform the background check
- Cross-checking and verifying an applicant’s facts with the information received from their previous employers and references.
- If you discover differences in the candidate’s information, explain them before making any hiring choices.
- You can allow them to clarify the problem and provide further information that may assist you in making a better-educated decision.
Industries and Situations That are Most Suitable for Background Checks in Myanmar
Background checks ensure both organizations’ and individuals’ safety, integrity, and credibility. In Myanmar, an employer must conduct checks for several industries and situations. The followings are some professions and sectors that might benefit enormously from a background check:
- Banking and financial sectors
- Volunteer and non-profit organizations
- Government jobs
- Immigration
- Healthcare sectors
- Educational sectors
- Law enforcement and security
How Multiplier Helps With Background Checks?
Myanmar has attracted the attention of international employers due to several lucrative reasons. One such prime factor is the ease of doing business. With transparent laws at every business level, it is easy for companies to hire and operate in the country.
Even though the government has systemized the operations with several laws, company owners need to learn about them. Due to the learning curve, the turnaround time to hire, conduct a background screening in Myanmar, and operate increases significantly.
It is where Multiplier comes into play. Our SaaS-based platform provides premade-compliant contracts, payroll management, and background check support through multiple partner companies. All these features are available to employers, allowing them to test 150+ markets for a fraction of the expansion cost.