Background Checks in the Philippines

As part of the onboarding, Horizons offers complementary background checks in the Philippines. Simply selected the Background Check when completing the new hire form on our platform and the completed check will be available for review on the platform upon completion by the candidates. In this guide, we've summarised all key questions regarding background checks in the Philippines. In case a question is not listed here, please ping us via support@joinhorizons.com and we'll get back to you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Are background checks common practice in the Philippines?
What employee information can be verified with the background checks?
What's the cost of the background check?
Does Horizons comply with all privacy laws?

Are background checks common practice in the Philippines?

Background checks, such as employment, identity and criminal history verification, are indeed common practices in the Philippines, particularly for foreign companies hiring local talents.

What employee information can be verified?

Terms	Definition	Report
Documents	The Documents table contains official-document-related information that is available from the data source the candidate connected, including: Verified government ID numbers such as Social Security Clearance document information for criminal checks Certificate and license information Payslip document information
Employment History	The Employment History table contains a chronology of the candidate's employment status. The data is retrieved from government services and institutions. In the case of data coming from the SSS, it is based on contribution reports submitted by the candidate's previous emplover(s). Horizons via Smile returns employment information as-is from the platform such as start and end dates, emplover names, iob titles, and other information. Having this access to verified data directly obtained from government services can give our clients a definitive view of the candidate's historical employment status.
Estimated Income	We also provide additional derived income information such as: Social security contributions Annual salary calculations Computed earnings from transactions Based on available historical data from the data sources connected by the candidate, the Horizons platform will calculate an estimated monthly income. This is a good indicator of what income bracket the candidate belonged to specially in view of the SSS and Pag-IBIG contribution tables.
Liabilities	The Liabilities table allows you to see the employee's outstanding liabilities particularly from government institutions such as SSS and Pag-IBIG.	See 'Estimated Income'
Reported Income	The Reported Incomes table allows our clients to see the candidate's actual income as reported in the source accounts connected such as: Payroll accounts Select government accounts such as the GSIS Payslips Tax documents such as BIR Form 2316

How can I request a background check?

Simply check the button 'Yes' when completing the new hire form on our platform or request it directly with your Onboarding Specialist.

How much does it cost?

The background check is offered as a service free of charge. We want to ensure that you feel fully confident in onboarding your new hire in the Philippines.

What's the experience for the candidate like?

Horizons leverages Smile API as a partner to collect all relevant data via a secure, digital process. This allows us to verify the candidate's data directly with the relevant government authorities and provide an instant background check.

Step	How it looks like
1. Receive a verification email invite from Smile, Horizons' background check partner
2. Provide your basic information
3. Choose an account to connect
4. Login with the government account of choice, e.g. the account for the Philippines Social Security System (SSS)
5. Login your next chosen government account
6. Once the accounts have been connected, click Finish, and the background check report will be sent directly to the Horizons team.

Does Horizons comply with all privacy laws?

Horizons believes in the sanctity of one's privacy and that our users are the owners of their personal data, and should always be in full control when and to whom they share their data. Horizons complies with all local laws around data privacy. In the Philippines, we comply with the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (RA 10173) and we help users exercise their right to Data Portability under Section 18 of the Phillippine Data Privacy Act.

Sharing users' data with our clients is done provided on a revocation-based model: only via explicit consent of the user via our SDK. Users can, at any point, revoke access to their data through this same means making sure they are in full control when and to whom they share their own data.

All information is deleted and irretrievable once users have revoked access. We also maintain a Privacy Policy so you can be sure how your data is being used.

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Philippines