Frequently Asked Questions

You can change your subscription and add additional services at any time during your Agreement period with no penalty.

Simply contact us to adjust your subscription and the additional services you’d like enabled. Upgrades can be made instantly, or in your next billing cycle.

Contact us to discuss your business needs and we can help curate the perfect package for you!

Every WorkPro subscription includes comprehensive training and ongoing support for your business as well as your users.

After your account is activated, we facilitate individual or group training sessions for your staff to get you up and running quickly. This can be delivered via webinar or in person. Training and onboarding focuses on core WorkPro features and functions, as well as how your business can best implement WorkPro into current HR processes for a powerful streamlined solution.

WorkPro offers live phone and email support for clients and candidates to answer questions fast. Phone support is available from 8:30am to 6pm AEST. You can also use our ‘Help’ widget for quick self-service.

A WorkPro eLearning subscription includes full access to our module library.

You can curate eLearning packages based on a role, your business or industry and you can request as many learning modules as you require for each candidate.

Each subscription includes training and onboarding, live support for your business and users, and your own WorkPro dashboard to deliver, track and manage your eLearning subscription.

The WorkPro platform is fully customisable and configurable to help your business deliver, track and manage training and compliance, your way.

Configure your induction packages to enable easy requesting and establish a standard for your business. Find and report on the unique attributes of staff and candidates that makes sense for your business.

Add the customisation upgrade to use your brand identity on the platform and enhance user experience for your staff and candidates by uploading your own content. 

A WorkPro customer can have an unlimited number of user administrators within their business. Administrators can also delegate and assign specific permissions to each user. 

WorkPro customers have access to a wide range of reports within their dashboard. Additionally, Insights and filtering allow for more customisation for deep dive data. 

Candidate details remain visible and searchable from your WorkPro dashboard unless they are archived. You can do this by clicking on the filtering function on your dashboard, opening the candidate’s profile and choosing ‘Archive Candidate’. Once the candidate is archived, they can only be made visible through the ‘View’ tab. You can also re-activate them by searching for their name and ‘re-activating’.

WorkPro automatically manages the secure storage, archive and destruction of sensitive reports and documents in line with government requirements. For this reason, results of background checks may not be accessed after a certain date. This ensures your business is compliant with auditing requirements for government and authority databases from which information is obtained.

As a workforce compliance specialist and as part our government accreditation, WorkPro takes its responsibility for privacy seriously.

All data is collected, managed, stored, archived and destroyed in line with Australian and New Zealand Privacy Acts to ensure your organisation meets its privacy obligations.

A copy of our Privacy Policy can be found here: https://www.workpro.com.au/privacy-policy 

The NCCHC process involves identifying and releasing any relevant Criminal History Information (CHI) subject to relevant spent convictions/non-disclosure legislation and/or information release policies. This information is sourced from the databases of all Australian police jurisdictions. The information is held centrally by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC). WorkPro’s online police checking service offers secure integrated access to the ACIC, to retrieve relevant data and results almost instantly.

A NCCHC report contains:

• A date of issue;
• All names you have been known by;
• Date of Birth;
• Your primary residential address.

An Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) accredited organisation is an organisation that ACIC have assessed and approved to administer the Police Checking Service on behalf of individuals and customers. ACIC accredited organisations are entrusted with direct access to the National Police Checking Service Support System (NSS) to submit applications and retrieve Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check (NCCHC) results for consenting applicants.

Accredited organisations include Australian federal, state and local government agencies, private sector businesses, not-for-profit organisations and screening units for working with children or vulnerable people.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) has accredited a number of organisations to assist individuals and companies to apply for and submit a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check. These organisations are entrusted with direct access to the Police Checking Service and play a vital role to help safeguard the Australian community.

The accreditation process means demonstrating adherence to strict guidelines that are stipulated by ACIC that must be followed by every accredited company.

Accreditation obligations include following identity requirements, an agreed verification process, and abiding by stringent security and data privacy requirements.

Accredited companies are regularly audited by ACIC to ensure adherence to the agreed guidelines.

Risk Solutions Australia Pty Ltd t/a WorkPro has been accredited by the ACIC since 2012 and therefore able to offer online Police Checking Service to companies and individuals.

WorkPro’s online Police Checking Service includes results from every State Australia wide.

Using WorkPro as your NCCHC partner, you can expect most Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Checks to be processed within 60 minutes (subject to business hours).

The outcome of the processed NCCHC will be ‘No Disclosable Court Outcome’ (NDCO) or ‘Referred’. Referred can occur in approximately 30% of all NCCHCs ordered. If this occurs, your result may take up to 10 business days to be finalised. A Referred status means that the NCCHC will be manually reviewed before it is finalised as a NDCO or Disclosable Court Outcome (DCO).

WorkPro has no control or influence over the manual review, and we cannot predict if any NCCHC will be delayed.

A Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check is a ‘point in time’ check, meaning results reflect police records at the date and time the result is released. Information disclosed includes:

• Court convictions
• Findings of guilt with no conviction – this means that even if no conviction was recorded for an offence, it will appear on a NCCHC
• Good behaviour bonds or other court orders
• Charges
• Matters awaiting a court hearing
• Driving offences where the candidate has been found guilty by a court – note that otherwise traffic offences are not criminal offences and will not be disclosed in a NCCHC

• Traffic offences are not criminal offences and are not disclosed unless the individual has been found guilty by a court
• A Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check does not contain information about spent convictions.

The Australian Commonwealth Spent Convictions Scheme means that certain criminal convictions are not disclosed after a period of good behaviour. The Scheme applies to convictions for less serious Commonwealth, State, Territory and Foreign offences, and also covers pardons and quashed convictions. A conviction for a State or Territory offence may also be covered by a spent conviction scheme in the relevant state or territory. Importantly, any unauthorised disclosure and use of this information is also prohibited. Generally speaking, a spent finding is:

• A criminal offence older than five years, if convicted as a child
• An offence older than ten years in any other case

The above waiting periods are intended to demonstrate that the individual has been of good behaviour and has not re-offended during the five year or ten-year period.

The Commonwealth Spent Convictions Scheme generally does not apply to more serious convictions, where the individual has been sentenced to imprisonment for more than 30 months.

NDCO is defined as ‘no disclosable court outcomes’. This result indicates that there is no police history information is stored against the individual, or no information that may be released (for example, information regarding spent convictions).

Once a NCCHC is submitted using WorkPro’s online police checking application service, the information is verified by a specialist WorkPro vetting team member before it is submitted to the ACIC online Police Checking Service. 

Referred means that when a NCCHC application has been submitted online, it has been ‘flagged’ for further review prior to finalising the NCCHC.

This might mean that the information may be a match against somebody on the criminal database with a similar name, gender and/or date of birth. When this occurs, there is a manual process of review into the application, in consultation with each of Australia’s police agencies, to resolve the match.

It can take 10 business days to be finalised. Once the Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check has been finalised, you will be notified by email.

WorkPro is an organisation accredited by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) as a third-party Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check partner.

Accredited in 2012, WorkPro is highly experienced in managing background checks across a broad range of industries.

WorkPro offers a simple, secure process, available on any device, and the ability to return results within minutes! Here is how our process works:

STEP 1: CANDIDATE REQUEST

A registered WorkPro customer sends an electronic request from the WorkPro platform to complete the NCCHC application.

STEP 2: APPLICATION PROCESS

The candidate receives the email request and completes the application online, providing relevant personal information, supporting identity documentation and consent.

STEP 3: IDENTITY AND CONSENT

Prior to 1 July 2018, the Police Checking Service required an applicant to provide what was previously known as 100 points of identification. Today, following the implementation of the National Identity Security Strategy, the Police Checking Service now incorporates the requirement for an applicant to provide four forms of identification against strict categories and provide express informed consent. Identity document categories are as follows:

• One commencement of identity document
• One primary use in the community document
• Two secondary use in the community documents

A full list is available here.

Whilst a commencement document may be relatively easy for an Australian Citizen to provide, for non-Australian citizens, it may be more difficult to meet the criteria for this category.

Australian citizens may supply a current Australian birth certificate or passport.

Non-Australian citizens need to provide an alternative Commencement of Identity document such as an ImmiCard, certificate of identity issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs, certificate of evidence of residency status, or Australian visa document.

It may be necessary for non-Australian citizens to provide their work rights visa. To do this, applicants can utilise WorkPro’s free, integrated Department of Home Affairs VEVO database to complete a work rights check, instantly able to upload the result as their commencement of identity document. WorkPro is one of only a handful of companies integrated with the VEVO database, meaning the work rights check can be completed without the need to leave the WorkPro platform!

STEP 4: VETTING AND SUBMISSION

Once the applicant provides evidence of their identity and informed consent, a WorkPro customer is expected to review the application, compare, confirm and accept the authenticity of the identity documents, and submit the application via a secure on-line portal.

In keeping with our commitment to privacy, security and robust compliance, WorkPro additionally reviews every application and identity document to confirm the application and documentation is accurate, correct and the identity is compared for authenticity. Once confirmed, the application is submitted to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s (ACIC) National Police Checking Service Support System database. Here, a database search uses the applicant’s name, sex and date of birth to seek matches against persons of interest (POI) known to police.

STEP 5: THE OUTCOME

NDCO

If no potential matches are found, an instant result or initial clear is returned, known as a ‘NDCO’ (no disclosable court outcome). This means there is no police history information recorded for the individual’s details as submitted and the result is returned to WorkPro’s secure portal. The customer is alerted via email that the result is finalised.

Referred and matching for persons of interest

An initial check may return as ‘referred’ when a potential match against a person of interest (POI) is returned. In this case, the check is referred to the police agency where the relevant information is held, and the agency determines whether the applicant is the same person as the POI – this is known as ‘matching’.

In some circumstances, the police agency may need additional information to assist with making a matching decision. If this is the case, the agency will raise a request for further information, generally in the form of additional personal details, such as previous addresses, photo ID or asking an applicant attend a police station to submit a fingerprint sample.

If the police agency determines that the applicant is not a match with the person of interest, the referral result is NDCO.

Confirmed match and vetting of disclosable information

If the police agency determines that the applicant is a match with the person of interest, the NCCHC moves into the vetting stage. Here, relevant legislation and information release policies are applied to determine the type and amount of information about the candidate that can be released. The NCCHC then goes into the final vetting stage.

The police agency in the state or territory in which the accredited organisation (that is, WorkPro) has its registered business reviews vetted results and applies its own legislation and policies to determine what information may be released to the accredited organisation.

DCO

This information is returned as a ‘DCO’ (disclosable court outcome) result. This means there is police history information recorded for the individual’s details as submitted. Specifically, a record of court convictions and findings of guilt, subject to the application of relevant spent conviction legislation in the relevant jurisdiction.

STEP 6: DELIVERY OF RESULTS

At the end of the process, a National Police Certificate (NPC) is issued, outlining the results of the check:

• NDCO No police information held against the applicant or no information that can be released according to the purpose and category of the NCCHC
• DCO Police information is available that can be released

Individuals can apply for and pay for their own Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check through our pay-as-you-go portal Australian Police Check here. 

Using WorkPro’s Police Checking Service online, the process is as follows:

• Create an account online
• Pay for the NCCHC
• Complete the online application form
• Upload the required ID and self-captured photo
• Provide consent online
• You will receive an email confirming your order is being progressed and when your NCCHC is completed.

WorkPro provides results electronically so that you have instant access to your information, and to allow you the option of printing hard copies or passing on the information electronically.

To comply with National Identity Security Strategy and Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) requirements, WorkPro’s online system enables applicants to provide the following documents in order to successfully complete the NCCHC process:

• One ‘commencement of identity’ document, for example a valid Australian passport
• One ‘primary use in the community’ document, for example a valid Australian driver’s licence
• Two ‘secondary use in the community’ documents, for example an Australian Medicare card
• A linkage of identity photo, that is, a photo including both the applicant and the relevant document
• A signed informed consent document (electronic or physical signature)

A list of the documents can be reviewed here.

At least one of the documents must include a photo of the applicant. In addition, the documents must show the same name as the claim, or evidence of a change of name is also required. The following are not acceptable:

• Copies or certified copies
• Expired documents
• Australia Post Keypass identity card
• The same document twice

When individuals and organisations seek to conduct an online Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check, a key concern should be the security of the system and processes given the sensitive nature of the information.

If you are wanting to process NCCHCs online, you need to ask the provider how they secure information an online and to prove their accreditation with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC).

WorkPro has been accredited by the ACIC since 2012 and its online Police Checking Service is secured in line with the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission’s stringent security and audit terms. WorkPro regularly undertakes internal and external audits to ensure it remains in line with the Australian Government’s legislated requirements.

WorkPro manages compliance standards on your behalf, ensuring data is properly and securely stored, archived and destroyed in accordance with national laws.

There are many reasons as to why some NCCHCs may take longer than others to process, including:

• The individual has a common name, or a name that matches with many potential persons of interest
• Transferring information between various state and territory police agencies before the information can be vetted and/or released
• The relevant police agency has inaccurate or incomplete records which need to be investigated before the NCCHC can be finalised
• Old police history associated with a possible match requires manual collection and processing of hardcopy records
• Workloads within each police agency

Once the NCCHC is finalised, the candidate and requesting company will receive an email notification.

The NCCHC result is a point in time check and only represents the applicant’s offence history as of the date of release.

The application and results certificate are stored for 12 months within WorkPro. After 12-months, the certificate is permanently destroyed with only the outcome of the NCCHC available for viewing permanently as a reliable audit trail.

The applicant does have the right to request their results certificate to be destroyed after 90 days. The process that needs to be followed by an applicant to request their NCCHC is destroyed is formal and managed directly between the applicant and WorkPro.

A candidate must be at least 16 in order for a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check to be completed. In addition, anyone under the age of 18 must have the informed consent of a parent, guardian or legal representative.

It is not possible to process a NCCHC without a candidate’s express informed consent. WorkPro checks the signature provided during the application process as part of the verification process prior to submitting the NCCHC to ACIC.

The candidate must provide ‘informed consent’ for a NCCHC to be completed. By doing so, they are consenting to the specific purpose of a NCCHC. If another NCCHC is required for a different purpose, they must consent again. Consent can be provided in the form of a digital signature and is collected as a part of WorkPro’s application process.

Using WorkPro, the applicant will receive a copy of their Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check results certificate. In addition, it is an Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission requirement that the applicant is automatically and immediately advised if there is a disclosable court outcome and provided with clear instructions on how to dispute the outcome if it contains an error. The WorkPro platform automatically ensures this requirement is addressed.

A Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check result will display all releasable court outcomes from all states and territories of Australia, based on respective policies/legislation and spent conviction schemes.

There is no difference in the Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check result you would receive from WorkPro, another broker, or state or federal police, as we all use the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission system to obtain the same information.

There are however differences in the speed, efficiency, and security of the service you receive and the way your NCCHC is delivered to you.

If an applicant believes the certificate contains Disclosable Court Outcomes that are incorrect, it can be disputed by contacting WorkPro via email (info@workpro.com.au) who will guide the applicant through the process.

Many employers check references as part of a recruitment or hiring process. A reference check is when an employer contacts a job applicant’s previous employers, schools, colleges, and other sources to learn more about his or her employment history, attitude, approach to work and why they left a previous role.

Both background checks and reference checks are a function of the hiring process.

A background check confirms CV data. It can include and is not limited to, the verification of job titles, such as dates of employment and sometimes salary. It often includes verification of education, diplomas as well as certificates and association memberships. It will also include other things not listed on a CV such as criminal checks, and credit ratings.

Social media searches are often included in a background check.

A qualitative reference check is an interview of work-related references that give you a glimpse on how the candidate works and how they have performed in the past.

Asking the right questions will give you a sense of what the candidate can do for your organization and how they work best. A thorough investigative reference check will give you a glimpse into the candidate’s past performances, triumphs, and failures.

Checking reference is an opportunity to confirm the candidate’s ability to do the job but also understand their motivations and how best to manage them as part of a strong retention strategy.

As workforces evolve, and working arrangements change, it is not just about the work a candidate does, but their attitude, aptitude, communication skills and their potential to grow and adapt.

Other styles of background and probity checks provide factual information, use checks such as employment history check or qualification check to provide this data. Use a reference check as a way of getting more personal.

For this reason, the reference check needs to be structured with the right mix of question types to ensure the process is valuable and provide deep insights.

Reference checks can be grouped in to three logical categories: Essential, Personal Attributes, Role Specific. Whilst it is important to tailor a reference to suit your organisation’s or the jobs needs, it is useful to build a common template for all prospective hires. A list of questions might include:

• Can you verify the candidate’s employment, job title, pay, and responsibilities?
• Why did they leave that job?
• How do you know the candidate?
• What makes the candidate a good fit for this job?
• If you had the opportunity, would you re-hire this job candidate? Why?
• Did the candidate get along with their co-workers and management?
• How did (name) handle conflict? How about pressure? Stress?
• What advice can you give me to successfully manage the job candidate?

An online, automated reference check avoids the risk of recruiters asking discriminatory questions or recording details incorrectly.

Moving the reference check from a conversational-based approach to a written question and answer approach boosts the accuracy, consistency and reliability of data.

A more precise and secure data collection process adds layers of governance, security and compliance to the recruitment process, which significantly reduces the risk of reference fraud and bad hires.

WorkPro has developed an easy and secure method to administer the collection of sensitive Vaccination status information and the Digital Certificate.

Available on any device, the flexible function enables a customer to send candidate requests and for a candidate to enter their status, appointment information, and upload (and securely store) their Digital Certificate.

The workflow allows the candidate to update their status as it changes and once the Digital Certificate is uploaded, a customer can view the Certificate, and validate its veracity. Additionally, a customer has the flexibility to permanently delete the Certificate from their view or store the Certificate if they are mandated to maintain the record for a period until it is either no longer required or exceeds the statutory period to maintain the record.

The Covid-19 Digital Certificate is classified as a sensitive document under the Privacy Act.

We take our responsibility to maintain privacy and compliance seriously and have developed the function with privacy top of mind. This includes a secure method to upload their Certificate with informed consent, and an audit trail of who have the shared their certificate in their personal digital profile.

Additionally, once a customer has viewed the certificate, they also have the option to delete the certificate permanently, with a verified certificate remaining.

The Digital Certificate is encrypted in transit and stored in an encrypted format.

Each time a candidate is requested to upload their status by a licenced WorkPro customer, they will need to log in to their digital profile, provide informed consent, which includes agreeing to the Collection Notice, and ‘share’ their status/Certificate.

WorkPro is acutely aware that the Digital Certificate is classified as a sensitive document under the Privacy Act. We have therefore built our functionality so that is flexible to meet your businesses regulatory requirements.

In practice, this means that every time you request a candidate to provide their Vaccination Status information, if the person is fully vaccinated, and they upload a copy of their Digital Certificate, their informed consent is mandatory. Once the Certificate is uploaded, a customer ‘validates’ the Certificate’s authenticity, and can then delete the Certificate permanently from their view with only the verification history remaining that is date and time stamped as an audit trail.

If you need to collect the Certificate for another role or as part of a regulatory change, you need to send a new candidate request from the platform. The candidate will log in to WorkPro and securely ‘share’ their Digital Certificate with your organisation, which will appear in your personal dashboard.

You will be able to view the Certificate, validate it. The Certificate will be stored until you delete.

Yes, this service caters for all vaccination boosters/doses.

When the service is deployed, we will do what we can to map and migrate the existing information and copies of Certificates. There may however be gaps as the new service is enhanced, and it will be up to your company to fill in any gaps.

You do not need to collect any further candidate consent for candidate’s whose vaccination information you have collected as this was covered off in our existing Privacy Policy and their Terms of Access. We have however strengthened the consent by adding a Collection Notice when someone uploads their Certificate.