When it comes to workforce integrity, transactional background checks—like police checks or ID verification—only confirm what has already occurred. They fail to answer the key question in today’s regulatory climate: “Is this person truly suitable to hold a position of trust?”

Most organisations stop at transactional background checks:

Identity verification (DVS)
National Police Check
Reference check
Qualifications/working rights validation

These are important, but they only confirm factual records — they don’t actually assess whether a person is suitable to hold a position of trust.

📌 Bottom line:
“Suitability Beyond Checks” means Cleard Life doesn’t just verify records — we evaluate trustworthiness, integrity, and ongoing risk factors. That’s what keeps companies compliant, reputationally safe, and out of headlines.

The Compliance Shift in Victoria

Victoria is raising the bar on personnel security. Following inquiries into misconduct, corruption, and infiltration risks, Victorian government departments and regulators have been explicit: organisations must go beyond basic police checks and adopt robust, risk-based workforce vetting.

This shift is not limited to construction. Across the Victorian public sector and regulated industries, agencies are expected to prove that their people are suitable, trustworthy, and continually reassessed for integrity.

What Victorian Government Frameworks Say

1. Victorian Protective Data Security Standards (VPDSS) – OVIC

Standard 16 (Personnel Security) requires agencies to:

“Establish, implement and maintain personnel security controls in their personnel management regime” and to “monitor, review, and continually improve them.”
OVIC guidance points directly to AS 4811 Employment Screening as the benchmark for best practice.

2. VAGO (Victorian Auditor-General’s Office)

A 2020 audit found agencies often over-relied on police checks and failed to properly verify identity, employment history, or misconduct records.
VAGO’s recommendation: adopt AS 4811-aligned screening to strengthen due diligence and reduce risks of fraud, corruption, and insider threats.

3. Victorian Public Sector Commission (VPSC) Code of Conduct

Requires employees (and contractors) to act with integrity, accountability, and impartiality.
Recruitment must be based on merit and integrity, meaning screening must be thorough enough to confirm suitability before appointment.
Contractors must also comply, extending screening obligations across labour-hire and service providers.

Suitability Beyond Checks

Here is the crucial proof that Victoria expects organisations to go beyond one-off checks:

“Controls” in VPDSS Standard 16 means multiple, layered measures — not a single police check.
“Monitor and review” requires re-assessing staff throughout employment, not only at hiring.
“Continual improvement” obliges organisations to strengthen vetting as new risks (e.g. organised crime infiltration, insider threats, financial pressures) emerge.
OVIC guidance explicitly recommends adopting AS 4811 Employment Screening, which mandates:
- Identity and eligibility verification
- Address history and qualification checks,
- Criminal history, misconduct and integrity checks
- Mandatory one-on-one suitability interviews
- Ongoing monitoring and reassessment

This is clear proof that Victoria requires employers to move past “check the box” police checks and embed ongoing suitability assessments into their personnel security regime.

Cleard Life: From Compliance to Protection

Cleard Life is the first organisation in Australia independently certified for full conformance with AS 4811:2022, the gold standard for employment screening.

Here’s how we align directly with Victoria’s stated requirements:

VPDSS Standard 16 → Cleard Life provides documented personnel security controls, plus ongoing monitoring and continuous improvement measures.
VAGO audit expectations → We deliver identity, qualification, referee, misconduct, and financial risk checks beyond police checks, addressing the gaps highlighted by VAGO.
VPSC Code of Conduct → We extend vetting to contractors and consultants, ensuring all personnel meet the same integrity requirements as employees.
AS 4811 mandatory interviews → Cleard Life embeds one-on-one suitability interviews and ISO 31000 risk assessments, providing assurance far deeper than database checks.

We also go further by sponsoring Baseline, NV1 and NV2 clearances for high-profile construction companies, bridging the gap between state-level obligations and federal clearance regimes.

Why This Matters

Compliance: Victorian departments and regulators expect organisations to meet VPDSS and Code of Conduct obligations. Using an AS 4811-certified provider demonstrates compliance.
Reputation: Integrity failures in hiring are reputationally devastating. Cleard Life helps organisations prove they are keeping unsuitable individuals out.
Operational Assurance: With ongoing monitoring and re-screening, your workforce remains trusted year after year.

✅ Bottom Line:
Victorian government departments are clear — police checks alone are no longer enough. Organisations must adopt layered, risk-based personnel security controls that align with AS 4811:2022.

Cleard Life is the only AS 4811-certified provider in Australia and already a specialist in sponsoring Baseline, NV1 and NV2 clearances for major construction companies.

In Victoria’s new compliance environment, Cleard Life is both your compliance tool and your reputational shield.

Suitability Beyond Checks: The Next-Level Standard for Workforce Integrity in Victoria