Pre-Employment Screening and Workforce Assurance

Course Series: Trusted Workforce Program

A practical series of three courses on building, operating and sustaining a trusted workforce.  The courses are aligned with the needs of Australia’s critical infrastructure sectors, as set out in the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018, but are applicable to the workforce security needs of any organisation.

Designed to help organisations connect personnel security, enterprise security risk management, role design, and individual suitability in a defensible way.

Covering the full lifecycle — from recruitment, to ongoing suitability, through to secure offboarding.  The intent is to enable the recruitment and management of people to enhance the security of assets and operations through a Trusted Workforce Program.

Course Overview

This course introduces participants to Pentagram’s risk-based Trusted Workforce Program, with a specific focus on designing and operating proportionate pre-employment screening aligned with AS 4811:2022, insider threat mitigation principles, and the personnel hazard expectations within the Critical Infrastructure Risk Management Program (CIRMP) required under the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018.

Designed for senior executives, security and risk leaders, people partners, professionals responsible for recruiting, onboarding, managing, or approving access for workers in critical or high-trust roles, the course provides a structured guide to linking organisational security risk, role-specific risk, critical worker identification, position design and individual suitability and to making fair, transparent and defensible screening decisions.

Participants will gain access to a suite of templates that enable organisations to implement screening processes that are consistent, proportionate, and aligned to broader governance and assurance requirements.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will:

1. Understand the purpose and principles of a risk-based workforce assurance approach in critical infrastructure environments.
2. Understand how pre-employment screening fits within the broader Trusted Workforce Program and the employee lifecycle.
3. Understand the relationship between organisational security risk, role-specific risk, position design and individual suitability.
4. Become familiar with AS 4811:2022 concepts and their relevance to personnel hazards under the CIRMP Rules.
5. Understand how to design proportionate, fair and defensible screening processes for different role types.
6. Understand governance, privacy, consent and ethical considerations when introducing or strengthening screening arrangements.
7. Understand how to approach pre-employment screening for both new hires and existing critical workers.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, participants will be able to:

1. Apply a risk-based approach to determine the appropriate depth of screening for different roles.
2. Identify critical workers and link role responsibilities, access and potential consequences to screening requirements.
3. Develop eligibility and suitability criteria that are relevant, proportionate and clearly connected to the role.
4. Use structured tools and templates to document screening information and make defensible suitability decisions.
5. Plan communication and consultation strategies that support transparency, trust and worker engagement.
6. Manage screening outcomes, including conditional suitability, escalation pathways and record keeping.
7. Develop a practical implementation plan for introducing or strengthening pre-employment screening within their organisation, including for existing critical workers.

Private Coaching Session: Includes a one-hour private coaching session with the Pentagram Advisory team. During this session, we will provide tailored, practical advice specific to your organisation’s needs.