McDonald’s employment police checks

Do you know that McDonald’s is Australia's most visited fast food restaurant? Over 8 million Australians aged 14+ had taken away or eaten at the restaurant. With over 1000 restaurants, McDonald's and its franchises employ over 110,000 people, making it one of Australia's largest employers.

McDonald's and other Australian food businesses require police checks as part of some recruitment processes in the last decade to ensure the safety of staff and customers. If you'd like to become a McDonald's employee (or work for some other Australian food business), here's how you can get a police check for the hiring process.

A police check discloses an applicant's disclosable criminal history, including convictions, arrests, criminal proceedings, and more. The police check is formally referred to as a nationally coordinated criminal history check (NCCHC).

The results provided on a check will outline whether the applicant has No Disclosable Court Outcomes (NDCO) or Disclosable Court Outcomes (DCO):

• NDCO means there is:
• no police information held against the applicant
• no police information that can be released according to the purpose and category of the police check, and the application of relevant spent convictions legislations and/or information release policies.
• DCO means there is:
• police information that can be released.

A check result with a DCO may list the following police information:

• charges
• court convictions, including penalties and sentences
• findings of guilt with no conviction
• court appearances
• good behaviour bonds or other court orders
• matters awaiting court hearing
• warrants and/or warnings
• traffic offences.

A police check can help decision makers ensure that the applicant is not a former offender or has violent tendencies.

Moreover, a police check helps employers hire individuals that will also ensure customers' safety.

Employees working at the till counter handle money daily. An individual with a criminal history of theft might be tempted to steal. With a police check, employers can filter out applicants with an established record of theft from the hiring process.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) works with accredited bodies and police agencies throughout Australia to make police checks accessible.

Here are the steps to obtain a police check:

The first step is to apply with an accredited body or a police agency. Most applications are typically online and involve filling out a form and providing information on your name, address, and the purpose of the check.

After that, you must upload four identification documents. They include:

• ✔ One commencement of ID document.
• ✔ One primary use of the community document.
• ✔ Two secondary documents
• ✔ A biometric link with liveness (e.g. the self photo with liveness process on the ANCC website)

After applying through a police agency or accredited body, they submit your application to the National Police Checking Service Support System (NSS). This system will run a name-matching algorithm and pull up potential matches.

If no potential match is generated, the system returns a 'No Disclosable Court Outcome (NDCO)', indicating that you have a clean criminal record. If the system finds a potential match, it is sent to the relevant police agency for further processing.

If the police agency establishes no match, they send back an NDCO. Conversely, if they show the match, the application further goes through the vetting stage. In this stage, the relevant police agency applies the applicable spent convictions scheme to determine what criminal records can be released in the police check result before sending it back to the body that requested the check on the applicant's behalf.

ANCC or the police agency you submitted your application to will notify you once the result is ready.

If the system finds no potential match, it automatically returns an NDCO. This is true for about 70% of applications. The other 30% have possible matches and must be forwarded for manual checking, and this process can take longer than 10 business days.

Police checks are point-in-time checks, meaning they are up-to-date up until the time of the check. The employer determines the validity period of a police check.

Are you looking to get a police check? ANCC offers background check services for individuals and businesses.

If you'd like to obtain your background check before applying for a McDonald's job, promptly order a police check today.

Approved McDonald's franchise owners across Australia can order bulk police checks for applicants through the ANCC Business Portal. This portal makes it simple to collect, track, and process police check applications for multiple candidates in real time.