Ten Minutes Well Spent: The Pre-Interview Employer Spot-Check UK Candidates Swear By

Ten minutes. That is all it takes to move from hopeful applicant to informed candidate. At Employment Plus, we speak to jobseekers every week who wish they had done this before the interview, not after. So here is the practical version: a quick employer spot-check you can do on your phone or laptop before you iron a shirt.

Start with Companies House (three minutes)

Search the exact company name on Companies House. Check the legal entity, not just the brand name on the job ad. You are looking for a few basics:

• Company status. Active is good. Administration, liquidation or a proposal to strike off needs context.
• Filing history. Are accounts and confirmation statements filed on time? One late filing can be admin. Repeated late filings plus director exits is a pattern.
• Officers. Have several directors resigned in quick succession? Some churn is normal. A revolving door is worth a question.
• Charges and insolvency history. A charge is not automatically bad — many businesses borrow. But it helps you understand the financial picture.

Red flags are not verdicts. They are prompts. A retailer with late accounts might have had a difficult trading year; a tech start-up with director changes might have restructured. The point is to know before you go in, not to panic.

If you need a visa, check the sponsor register (one minute)

The Home Office publishes the register of licensed sponsors. If you will need a Skilled Worker visa, check the exact legal entity name against the register. Do not assume the trading name matches the licence. If the company is not listed, or the licence is suspended or revoked, ask the recruiter early. A role can be advertised without sponsorship being available. Better to find out before the interview than after an offer.

Read reviews like a detective, not a tourist (two minutes)

Glassdoor and Indeed are useful if you read them properly. Filter for the last 18 months and look for repeated themes, not one dramatic review. Common threads matter: unpaid overtime, chaotic onboarding, managers leaving, promises that never materialised. One angry ex-employee is noise. Ten similar reviews over a year is a signal.

Also check how the employer responds. A calm, specific reply to criticism tells you more than a five-star review from someone in HR.

LinkedIn signals (two minutes)

Look at the company page and the team you would join. Are people staying for two or three years, or cycling through every six months? Check whether the same role has been advertised repeatedly. That can mean growth, but it can also mean high turnover or a ghost ad designed to collect CVs.

Scan recent posts from hiring managers. Do they talk about the team, the work and the challenges? Or is the page a wall of generic recruitment graphics? Neither is decisive, but it gives you conversation material.

Local news and trade press (two minutes)

Search the company name plus the town or city, and add words like expansion, redundancy, contract, closure or tribunal. Local newspapers and trade magazines often report things that never make the careers page. A new contract can mean growth. A restructure can mean uncertainty. Context is everything.

What the red flags actually mean

Not every red flag is a dealbreaker. Overdue accounts can be a cash-flow wobble or a busy finance team. Negative reviews can reflect one bad manager who has since left. A sponsor licence suspension is more serious. The key is to distinguish between administrative mess and structural risk.

If something looks genuinely serious, ask the recruiter before the interview rather than ambushing the panel. A simple line works: 'I noticed the last accounts were filed a little later than usual — is there anything I should know about how the business is doing?' That is fair, adult and easy to answer.

How to ask without derailing the interview

Save your questions for the end, when they ask if you have any. Keep it to one or two, and frame them as curiosity rather than interrogation. Useful options include:

• 'I saw you have advertised a few similar roles this year — is the team growing or is this backfilling?'
• 'What does success look like in the first six months, and how will you measure it?'
• 'How has the team changed over the last year?'

Avoid turning the interview into an audit. You are there to show you can do the job, not to present a due-diligence report. The spot-check is for you. The questions are for the conversation.

The ten-minute version

Companies House status and filings. Sponsor register if relevant. Recent reviews. LinkedIn headcount and job ads. Local news. That is it. Ten minutes, a few notes, and a much better sense of whether the role is worth your energy.

At Employment Plus, we think informed candidates make better hires and better interviews. Do the check. Then go and have a proper conversation.