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Making the right hiring decisions as an employer is essential for your business to succeed. Though it sounds cliché, your business or company can only be as strong as your team. Finding the right person who is both fit for the position and a strong member of your already existing team is vital. That being said, with the threat of legal and financial issues pre-employment background checks have become an important precautionary step for your entire company. While we all know that hiring the right person is essential, getting it right isn’t always easy. There are a lot of negative consequences that can arise from making the wrong hiring choices. Your team’s morale can suffer, productivity may be hindered, and financial loss is common. There are several things that you can do as a careful hiring manager to ensure that you make an informed hiring choice—employment background checks are the place to start. Consider these background check tips for your future hires.
Establish a Standard Screening Policy
Establishing a standard is extremely important. As an employer you don’t want to treat one job applicant different from another. You should set up a standard, mandatory background screen policy for every employee. From an employee point of view, background checks can feel invasive and might communicate some sort of distrust from management. By establishing a standard background policy for every individual, employees can depersonalize the procedure and better understand that it is for the wellbeing of everyone involved. By setting a standard policy you will ensure that all checks being conducted are consistent. As a basic rule, you should consider background screening things credit, drug tests, past employers, criminal background, and driving records.
Outline Your Policy for All Employees
Once you’ve decided on a consistent standard screening policy, you should provide all of your employees with an outline of that policy. Help your employees feel more involved in the process, so that it is not something “being done to” them. Try to align regular employee screening with part-time employees and contracted employees. Everyone should be aware of what the screening entails and when it is conducted.
Verify Education, Credentials, and Employment
Though it might be hard to believe, a significant portion of resumes contain some kind of misrepresentation in terms of employment history, education, or experience. For this reason, it is important that you look into education, credentials, and employment history that is provided on a candidate’s resume. Particularly in today’s harsh job market, many candidates may be feeling the pressure of unemployment. Look into educational credentials by verifying them at the source. If the school or institution is unfamiliar, check it against databases of diploma mills. You can ask the candidate for proof of educational credentials in the form of class notes, papers, or other school records. Talking to the candidate first is a polite way to address the issue initially.
Require Proof of Earnings from Potential Employees
Salary history is one of the most frequently misrepresented items presented during the interview process. If the previous employer doesn’t provide salary information during the pre-employment screening, you can ask the applicant to provide proof of earnings from the previous three years in the form of W-2s or pay stubs. Previous pay in many ways determines what a candidate’s starting pay will be set at, so it’s important that you carefully screen this information early on.
Reassess Your Background Check System Regularly
Once you have a standard background check system in place, it is important to reassess its success regularly. Background checks play an important role in creating a happy and healthy workplace as well as building the most successful team possible. Review your screening process to see if there are areas that are unnecessary or lacking. You want to carefully look at your system to try to determine any sort of vulnerability. Are there areas of the search that are purely wasting time and resources? Does the screening program meet all mandates and laws? Are there apparent gaps in the search? These are all important things to look into after a policy has been used for a period of time. Audit your screening program regularly to make sure that it runs in the most effective and efficient way possible. Staying up to date on current laws and mandates is important, so regular reassessment is vital.
Jane Smith is a freelance blogger and writer for www.backgroundcheck.org. She specializes in various types of information screenings, such as pre-employment background checks, criminal records, and much more. Email her your questions and comments at [email protected].
It is good to stay informed about what a background check entails. If you are aware of what the background check will entail, you can better mentally prepare yourself for when it comes. For example, telling employees that a background check will include a credit check is a vital part of preparing them.
This is a great help, especially for recruiters. Doing background checks is your responsibility as a recruiter toward the company you represent. You owe it to the organization to ensure that your new hires are competent, honest, responsible, and dignified employees. Otherwise, you’ll end up hiring the wrong people – the ones who could cause productivity or trust issues in the workplace.