If you’re the owner of a small business, you may have asked yourself whether conducting pre-employment background on potential employees is worth the extra time and cost and may have wondered how much difference they can really make.
If your business is important to you, however – and one would assume that it is – then you should be aware that conducting background checks can present you with a host of advantages, such as:
- Enabling you to hire candidates with the best qualifications for the job
The very fact that your business has a pre-employment screening process in place should help to discourage applicants who may have been considering applying for the position, who were perhaps not qualified or may have had a previous negative employment history. Many resumes are found to contain false or misleading information about the applicant, and so conducting a background check can help to verify their details before you even consider them for interview.
Such checks can also help to ensure that only those candidates who are qualified for the position, are considered, reducing the risk of having to end the individuals contract when it later becomes apparent that they are not suitable, not to mention the associated expenses with having to begin searching for their replacement.
- Helping you to eliminate or reduce employee turnover
Pre-employment screening checks can help you hire the right person for the job, meaning that if they are qualified and have the right attitude etc, they are more likely to become a long-term employee and become loyal to your business. This in turn, reduces the cost and stresses associated with a high turnover of staff.
- Minimizing the risk of claims stating negligent hiring
Some businesses may avoid claims of negligent hiring by conducting consistent pre-employment background checks for candidates and following up with conditional employment offers prior to them commencing work for the business. Negligent hiring claims can tarnish a businesses reputation and end up costing them a lot of money in litigation costs.
What types of pre-employment background checks are available?
There are in fact, a wide range of background checks that as an employer, you can use to obtain information about a job candidate, and some of these include:
- Motor vehicle reports
- National criminal search
- National sex offender search
- The terrorist watch list
However, as an employer it’s important to be aware that mandated federal guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and state laws, may have an impact upon what pre-employment screening or credit checks you are permitted to undertake. Checking for guidance from a professional company who specialise in this kind of information, is highly recommended if you are to stay on the right side of the law while recruiting employees for your business.
Pre-employment background checks are now considered to be a vital element of the recruitment process and can benefit your company in a host of ways.