As hiring or human resources manager, one of your main responsibilities is to find the right people for your employer’sbusiness. This requires you to develop the ability to know your applicants more than what you can see on the surface.
For sure the look of confidence, neatness, firm handshake and a great smile do garner some points for an applicant but those are not the only things that qualify an applicant for a job. You need to do more to be able to pick the most qualified and deserving applicant. This includes tests, oral interviews and background checks.
Tests and interviews are normal hiring routines for most companies. But if you are really keen on hiring the most qualified in terms of skills, character and attitude, you should do background checks on your prospective workers. Here are a few good reasons why you need to check the background of applicants you want to hire:
Divulge Applicant’s Criminal History
For sure jobseekers won’t tell of a previous arrest or felony, but you will discover it via a background check. As an employer, you have the right to know about any infraction your applicant has committed against the law. You can ask for an applicant’s criminal history from professional providers of employee criminal background check services.
Verify Applicant’s Qualifications
A background check can affirm or deny the information provided by an applicant in his/her resume. According to certified background screening specialists, 58% of applicants lie in their resumes and the surest way to bust this is a background check.
Protect Your Organization
For sure you wouldn’t want to include a sex offender, a thief or felon in your organization. Your employees represent your company in one way or another. That is the reason why you want them to carry your company’s values. You should make sure that your company is well represented by your own employees. Make background checking an integral part of your hiring process.
Provides Safety to Customers and other Employees
Hiring job applicants without checking their background exposes your customers and employees to certain risks. It is not about being discriminatory to people who have served jail time. It is about keeping your company and employees safe from criminals who want to join your workforce by fooling the management. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Prevention of Negligent Hiring
Negligent hiring happens when you hire an unqualified applicant who has a potential to cause a fatal accident later. That accident happened because you did not verify the applicant’s qualifications. This could have been discovered had you ordered a thorough background check on that applicant.
Turnovers Reduction
A background check can help you identify potential employees’ desire to stay longer in your company. It allows you to get rid of applicants who have a record of hopping from one employer to another.
Cost Reduction
Without a background check, chances are you would come across jobseekers who would soon become undesirable employees. This isn’t just a waste of recruitment resources. It’s a total waste of wages that you spend for someone who cannot contribute to your company’s progress. By checking applicants’ background, you are actually saving your company some money.
Drug-Free Work Environment
If you are really serious about keeping your company drug-free, you must do background checks for each job applicant regardless of the position being offered. While this is not a 100% assurance for having clean employees, it can certainly help to keep people with drug cases at bay.
The increasing number of resume manipulators and people with criminal records raises your chances of hiring undesirable applicants. You must avoid this by making sure that you know the personal backgrounds of the people you want to employ. Make employee background checks an integral part of your company’s hiring process.
Watch the video for more insights about background investigation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4HL-kyta2c