Companies tend to assume people are truthful when applying for a job. They won’t necessarily suspect someone is lying on their resume, but they can run background checks to discover the truth.
These checks are usually used by companies as the last measure to ensure they are making the best employment decision. In addition, background checks protect companies from unnecessary and often serious risk.
Many companies find background screening reliably verifies claims made by candidates during interviews. It’s tempting to exaggerate one’s experience or educational qualifications in an effort to succeed on the job market. However, this is not without consequences. Approximately 96% of companies perform at least one type of screening on job candidates, according to the US Chamber of Commerce website. Here are some common reasons why background checks are used by companies when hiring new staff.
Prevent Losses
Today, insiders are responsible for most incidents of theft at the workplace. Background screening helps hiring managers make smart, informed employment decisions to limit their risk.
Ensure Safety and Honesty
Companies are responsible for ensuring the welfare of their employees, partners, visitors, and customers. A background check will reveal whether a candidate is potentially dangerous. By rejecting them, the company avoids liability down the line.
If a candidate makes a misstatement during the recruitment process, the employer may come to question their integrity and decide to eliminate them. Anyone can embellish their credentials, including executives and high-profile coaches, and professors. There is no shortage of public examples of such behavior. Moreover, if it emerges someone lied after they’re hired, the employer faces a loss of face.
How to Run a Background Check
Employers who want to run a background check must ask candidates for permission in writing. In addition, they need to sign a consent form. There are templates of background check consent forms available online. The form should include the specific information that is being requested. Moreover, people finders and search services are a popular option for business inquiries. For an affordable sum, they will generate a reliable overview of one’s financial and (perhaps) criminal history.
A basic check yields results at once or within 24 hours at most. If you don’t want to pay, you can ask for professional references and verify the information on the candidate’s resume in-house. Considering how unreliable personal references can be, there’s no need to ask for such. The information subject to verification includes employment dates, negative criminal history, and job-related tasks.
How to Examine the Results
Under the US Fair Credit Reporting Act, an employer is required to share every detail used to make a hiring decision with the candidate, including any information on their credit report. This is obligatory, including and particularly if the information found leads you to reject them. This is referred to as adverse action. The FTC provides guidelines to employers running background checks of prospective staff members.
Sharing this information also teaches applicants how to present themselves more effectively when applying for jobs. To prevent identity theft, it’s important for employers to keep confidential all information found during the background check.
Protect Your Company’s Reputation
Employers are concerned about their reputation because only the most trustworthy companies attract top talent. By helping create more secure and safer workplaces staffed by qualified people, background checks assist companies in protecting their image. You might hesitate to invest money and time in background checks, but forgoing one makes your business vulnerable to malicious entities. After all, it’s all too easy to let a con artist into your organization and unwittingly give them access to your resources.