Pre-Employment Background Screening

Before you hire any new employees for your business, it is important to do pre-employment background screening. However, before you go through with checking your applicant’s background, it is very important to consider the potential legal repercussions that can affect your business. Since your employee can be held liable for the actions of your employees, it is critical that you must screen your applicants thoroughly before you hire them. Verifying of your applicants does not have any criminal history may be the first step in protecting your company from financial ruin.

Check if your applicant has criminal records, false educational credentials or liabilities through a background screening process. It is paramount that you gain all the information that you can about the people that you plan to hire into your company, because by doing so, you are sure that your personnel have the appropriate levels of education and the right set of skills that your company requires. Your pre-employment background screening process must have the depth and breadth required to satisfy the needs of your business.

Background checks can also be done on vendors, suppliers, tenants, personal help, etc., anyone who interacts with your business on a regular basis. These strict requirements and good hiring practices will help ensure that your business will run as smoothly as possible.

Pre-Employment Background Check: How It’s Done

Doing a background check on your applicants can prove to be an expensive and time-consuming undertaking, and if your business does not have a department that can afford to dedicate their resources into such a responsibility, hiring a company that specializes in this are may be the best option for you and your company.

Verifying your applicant’s Social Security information should be part of your background checking process. This may prove invaluable when screening for applicants who wish to conceal criminal convictions and can also help you sort out any I9 issues or SSA restrictions.

Authenticate your applicant’s educational background and employment history. Learn about why they have to leave their previous job, and maybe you will find a pattern like your applicant being consistently late or a history of theft. This is often the most faked part of an applicant’s resume. Applicants hope that claiming to have graduated from prestigious university would land them the job, or claiming to have worked from a major company could give them a higher salary. Also, do not forget to verify accreditations, qualifications and licenses. False claims like these could cost your company dearly if not detected at an early stage.

Your background verification should also check for criminal records. Searches should include county, state, and federal sources so that no felony, misdemeanor or crime committed goes unnoticed. Further searches may also include jurisdiction civil searches, national warrant searches, global terrorist searches and sex offender registry searches.

Building a complete profile of your applicant may require you to look into their financial background, tax history, and motor vehicle reports. All these tasks may prove overwhelming if your company is not equipped to undertake such responsibilities, and hiring a professional could save you and your company a lot of headache and trouble.