Why Screen Your Applicants?
When hiring an employee there are many different factors to take under consideration. A good resume is, of course, a great start as this allows you to narrow down your potential hiring pool into only the most skilled and experienced. Secondly, after interviewing you have to take into consideration the personality and demeanor of applicants. However, the third step is often overlooked, which is running an employee background check.
A background check can provide a wealth of advantages and help improve the hiring process.
- Uncover Educational Lies And Fake Experience
It is a very competitive job market in certain fields. Sadly, many people falsify information on their resumes gaining them an advantage. A background check at the very least can give you a basic picture of the truth. This can include verifying college attendance and graduation, that a potential hire worked where they said they did, and if they are truly certified or licensed in certain fields. The last thing you want is to hire someone who lacks the skills and education to perform the agreed job duties. This is simply a waste of time and money.
- Vallidate Work History
A job candidate may not be entirely honest about their past work experience. A background check not only verifies that they were employed at a company but other valuable information. This can include the nature of their job, the industry they were in, and most importantly how they left the company. There is a marked difference between a candidate who has resigned from work due to changing circumstances and one fired for various reasons. Knowing how a candidate has left past jobs can tell you how they’ll react into your company.
- Uncover and Verify Criminal Information
One area certain to be lacking on most resumes is a criminal history. Knowing an applicant’s criminal history is very useful and not just in the most obvious sense. Naturally you’re not going to want a violent offender working for your company. However, other crimes can be equally incompatible with certain professions. You’re not going to want someone convicted of theft working with stock; likewise you’re not going to want to hire someone who has a fraud history to work in the banking industry. Yet this can also be beneficial for applicants in certain cases. If an applicant is honest and forward about past transgressions, verification of these facts could help them. Honesty further reinforces their sincere attempt to better themselves and do good work. Obviously, as the hiring agent you should take such matters on a case to case basis.
- Save Your Company Money
The reason that knowing all these is important is two-fold. For one, this assures you hiring the right person; and two it helps save your company money. Flatly you can’t afford to keep an employee on staff when lies about their background come out. The resulting vacancy means your company has to spend time and money hiring a replacement. Not only is money lost in terms of work hours, training, and in some cases a severance package to the out going employee; but money is also lost due to the new hire. New hires often can’t start right away and require training before they can start working. The resulting lost work and training expenses can prove quite costly and often equal several thousand dollars. Background checks assure you get the hire right the first time.