9 Points to Guide You in Pre-Employment Background Checking

The facts are real and the numbers speak for themselves. One-third of all job applications contain outright lies. Three out of ten business failures are caused by employee theft. Companies lose close to $1 Million U.S.D. from workplace violence lawsuits. Hiring the right person with the right skill, for the right job is hard enough for the recruiters; now recruitment departments have a justified fear to worry about the potential hire’s criminal background.

These are 9 points to guide the recruitment team in conducting a good pre-employment background check.

1. Make a commitment to background check- Manpower is the core lifeblood of each and every organization, maintaining a clean selection of possible hires ensures the company is protected from future threats.
2. Be consistent – This does not really mean creating a research based policy. It’s as simple as documenting who you are checking, what you are checking about them, and how you consider the information obtained. In this way, you establish a given set of standards.
3. Note discrepancies and past addresses – Current and previous addresses of your candidate based from their Social Security records serves as the foundation of a thorough background check. This serves two purposes: (1) to decide where to look for criminal records and (2) to compare against the information the candidate provided in order to identify time gaps and location mismatches in his or her history.
4. Expose the criminal factor – Court summons, NBI clearances are all public documents that can be assessed and help you discover more about a candidate’s brushings with the law.
5. Verify past employment – Some past employers may decline to provide any information without first reviewing the candidate’s written release, so be prepared with a copy of the candidate’s written release authorizing disclosure of his or her information.
6. Verify degrees obtained – When degrees or education are important for a position, consider validating your candidate’s claims by contacting listed educational institutions. Checking CHED for the existence of such a school/ program that the candidate claims they finished is also advised.
7. Check driving history – A motor vehicle records report from LTO can be a good way to identify candidates with inappropriate driving records and thereby limit company risk when it comes to employees who are driving on company time. It may even help keep your insurance rates down. Sometimes, convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs cannot be found in the criminal court records, but rather in the LTO records.
8. Comply with Laws and Regulations – Two such fundamental legal requirements imposed on employers who background screen relate to (1) candidate consent and (2) adverse action notifications; make sure you have the legal department approve of your background checking policies.
9. Stay ahead of the curve – Employment background checks are highly beneficial for businesses, but doing them yourself can be complicated, time-consuming, and cost-prohibitive. Consider consulting an experienced background checking provider, if doing this for the first time and let them do the work for you.

Hopefully this basic information about employment background checking can help your company move forward to start feeling more confident about your hiring decisions and work toward a safer and more productive workplace.

Source: Hire Right (http://www.hireright.com/) Hire Safe. Hire Smart. Hire Right.