Should Employers Conduct Employee Background Check?

Imagine having a convicted felon on your payroll. It is an employer’s worst nightmare. With workplace violence, theft, forgery, internet crimes and frauds on the rise, the risk of running your business to the ground at the hands of a fraudulent employee is very real. Businesses that have employed people without proper background screenings have discovered that they are paving the way for potential legal liability.

Hiring the right person for a job is not as easy as it used to be in the past. Today, appropriate qualifications and the right credentials are not enough reasons to hand over an offer letter. After all, how can an employer be sure that the potential employee is really what he or she claims to be? Surveys show that more than 40% of resumes submitted to companies are fabricated or hyped. Leaving your business in the hands of an employee who does not genuinely deserve to be there is a major threat. Besides, hiring and training an employee can cost thousands of dollars and no business owner wants to throw away their hard-earned money through hiring and firing.

Employee background checks help employers ascertain a large number of facts about a potential employee. They help you confirm educational qualifications and achievements, ascertain credit history and provide you with reference checks. But that’s not all. They also delve into the applicant’s character to unearth any criminal records and history of substance abuse. You can check applicant records regardless of their state of domicile. So, if John Doe was guilty of assaulting a hitchhiker while delivering an order for a company in New Orleans, he cannot hide it from potential employers even though he is seeking employment in California.

Some industries need more stringent background checks than others. For instance, positions that allow employers to be in charge of another person’s life, money, proprietary information or private records require a high degree of trustworthiness. In fact, the lifeblood of such businesses is the quality and dedication of their workforce.

Employers can screen a candidate only after obtaining a written consent from them. The kind of information an employer can collect varies from state to state. For example, some states prohibit employers from using information about arrests when considering the eligibility of a candidate.
As you can see, screening the people you hire helps mitigate major threats to business operations. That is why all companies, whether big or small, private, public or non-profit should hire their employees only after a thorough and effective background screening.