Regardless of the industry you are in, a bad hire can create a ripple effect of mayhem that can potentially destroy your business. This is no exaggeration, just ask the nationally branded carpet cleaning company who unknowingly hired a technician with a criminal past. Shortly after his hiring, this man sexually assaulted and killed one of their customers while her baby was still waiting in the car seat.
What if this person worked for you? It makes you think… Are my employee screening practices sufficient? Do I really know who is working for me? Who are we using for background checks? Are we even following through on our background screening protocol? If you are in the service industry, recently released felons are applying for jobs within your company whether you know it or not. Many of them may have actually learned their skills while enrolled in a prison work program. If you don’t want to see your company’s name on the evening news after one of your workers commits a crime, make sure to apply these principles in your hiring process.
1) Never hire anyone without conducting a thorough background investigation meeting your company’s criteria.
2) Instant online background checks are not sufficient. Automatic database searches do not authenticate applicant data, are easy to fool and miss many criminal records. If your company is currently using one of these services, stop this very minute and find a qualified background check company that uses real people to perform real investigations by going directly to the courts for live records.
3) Make sure your employees out in the field carry branded identification proving their status with your company. Train your customers to expect this identification.
4) Does your company out source? If so, make sure your sub-contractors meet your same standard of hiring criteria and provide the same credentials.
5) Here’s the tough one; what if you hire a sub-contractor, who then hires an independent contractor to perform the actual work? Who is liable when a crime is committed? You are! That’s right, case law states that you are responsible for anyone representing your company while performing work… period.
6) Avoid negative press and potential liability. Make sure you have a contractor management system in place that allows you to keep track of who is performing work while representing your company no matter the situation.
I recently learned of a company that required any applicant to have a full, verifiable background report completed on them before they would be considered. This is a unique approach and helps companies offset the cost of the background investigation by putting the responsibility on the applicant. Who knows, maybe the day will come when we all have to keep our background credentials up to par just like our credit score. It makes sense if you think about it.
Don’t let bad apples continue to cause problems in your business. Be proactive and go find a viable solution for your employee and contractor screening.