Nobody likes to miss out. Whether it’s missing out on your favourite movie or the annual company party. While missing fun things is upsetting, missing something in your business’s screening process can be devastating.

Pre-Employment Background Checks Uncover Job Applicant’s History

Depending on the type of screening, you can confirm a candidate’s identity, criminal record, work history, education level, or credit report. Screening applicants ensures you know the truth about your prospective employees.

Instead of relying on potential hires as the only source of information about their past, you can verify their history yourself. Screening shows employers’ vital information. However, that’s not all background checks do. How else does running the right reports benefit your business?

Background Checks Help You Make the Right Hire

Screening applicants protects your company from bad hires. It stops unsafe and unskilled applicants from slipping through your hiring process. Instead of having to guess whether a person is qualified enough for the job, you know who’s right for the job.

Background checks can uncover a history of violence that might adversely affect your workplace. Uncovering a person’s criminal history helps you know who’s safe to hire and who to avoid.

Unfortunately, negligent hiring can strike any business.  Screening applicants shields your business from more than negligent hiring. It also keeps your business compliant. Certain jobs and industries need background checks for safety and legal reasons.

Industries like education, healthcare, Security Services, transportation, and ecommerce need  to ensure they’re following regulations.

Screening applicants also keeps your hiring efficient. Background checks give you the information you need to choose the best applicant. Picking the wrong new hire can sap your business of needed cash. If your new employee doesn’t work out, you’ll have to dedicate time and money to retrain them. Therefore, making a bad hire can set your company’s budget back by months.  Bad hires come in more forms than regular employees. Freelancers, temp workers, and contractors are on the rise. If you’re taking advantage of some external talent, you need to make sure they’re not taking advantage of you. Even freelancers who aren’t at your office are a potential danger to your company.  Contractors have access to your most valuable assets, including clients and sensitive information. Running a background check ensures your freelancers won’t misuse your resources.

Many companies leave out reports when they create a background check process. Omitting vital reports lets crucial information about your job applicants slip away. Can you still make the right hiring decision when you don’t have all the facts?  To know who’s best for the job, you need to get the full picture of a candidate. Confirming a potential employee’s history isn’t the only reason you need the right reports.  Each business is different, but certain screening reports help every company. Which checks are essential for all companies?  Different industries and job positions need different kinds of background checks.

Here are 04 screening reports that apply to every type of job out there:

1. Identity Verification

Identity verification ensures that applicants are who they say they are. Verifying your applicant’s identity shows that they’re telling the truth on their applications. Verifying your applicant’s identity is your first step to hiring. Once you’ve confirmed your applicant’s identity, running subsequent background checks will be easier. What other reports should you run?

2. Criminal Records

Criminal records checks reveal an applicant’s criminal past. Knowing if someone has a criminal history protects your business and your clients.  Criminal records also warn businesses of potential dangers. Using criminal checks prevents dangerous applicants from hurting your employees.  Criminal checks give you more insight into your job applicants.

3. Experience and Reference Check

It happens to everyone; applicants forget when they got their last job or can’t quite recall what their title was. So, they put their best guess and hope that’s good enough. Others decide to tell a small lie to make themselves look better. Either way, you’re left to sift through your candidate’s job history and figure out what’s true and what’s not.

Widespread resume fraud forces you to spend time double-checking every detail.  Separating truth from fiction doesn’t have to take all day. Running a work record and reference check gives you the full picture of your applicant’s experience.  Checking your potential employee’s work history shows what their job title was, what their duties were, and how long they worked at that job. Looking into their references shows if they were reliable at work and whether they left voluntarily or were fired.  Learning who has the necessary experience for the job makes it easy to pick the best person. However, experience may only be part of your job requirements.  Applicants also need the right education to succeed.

4. Education Verification

Your job may require employees with a high level of education. It’s easy for applicants to lie and say they have the right education, but it’s tricky to figure out if they actually have the training they need.  Candidates can appear to have the right credentials, only to fail on inspection.  A former VP for corporate communications did attend college for the full 3 years. However, he didn’t have enough credits to graduate. He was fired when they discovered he didn’t have the degree he implied. How can you know for sure that applicants have the best education for the job? Verifying an applicant’s education confirms whether they have the education they put on their application. Education verification shows what university a candidate went to, what they majored in, and what degrees they received.

Now that you know what reports to include in your pre-employment background check, you’ll need to add them to your screening process. But you may wonder, “Am I missing anything else in my screening process?” Let’s find out what your screening process should look like.

Improve Your Screening Process

Everything gets outdated eventually. As compliances keep changing and keep getting complex, additional checks become necessary and you need to revamp your background check process accordingly. Here’s how you can improve your screening:

• Research the background check ‘Best Practice’ in your industry: Industries each have regulations about what information you can access when hiring and what checks you should run. Staying up to date on screening laws helps your business stay out of legal trouble.
• Use a knowledgeable background check company:  Employing a reliable screening company helps you keep up with legal changes.
• Have a standard screening process for all applicants:  While some jobs may require more extensive background checks, you should keep the rest of your process standardized. If applicants are applying for the same position, run the same screening reports on all of them. A standard system keeps your process fair for prospective employees.
• Disclose to potential employees that you are running a background check on them:  Explain how you are going to use any information the check finds. You should also inform the candidates that they will receive a copy of their results.
• Give applicants a copy of their background check results:  You should send the applicant their results as soon as you receive them. Quickly delivering the report gives candidates a chance to dispute any incorrect information.
• Consider the results carefully:  Decide whether any negative information relates to the job position. For example, financial fraud would definitely be significant if someone was applying for the position of a financial advisor.

Following these steps will keep your screening process running smoothly. An up-to-date background check process also ensures your hiring is legally compliant. Combining your new and improved process with the right screening reports makes it simple to find the right hire.

Don’t Miss Out!

Missing something in your screening process can devastate your business. Are you getting the information you need to make the right hire? Using these four reports will help you find the right applicant for your company.  Standard reports give you the information you need to weed through your candidates. Verifying your applicant’s identity confirms that your potential employee is who they say they are. Checking your candidate’s criminal past protects your business from unsafe hires. Finally, double-checking that applicants have the right experience and education ensures they have the skills to succeed.