Using background checks as part of your pre employment procedure
When you are hiring people you have a vested interest in getting the very best of the available applicants. You want to find the best because you are choosing people that are hopefully going to be working with you, possibly for many years. Why do you think it is then that many employers fail to do even the simplest of background checks on new employees? Don’t you want to know if they are actually who they say they are? Sort out a pre employment background check procedure now and stick to them.
Enhancing your accomplishments or lying on resumes to get a job is nothing new but it does seem to be getting worse as time goes by and as you might expect, it gets worse at times when jobs are scarce. Don’t skip the essential and often simple, background checks that you should be doing to ensure you have an accurate and truthful assessment of the applicant who wants to work with you.
Get permission from the candidate
To avoid future legal problems you should make sure that your candidate has signed a comprehensive waiver allowing you to obtain any private information that you may require. It is best to use a statement prepared by a legal expert for this purpose but it is standard procedure so it should not be a problem.
Is a reference check the same as a background check?
Many people are either confused about the difference between reference and background checks or they think that they are the same thing. They are not. A reference in this context is a person who has worked with your candidate sometime in the previous 7 years and who is prepared to talk to you about them. You need 3 references to get a good picture of the person.
Background checks can reveal the authenticity of the applicants details and statements. Important for checking that the person hasn’t been lying to you or leaving out important facts.
Here are some of the more important checks for your background procedure.
Court records, criminal records, arrest warrants etc.
Check with state or county court records in all the places that they have lived or worked in the past few years. This might uncover criminal records or arrest warrants etc. You should also check in states and counties adjacent to where they lived or worked also.
Drivers License
You only need to do this if the employee is required to do any driving. If it does then take the license and check its validity by giving the issuing agency a call.
Credit checks
If the job has got anything to do with money then you should do a credit check. For most posts that are not concerned with money or finance in any way then a credit check may be of not be worth doing.
Other Licences
It seems that the more respected is the profession, the less inclined employers are to check that licenses to operate in that profession are valid. It sounds incredible but it is possible to find yourself treated by an unlicensed employee simply because noone bothered to check that the license was current and valid.
Academic credentials
Sometimes I think that everyone except me lies about their academic achievements on their resume. They do it and get away with it because employers don’t include it in their employment background check procedures and if they do then it usually gets ignored. You should at least check that the qualification claimed was in fact obtained by calling the issuing body ask asking for verification.
Use a public records database to get your employment background checks started
The easiest form of background check can be done online easily and quickly. By using a web site that gathers public records such as criminal records, arrest warrants, sex offender records and other information you can often get information about your applicant very quickly. You may not want to rely on it as your only source of information but it can make an important addition to your standard employment background check procedure.