Employment Background Checks

There is little dispute over the value of employment background checks. When potential employees are in the interview phase, they are in a situation that calls for them to accentuate all their good qualities and downplay the bad ones. That's just how it is. Employment background checks represent one of many ways employers can keep their current employees and potential employees accountable for what they put on their resumés and what they put on their applications.

Without background checks, job candidates would be able to put whatever they want on their resumés and job applications. There is a minority school of thought that believes background checks are unnecessary and that the job interview process will effectively weed out the dishonest people.

Employment Background Checks Will Save You Big Money

Employers know the cost of hiring and training a new employee is very high. People who do not work in human resources often have no idea how costly it is to source, screen, interview, hire and train a new employee. All the people involved in the hiring process are collecting hourly wages or yearly salaries. Their time equates to money and it usually takes about two months to complete the hiring process for a new employee.

The hiring company has to pay an in-house recruitment staff to find candidates. This in-house staff probably subscribes to a human resources information system (HRIS). The recruiting staff within the HR department probably subscribes to at least one of many on-line job boards. These jobs boards are costly and they don't offer the benefit of employment background checks.

The hiring company spends money advertising the open job in newspapers and online job boards. It spends money paying the salaries and wages of recruiters. It spends money maintaining and building its HRIS. It spends money flying possible employees in from other cities and putting them up in hotels. It spends money designing job applications and suitable behavioral interviews. It spends money on attorneys that make sure the hiring process is legal and complies with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

More on Employment Background Checks

What will you get out of employment background checks? Most companies that perform background checks provide a list of things they examine. One of the first things they will perform is the "Previous Employment Verification." The information obtained by the background check company will most likely include some or all of the following: dates of employment, previous titles, previous salaries, productivity, skills, attendance, attitude, and reasons for termination.

Many background check companies also provide their clients with the option of performing an education verification service. This is fairly self-explanatory. The information obtained in this report is straight-forward: a confirmation of the candidate's highest level of education, his/her degree earned, and the dates he/she attended the school or university.

Employment background checks might also include personal reference checks, a credit history, a criminal history, a motor vehicle report, and certain drug testing programs. One can infer a great deal of information from these reports. Not all positions will require all the aforementioned services, but it's best not to cut corners. The money you spend on these checks could save your company much more in the future.