Pre-employment background checks are making a big comeback. During the late 1990s, it was an employee's market. Internet companies were springing up all over the place and established corporations were hiring like crazy. Companies were hiring people without ever performing pre-employment background checks. They needed to fill their cubicles with qualified people instantly to keep up with consumer demand.

The result of this blatant neglect was catastrophic. Fortune 500 companies collectively lost billions because of employee fraud and employee theft, most of which could have been avoided with proper background checks. At the time, hiring managers didn't want to take the little extra time to perform a background check because they were afraid of losing their candidates to competing companies. In the end, the companies with a little more patience better endured the last recession.

Pre-employment Background Checks Build Reputations

Companies that perform pre-employment background checks build a reputation with active candidates. If you are a corporate recruiter and you tell a candidate that your company performs pre-employment background checks, you can effectively weed out a good portion of your fraudulent candidates. Your company will ward off all the disingenuous job seekers looking to con companies out of their money.

Background checks will also cut down on employee theft. If a person you are interviewing was fired for stealing from a former employer, would you want to know that? Obviously, this is important information. If that is the case, why do so many companies skip the background check portion of the hiring process? It just doesn't make business sense.