Pre-employment screening should involve several steps, each one of them crucial. The screening process varies from company to company, but I'll give you a vague idea of what I've encountered. First, a job comes open and a requisition is issued to human resources and recruitment. The open position requisition usually contains job specifications and other critical pieces of information recruitment will need to start sourcing for candidates.

Once recruitment identifies some qualified candidates, they screen them over the phone. Those who are qualified usually come in for a personal interview. This interview can either take place between the candidate and recruiter, the candidate and hiring manager, or the candidate and the manager she/he would be working with at the company. After the personal interview, there could be another round or two of interviews with various people in the company.

Pre-employment Screening Measures

All the while, savvy employers will be doing their homework. There are some essential pre-employment screening measures that should be taking place during the interview process. Either human resources or a partner company should be performing various screening measures which include: reference checking, identity validation, criminal background check, credit check, driving records check (if applicable), and a drug test (if applicable).

Employers don't want these pre-employment screening measures to hold up the hiring process. Employers should be open from the beginning, letting candidates know they'll be performing background checks. If the employer is using a third party vendor to perform the background checks, they'll need to have the candidate sign the appropriate notice and disclosure and release forms, and provide them a copy of the "Summary of Your Rights under the FCRA." Just letting candidates know this ahead of time will effectively screen out some undesirables. However, it is important that the people being seriously considered as potential hires go through all the steps.