The Importance of Background Screening New Employees

Employee Background Screening
11Apr

The Importance of Background Screening New Employees

In the game of recruitment, one should never judge a book by its cover. This is certainly true when making hiring decisions based on how well a candidate presents himself or herself during the interview process. Despite how stellar someone looks on a resume, how professional a candidate appears, and how much previous employers rave about a candidate — there could be much more lurking in the candidate’s background than you can imagine. As part of wise business decisions, conducting pre-employment background checks for all candidates should be a routine your organization takes seriously.

How Important are Employment Background Checks?

Before you choose to hire a candidate, employee background screening can help protect your business from any potential problems. Think of this as your responsibility to protect your business, current employees, and your clientele from someone who may have a criminal history or other unsavory background issues. Incidents of workplace harassment, violence, and theft are all too common.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Department of Justice, between 1993 and 1999, there were 1.7 million incidents of workplace victimization recorded in America. These added up to millions in lawsuits that, in some cases, could have been prevented simply by running a criminal background check on all new hires.

Learning More About Candidates with Employee Background Screening

The good news is that there is an effective way to learn more about candidates before they have a chance to do any damage to your business. As part of the overall hiring process, asking all candidates to submit to a pre-employment background check gives you the ability to learn of any potential problems. Many companies choose to make a job offer contingent upon the successful completion of both a pre-employment criminal background check and drug screen. By doing this, employers can learn if a candidate has any issues, such as:

  • Past criminal arrests and convictions or pending criminal charges against candidates that could place the company at some future risk.
  • False personal, educational and career information that disqualifies the candidate from employment with your organization.
  • Patterns of criminal or unlawful behavior, workers’ compensation claim fraud, or other employment related incidents that harmed previous employers.
  • Poor credit or financial history that could indicate a candidate is not suitable to work with sensitive financial information of your clients or as part of the job duties.

Benefits of a PEO Managing Employment Background Checks

It is important to note that employee background checks can and should be managed by a third-party, such as a professional employer organization (PEO) in order to keep this process fair and objective. This takes liability away from the hiring company or agent, reducing any claims of discrimination in hiring. A PEO in South Florida, New Jersey or Pennsylvania is authorized to conduct criminal background screens at the explicit request of clients who utilize them for payroll management.

Keep in mind that under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, it is unlawful to make a hiring decision based on credit history alone and that all candidates’ financial privacy must be carefully handled, giving them access to a credit report upon request by the PEO agency you choose.

The benefits of hiring a PEO to manage your pre-employment background checks include:

  • Reduced liability and ownership of criminal background check for your organization helps prevent claims of discriminatory hiring by candidates.
  • Candidates who fail to pass the background screen can be communicated to directly by the professional employer organization, which takes pressure off your human resource team.
  • Faster access to affordable background screening solutions at pre-negotiated terms reduces unnecessary expenses to your recruitment budget, and saves time.

Managing the various complex aspects of running employee background checks is oftentimes best handled by using a PEO outsourcing model, instead of dealing with this in-house. Find out more about the employee background screening service options your organization has by contacting SourceOne Partners for PEO solutions in Boca Raton, Florida and Brick, New Jersey. Call us at 561-674-0748 or contact us online for your quote.