Honesty is supposed to be the best policy right? Unfortunately, numerous people abuse that adage and lie on many details including those on job applications. That is why companies more and more are resorting to the employee background check. A lot of time and money is spent hiring and training a new employee, so companies want to make sure that investment in a new hire will pay off for them. An employee background check would set the company’s mind at ease.
There are many opportunities for a job applicant to lie, whether it is on their resume or making up job references. With an employee background check, a company can verify whether or not the information on the job applicant’s resume is accurate. What the employee background check will also do is find out if that potential employee has ever been convicted of a crime, served time in jail and even verifies that your social security number matches who you say you are. In some instances, that employee background check will delve into your credit history and driving record on file with the Department of Motor Vehicles in your state of residence.
Some people might object to having their credit and driving histories subject to intense review by a prospective employer and that is definitely a legitimate complaint. However, certain jobs do require that intense scrutiny in your credit and driving history. If a job applicant is interviewing for a position at a bank or other financial institution where handling money is a daily routine, that credit history obtained through an employee background check could be a good indication of how a potential employee would handle someone else’s money. By the same token, if a company is hiring bus drivers or drivers that can handle an eighteen-wheeler, wouldn’t you want someone with a clean driving record? By obtaining an employee background check with this information, you are not only considering safety but also the possibility of lawsuits.
Employers must inform the job applicant that they will perform an employee background check. Legally, there should be a separate document from the job application that a prospective job applicant fills out to authorize this employee background check. It is important to know that if employers are going to delve into credit histories, they have to be upfront and inform a person in writing if they were rejected for a job because of their credit history.
Another part of the employee background check is the verification of personal and business references given by the prospective job applicant. Personal references, of course, most likely will give the “rose-colored glasses” view of the job applicant. So while personal references can be useful, a decision to hire or not hire someone should not rest on those recommendations. However, an employee background check into business references are important in determining a prospective employee’s work ethic, whether they work better alone or as a team, their salaries and even how fast they were promoted.
In this day and age of increased criminal activity, especially white collar crimes, it would be almost, well criminal, NOT to run an employee background check. Spending the money now will likely save a company thousands of dollars in the future on lawsuits.
Matthew Bass of BackgroundCheckFAQ.com provides more recommendations and information on Tenant Background Checks that you can research at your leisure on his website.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matthew_Bass