Performing a background check on any prospective employee is absolutely essential to building the company environment you hope for. The process provides detailed information on the applicant to ensure the safest and most reliable hire, possible. Today, it is commonly practised by most companies but, it is still not standard practice across all companies which can have severe repercussions in the longer term. Understanding the importance of background checks, when to use them and how the workplace environment can benefit from them, is vital to any employer.

Here are 7 benefits to doing background checks to help you better understand them:

1.Maintaining Quality

Maintaining the quality and standard of your hiring practices is crucial to sustaining a productive and secure workplace. Requiring background checks in an application will likely dissuade a candidate, with something to hide, from applying. Implementing these kinds of screening procedures can improve the quality of your hiring practices as well as applicants. Keeping the unqualified ones out of the application pool – saving you time and money.

2.Reduced Costs

Having to reverse a new hire because of a missed detail in their past can increase your turnover rate and will increase your costs. Recruiting, hiring, employee training, wages and benefits are all expected expenses when hiring a new employee that becomes extremely costly to do two or even three times.

Background checks prevent the hiring of dishonest or previously criminal employees which can lead to expensive financial and disreputable, social consequences:

• Higher insurance premiums
• Employee turnover
• Increase in theft
• Absenteeism
• Increase in accidents
• Increase in workers compensation claims
• Decreased employee productivity

3. Workplace Safety

A safe and secure environment is critical to any workplace. Background checks on your potential – or current – employees are a simple step that ensures employer upholds the safety and compliance standards of the company. Background checks are not always but, should be performed regularly, even on long-term employees, to make sure everyone working for the company follows its policies.

Different industries have different requirements and that includes the positions within those industries. Ensuring an employee is suitable and capable of performing a job is especially important in safety-sensitive positions or positions that involve handling confidential, company material. Industries where this type of trust is widely needed are:

• Medical
• Accounting
• Transportation
• Education
• Engineering
• Industrial (e.g. Energy, Oil & Gas, Chemical)

4. Minimise the Risks and Liabilities Associated with Negligent Hiring

It is an employer’s responsibility to ensure the safety and compliance that they need to sustain in their business. They are held legally, professionally and financially accountable for everything they know – and do not know – about an applicant when hiring them and to not unsettle the security of their already-existing employee base.

Industries with safety-sensitive positions are, especially important, as workers can pose risks to themselves and to those around them. For the impact it can have on your business or your clients; employers must take special care when hiring someone in these positions, which is where background checks are tremendously helpful. All this will limit the risks and liabilities associated with making potentially negligent hires.

5.Reduce Turnover

One of the most significant benefits to performing consistent, comprehensive background checks is reducing your turnover rates. Gathering more information on an applicant is key to safe, effective screening procedures and hiring – and to determine if they are honest and trustworthy. In addition to reducing the risks and costs associated with a bad hiring; reducing turnover rates benefits the company by limiting the effort and time spent training that bad, new hire as well as keeping consistency in the workplace.

6.Maintain Compliance

Background checks help your company avoid any unnecessary fees, fines, lawsuits and risks. This is done by remaining compliant in your hiring practices as well as respecting the legal and professional rights of any applicant that an employer is considering. Maintaining compliance with your local labour rules and regulations, not only protects current employees but, protects the wellbeing of your company as a whole. Meeting their requirements may include:

• Providing an approved reason to conduct any kind of background check (i.e., employment, credit, criminal, insurance, tenant screening, government license, court order, etc.).
• Offering a disclosure of your intent in a clear and obvious written document.
• Obtaining written authorisation released by your candidate to perform the background check.
• Following any established adverse action processes before rejecting the application of your candidate based upon the findings of the background check.

Adverse action protocols are an important part of complying with regulated hiring or dismissal procedures. The employer must provide a pre-adverse notice to their applicant informing them of a negative background check. The applicant is given the opportunity to dispute the findings before it disturbs the hiring process. An adverse action notice is usually sent thereafter, if the position is denied based on the background check.

7.Invest in Better Services

Hiring a firm to conduct your background checks makes the hiring of potential employees an easier and more secure process but, there are different services you can order. Employers need to determine whether an ‘instant’ or ‘comprehensive’ background check best serves the needs of your employment scheme to make smart, secure decisions.

Instant background checks

Instant background checks have two common, distinguishing features, they are: generally cheaper to obtain and advertised with an incredibly quick turnaround time. An instant background check is, more commonly, a simple criminal database search and gives employers surface level information that is commercially accessible. As a result, they have no official body or court to ensure the accuracy the information returned to you. Avoiding legal requirements, focusing on short turnarounds and accessing cheaper, simpler services; can leave your working environment vulnerable as your decision making is compromised by potentially inaccurate or incomplete information.

Comprehensive background checks

A comprehensive background check, on the other hand, offers employers reliable and accurate information gathered from trustworthy databases and using other industry-standard products or services – further verifying the accumulated data. Assuring that all the information collected aligns completely with the candidate or employee in question is foundational to maintaining a healthy and safe working environment.

A private investigator may be hired – as a specialist service – that coordinates with the agency, performing the background check to secure and validate all possible information or investigate incomplete data on the applicant. Mistakes in names, professional histories, criminal records or financial statements will create vulnerabilities and risk that your company cannot afford.

Predicting and accounting for potential risks involved can be avoided by maintaining good hiring standards and practices, that are made so much easier by acquiring specialised and comprehensive services. Empowering you to make the most informed decision possible when making a new hire.

Credited to:marisit