Do I Need to Conduct Pre-Employment Background Check While Hiring?

With most businesses, hiring the right employees can mean the difference between a long lasting and successful operation and one that may have a harder time staying afloat. Reliable, detail oriented employees can unfortunately be hard to come by, meaning that your job when it comes to hiring new employees is to try and find the best fits for your company not only in the moment but also going forward. One way to make sure you’re hiring trustworthy people is by utilizing a pre-employment background check. While some people believe that these background checks are unnecessary, there are multiple benefits to them that will not only save you time in the hiring process when finding the right employee but also save you and your company money down the line.

Benefits of pre-employment background check

• It Limits Your Liability– Say you hire someone to be a driver for your company and after a few weeks they’re in a massive car accident that is widely reported, it then comes out that the person you hired had previously had DUIs on their record but because you didn’t have a background check run, your company now appears liable. Background checks are essential in eliminating this potential risk and liability and will help protect the image of your company at the same time.
• They Find the Right Employees– Full background checks give you a great idea of a person’s history. Everything from driving and arrest records to former jobs and performance are available to you to view, helping you to determine who can properly fill your company’s needs for each position. Professional references are a great start to learning about a potential employee but they can often times leave the bigger picture incomplete, background checks can help you in this regard find the right employee for your company.
• Keeps Employees and Customers Safe– In some instances you will interview people who have a criminal record with either violence or sexual assault a part of it, a background check will help you learn more about an interviewee that they may not readily disclose to you during an interview. This alone should make background checks essential as they can help keep both your employees and your customers safer. If a potential employee had a history of incidents like that and were hired without a background check being performed and with that information undisclosed, again, that can be a large liability to your company, not to mention an embarrassing and avoidable oversight in the event something should happen.



• Keep Your Workplace Drug-Free– Another important part of the screening process is determining any drug use or offenses of a potential employee. Keeping drugs out of the work environment is a top priority to most companies and for a variety of valid reasons, the main one being employee safety. If the task at hand is an important and potentially dangerous one, then having an employee on drugs is an extremely unsafe situation and can lead to needlessly dangerous situations.
• They Save Your Company Money– Background checks can tell you a lot about a person’s character and help you find the right employee for the position. This simple process can also add up to save your business tons of money over time, hiring a long-lasting employee will help you avoid constantly paying for training for new employees should the turnover rate be high or quality of employee be less than stellar. You’ll also save money when considering avoiding any legal actions should there be an incident with any new hire, not to mention the headaches and hassle that can come with subpar employees.

Conclusion

While pre-employment background checks aren’t a mandatory requirement, the myriad of benefits that they can save you in terms of time, stress and money make them extremely beneficial. By screening employees a bit more thoroughly and learning more about them than what an interview and references may tell you, background checks provide a fuller picture of a person and will help you determine if they are the right, long-term solution for your business, not to mention the peace of mind they provide to employers, employees and customers alike, offering a greater sense of security while showing that the company truly values and cares for their employees.

Please follow and like us: