What Makes Pre-Employment Background Checks a Necessity?

Pre-employment background checks serve two primary purposes: ensuring that a job candidate’s resume is truthful and accurate, and completing due diligence to understand criminal history that may pose a threat or danger to the hiring company.

Uncovering facts about a job candidate is no simple task in today’s world. While a potential hire may sound like a perfect fit for the company during the interview process, they could be hiding a host of negatives, including but not limited to:

• past criminal history
• lack of qualifications
• a poor driving record

This is why some employers mandate a pre-employment background screening before offering a candidate the position.

The consequences of inadequate screening of new hires could be costly or even damaging to a hiring company’s workplace and brand. To help avoid further complications, pre-employment screening should be carried out by an experienced, proven, and trusted background check provider.  Here are a couple of scenarios that could be avoided with the proper pre-employment background screening:

THE CANDIDATE IS NOT QUALIFIED FOR THE POSITION

If a job candidate is unable to perform the job for which they are applying, due to lack of necessary skills or experience, the employer may be stuck dealing with costly and time-consuming problems.

Hiring an under-qualified candidate could lead to an unsafe work environment and distrust among other employees. For example, if a retailer offers a position to a driver who is not properly licensed to operate large trucks, they could risk serious injury to themselves or others while that driver is on the job.

No matter how qualified a candidate appears—even those claiming a long list of applicable work experience pertaining to the offered position—the hiring company should always opt for a thorough pre-employment background screening to ensure the candidate is indeed being truthful.

THE CANDIDATE DOES NOT MEET THE COMPANY’S STANDARDS

In today’s competitive job market, hiring companies often receive an overwhelming number of applicants for each available position. For HR departments who are alreadystretched thin, advancing the wrong candidate to the final stages of the hiring is a very real possibility. Companies can even consider using a pre-employment background check earlier in the process to help eliminate unqualified candidates from the pool of possibilities.

Not only does a pre-employment background check help keep the hiring company, its assets, and its current employees safe, it helps build the employer’s reputation for accepting nothing but the best fit for their company for any given position.