We have Clients who have shared their experiences in hiring employees for their company. The first line is “You wouldn’t believe what this employee did? We had no idea they were remotely engaged in that activity. They interviewed so well”.
Although we hate to hear this, we are very familiar with a hiring practice that does not include background research. With an unemployment rate as of July 2018 at 3.9% employers are finding it difficult to fill positions. And as a small business owner with less than 50 employees, health insurance to the employee is not a requirement, which makes the hiring process even more difficult for an employer.
As a result of just those two factors, employers tend to overlook one of the most crucial parts of hiring (background checks). As an Employer, after the interview, even if it went well and the perspective employee said all the right things, portrayed themselves in a professional manner, a background of their activities should be conducted.
It would cost the company far less time and money to conduct a background check then to hire and train an employee just to have to repeat the process in the future. Identity theft is also a factor in the hiring equation. There was a situation where a company called upon us to conduct a check on an individual they had already hired with a start date in two weeks. The employee was well versed in their field but had a criminal history he claimed was due to identifying theft and adamantly stated the charges were being corrected by his attorney.
After reviewing the documents he provided to our Client, it was determined he had fraudulently changed the court records on his copy to reflect his innocence. From that search, we determined he had made the changes and even signed the Judge’s name to them. He had reported he had been abroad when actually he was serving time in prison for embezzlement from his previous employer. When our Client brought the employee into his office to discuss our findings, the employee acted as if it was all a mistake and showed no emotion to the truth.
A background check could be as simple as verifying the social security number and date of birth, a criminal, and civil litigation search and run a driving history; to a more in-depth search verifying past employment, reference checks, credit history, and social media research. Don’t take a chance on hiring the wrong person and put yourself and your company at risk.
Brenda McGinley ~ CEO,
