Nov 18 2015 4 Reasons to Run an Employment Background Check
How well do you know your new hires?
Hiring has become a more complicated process with each passing year. There’s more legal liability, hiring concerns, and other issues for HR managers to juggle. Fortunately, you’ve got a tool handy that will tell you both about potential employee issues and just who might be right for the job; the employee credit check.
To Find Only Serious Applicants
Even with the job market the way it is, we’ve all had the experience of getting an obviously fake resume or an applicant who is, for whatever reason, simply not worth the time. Requiring a credit check will create more of a hurdle for them to jump over, and keep away the applicants who can’t do the job. That said, make it clear that the credit check is only one aspect of the hiring process; you don’t want good applicants working to get back on their feet to pass you by.
To Find The Right Employee
It’s true that not every job requires some sort of credit check, although every employee should have a background check, regardless of role, to protect you from liability. But in many situations, a credit check will help you find the right employee for the job. While you should be careful about hiring from, or not hiring from, any type of check, credit history can often indicate which applicant has the more stable personal life, and thus will be the more reliable employee.
To Protect Company Funds
The most common use is for employees who directly handle money, or may have access to corporate accounts. Embezzlement and fraud are issues at the forefront of every company’s mind; not a month goes by without a major embezzlement being reported, with thousands and sometimes even millions of dollars lost. As a result, it’s a good idea to know the financial situation of whoever is handling company money; even good people can be driven to bad ideas when they’re desperate.
In fact, not doing so could land you in court if someone else’s money disappears. If it can be proven you hired somebody more likely to embezzle than another candidate, you might wind up accused of “negligent hiring” by a client, and face a long, hard battle in court.
To Trust, But Verify
Don’t give the keys to your success to just anyone.
The most important reason to run it, though, is to check against what you’re being told on an application and in an interview. Credit reports contain far more information than just what their current financial situation is; it also tells you past addresses, for example, and allows you to check their claims against a factual record.
It should be said there are limits to what you can learn about any applicant from a credit check, and you have to view that information judiciously. A credit check should be just one aspect of a thorough look at the background of any potential employee, from checking their references to examining their background in other areas. You also have legal obligations on both the state and federal level to be aware of and to follow. But if you need a strong indicator of who you’re hiring, start with a credit check.
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