Why Employee Background Checks Are Essential for Your Business

As a business owner, it is important to secure your investment by hiring employees with good conduct. However, finding such help is not easy. Fortunately, with the ever-developing business world, you can now do a background check and ensure you get the most reliable employees. 

Don't fret! An employee background check isn't stalking. It merely involves ensuring you don't hire the wrong people. 
Here's more about that:

IMPORTANCE OF BACKGROUND CHECKS

Conducting a background check on employees can help prevent fraud. For instance, you can hire an individual with falsified education or reference information. 
Besides, it helps secure your business and other employees. Suppose you hire someone with a criminal record, with serious convictions relevant to your business. For this reason, it's important to ensure that your background check is thorough and leaves no stone unturned. 

Why Conduct Background Checks 

Prevalently, doing a background check on potential employees is vital. Here are the main reasons why you should do a background check before employing an individual:

• To boost productivity by hiring qualified staff.
• To uphold your business's good image and reputation
• To avoid safety and harassment issues.
• To prevent criminal behavior in the workplace, like theft. 

Find a Private Investigator Who Offers Nationwide Background Checks

Private investigators who offer nationwide background checks have offices in multiple locations. Some even work with licensed local operators who understand jurisdictional laws better than out-of-state investigators. This extensive reach and collaboration can help you know more about a person without waiting months or years. You can hire such PIs through a Google search, yelp, or social media search. A nationwide background check costs between $1,200 and $3000 but actual fees may vary based on case specifics.  

Benefits for Individuals 

Background checks are beneficial for individuals and businesses. Here are some of those benefits:

Safety 

Background checks ensure that you as an individual remain safe, even though it's in your workplace or home. Knowing the kind of people surrounding you helps you better prepare in case of anything. Therefore, if you are certain that your employer did a comprehensive background check on your fellow employees, you can feel safe. 

Better Workflow 

A better workflow occurs if the person hired is skilled for the job. For instance, when the employer hires a professional driver, you can be sure they can make deliveries on time without any issues. 
On the other hand, if the person hired for the driver position doesn't know how to drive, it will inconvenience other people in the workplace, precisely if they're hired to be personal drivers. 

No Alcohol / Drug Abuse 

Picture yourself working with an individual who carries alcohol or other drugs to the office. This can be very inconvenient, leaving everyone in the office uncomfortable and, at times, unable to work. 
A background check will help reveal such information before the applicant is hired. This way, you can have a drug-free working area. 

Benefits for Companies 

Companies can benefit immensely from background checks, and the main benefits include:

Decreasing Staff Turnover 

Training new employees can be expensive, and you cannot be certain that everyone will do their job right even after the training. Therefore, the training can be a complete waste of money. 
However, a background check can help you find the most suitable and skilled applicant for the job. You can also check their work experience to determine their years of experience. 

Exposes Previous Workplace Issues

A good background check will expose any issues in the applicant's previous workplace, so you'll know what you're dealing with even before you hire the applicant.

Prevents Liability and Guarantees Due Diligence 

If someone has drug abuse issues, for instance, you cannot hire them to be a driver or work a heavy machine because they could injure themselves and others. This could lead to losses in the workplace and safety issues. 
However, these are issues you can know about after doing a background check.

Improved Productivity 

Double-checking the information an applicant has presented in their CV ensures that you weed out the unsuitable candidates. Moreover, this helps ensure that your workforce is as productive as possible. 

WHAT ARE BACKGROUND CHECKS?

A background check is a probe into a firm's or individual's past. However, when it comes to employee background checks, you have to follow the laws and regulations that are in place because of consumer privacy protection rights. 
For instance, a background check on a potential tenant or employee has to follow the guidelines given by the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act). This body makes it mandatory for the investigator to get the consent of the person they're probing before launching the background check process.

KEY FEATURES OF TOP SERVICES 

It's important to note that you shouldn't just pick any background-checking service. There are a handful of aspects to consider because not all agencies are equal. While it is important to do a background search, you should consider several variables, including data quality, response time, and cost. 

Essential Criteria for Selection

A good background search service provider will help you hire the most suitable people, keep your business's good reputation, and guarantee employer and employee safety. However, there are a myriad of options on the market, making the choice difficult. 
So, what considerations should you prioritize? Here they are:

Advanced Screening Capabilities 

A background search service provider would not be doing you justice if they did not provide as much information as possible. For instance, if someone lies about their education information, it is easy to know they're lying. On the other hand, not everyone can dig out this information if someone has a criminal record. 
This is because finding criminal records requires the background checker to dig very deep. Remember that some people have sealed records, so it will take high-ranking connections to uncover such information. 

Types of Background Checks

There are several types of background checks to ensure you hire the most suitable person. Here is a list of the different kinds of background checks and how they each impact the hiring process: 

Criminal History Checks

As the name suggests, this background check involves looking into a person's criminal record. This screening helps to ensure that the potential employee is competent.
Moreover, employers use their information to determine whether you threaten the company or employees before hiring you. 

Education Verification 

Like employment history screening, education, and credential verification, this type of background search ascertains that your employee has the right credentials for the job. It analyses public records and other relevant documentation, such as post-graduate degrees and high school diplomas, along with other documentation relevant to the person's education. 

Employment Verification

Like most employers, you have to double-check potential employees' employment history. While it is rare for employees to lie about the places they've worked previously, some risk it. 

This type of screening also helps you choose the employee with the best work experience, depending on your needs. So, for example, if you need someone with 5 years of experience, it's vital to ensure the person you hire fits the bill because some people have the title but not the necessary experience.  

Asset and Liability Search for Potential Tenants

In the interest of compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), landlords must obtain consent or a court order before doing an asset and liability search for their potential tenant. When given the green light, the search can be done legally to investigate whether the tenant is low risk or high risk for leasing. It’s just business. An experienced PI firm can help you protect your business by ensuring that you let to people or businesses that can afford to pay you on time.  Nevertheless, the data found during this investigation must be handled carefully to avoid potential lawsuits for privacy infringement.

COST OF BACKGROUND CHECK SERVICES FOR INDIVIDUALS AND BUSINESSES 

Hiring a professional background check service can be cheap or expensive, depending on how much information you want. Moreover, the company you hire will impact the cost because some firms are more expensive than others. Call us today for a free consultation.

COMMON RED FLAGS IN CHECKS 

As a background checker, you need to be careful not to deliver false information. Some people are sleek, not out of malice, but because they're desperate. Some will lie about small things in their CVs, like work experience and education, to improve their chances of employment. 

So, how will you sport these red flags? Here's more about that:

Identifying False Information

It is common for people to sugarcoat their CVs with a few lies here and there to get a job. Nonetheless, some lies, such as educational information and reference checks, can be spotted easily. However, this will only happen if you hire a reliable background-checking service. 

This is because professionals have the connections to dig deep and find information that is even hidden from the general public. For instance, criminal records are sometimes very hard to find, especially if the applicant committed the crime long ago. 

Recognizing Criminal Activity

While some applicants might be reformed criminals, knowing what you're dealing with is important. For instance, you can hire someone with a criminal record but hide sensitive company information from them. 

However, to know about someone's past, you need to hire a background check service that will check through a wide range of databases to expose any arrests, convictions, or other illegal activities. This way, you can make an informed decision about the applicant. 

It's vital to do a criminal background check on applicants to ensure your investment is safe and secure. Also, as an employer, you can avoid liability by not hiring people who can commit crimes in your workplace.

Generally, a criminal background search involves obtaining public records from multiple databases and departments, including sex offender registries, state repositories, and county courts. 

CONCLUSION 

As a business owner, hiring competent and skilled workers is essential to ensure maximum productivity. This is where a background check comes in handy; it provides critical information about the applicants, including their education and work history. This information helps you make an informed decision and secure your investment. 
That said, make sure you choose a reliable investigator who will deliver quality results within a short period and at a reasonable price.