5 Reasons Why Pre-Employment Background Checks Are So Important

Why are background checks and reference checks so important? It’s the most frequent question many employers have asked over the years. Well, it goes without saying whenever your company needs to hire employees for the open work positions, you perform several tasks. For example, publishing the job description, sifting through the applications, filtering the candidates, scheduling the in-person interviews, etc. 

With these steps, you probably feel that you get a bird’s eye view of the potential employee’s suitability and capability. But, before you say, ‘You’re selected,’ some due diligence is yet to be performed! You can’t ignore the usefulness of a background or a reference check. It allows you to talk to a professional about how well a candidate performed at work. No matter what your industry is, here are the five reasons why conducting a background check is pivotal

Lets You Know The Potential Employees Better

It’s pretty common that the job applicants put a great performance in the interview. Many of them try to act in a way they think the recruiter or hiring manager will appreciate. But, is he/she genuine or just pretending to be the ‘best suitable person’ for the position?

A critical examination of the candidates via a pre-employment background check helps you to determine whether they are actually suitable for the job. It involves speaking with the employers to verify the job-sensitive information, know the work style of the candidate, and evaluate their strengths or weaknesses. Thus, you know better about the person’s behavior and true personality.

Determine The Honesty Of The Candidate

Beyond verifying the professional experience and qualifications of the candidate, there is much more to the background checks. A reference check is a huge part of the background screening process. This means identifying the true worth of the candidate beyond paper.

Some candidates may be lying to you. Sometimes, the lies are as small as tweaking the date or job title on the CV. However, sometimes they are big, such as lying about the skill set, or past criminal activities.

A thorough background check helps you know which candidates are honest. It may include checking with the educational institutions to ensure that the applicant has degrees or certificates he/she claims.

Make sure to keep the background checks job-related. Also, know the employment laws that apply to the reference checks, as well as interviews.

Flag The Criminal Convictions In The Candidate’s History

The most obvious reason for conducting the background checks is to determine if the candidate has any criminal history. However, criminal activity isn’t always relevant to the candidate background screening process. Sometimes, the criminal charges are minor or irrelevant to the work position.

For example, suppose your potential employee has a 10-year old drug charge. If he/she suits the job role, such charges shouldn’t have much impact on your hiring decision. However, if they have a history of violent crime, dishonesty, untrustworthiness, they aren’t suitable to be hired.

Whatever the case is, the hiring manager needs honest information to make an educated, worthy decision.

Keep The Existing Workforce Honest

Background grounds are not only meant for hiring new candidates. It’s worth running these checks on the existing employees, too. No employee is going to inform you or the boss of being convicted in a crime. Whether it is drug abuse, theft charge, drink-driving, or a sexual assault, revealing any criminal act would cost them their job.

If you mandate regular background checks for your workers, they will be honest about any new criminal act on their record. It lets them know that the company will reveal any of their criminal charges, sooner or later. Thus, they choose to be honest. This honesty and accountability is a good thing for your business.

Help You Save Time And Resources In The Long Run

Many employers put off the idea of background screening because they will have to spend money to run them. But, background checks help you save time, as well as the company’s resources in the long run. By weeding out unsuitable candidates, or the ones with a dangerous criminal history, you minimize the chances of your company being held responsible for a mishap. Not to mention, such incidents can lead to costly lawsuits and prove detrimental to your business. 

Besides, background screening helps you make the right hiring decisions and reduce turnover-related costs. Thus, keeping away with all such situations via an inexpensive background check is a wise decision. 

Start your first background check for free at Veremark.com and get honest insights on your new hires!

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