Policies and Practices for Background Checks and Pre-Employment Screening can Benefit Your Business

Background checks help thousands of businesses, schools, government agencies and nonprofit organizations make better decisions every day. Hiring and retaining qualified, trustworthy employees and volunteers can be critical to an organization’s success, and pre-employment screening – commonly called background checks – can help you attain your business goals.

Pre-Employment Screening and Background Checks

Background checks verify that a potential employee or volunteer has the required integrity for a position. Used effectively, a sustained background check program may also reduce turnover, deter theft, reduce liability and even prevent litigation over hiring practices. Many industries are recognizing the importance of background checks. For example, numerous insurers incorporate background checks into their process. In fact, a recent calculation showed that $43 in legal liability was saved for every $1 spent on background checks.

Although pre-employment screening and background checks are important; periodic screening is also vital to maintaining a dependable workforce free of unlawful behavior. For example, an employee or volunteer may pass initial criminal background checks, but later commit a criminal offense that would justify termination. Since companies and organizations can be liable for the behavior of its employees, volunteers and/or contractors, it is imperative that organizations periodically screen employees who have committed crimes.

To reduce the likelihood of an employment discrimination action, organizations should create a pre-employment screening policy rather than conduct background checks on a case-by-case basis.

The Checks and Balances of Conducting Background Checks:

It’s important to investigate a candidate or employee thoroughly and evaluate the information you receive from a background check provider. Make sure the information you use to select or deny an individual employee is based on fact and relevant to the position. In addition, a thorough background check should include a combination of national database and single-county searches.

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