If you’re an employer, you should be sure to include a comprehensive background check as part of any hiring decision. Why is this important? You’ll fill in the gaps about a candidate’s background and history that isn’t on their resume and you’ll help protect your business and current employees. Let’s look a little closer.
1. Ensure candidate quality – Running a comprehensive background check helps you ensure that your candidate really does have the certifications and credentials they’ve stated. When you have a background check, you can have peace of mind that what the candidate represents about themselves is accurate and true.
2. Keep your workplace safe – This ensures your candidate’s record is clean of both personal crimes (stalking, sex offenses) and corporate crimes (fraud, insider trading). This not only protects your business but also protects the safety of your other employees.
3. Prevent losses – A background check helps you rule out candidates with a history of crimes that would impact your bottom line such as theft or financial crimes. For example, you wouldn’t want to hire a candidate to handle financial details about your business if they have a history of financial crimes or theft. Doing so could seriously jeopardize your business’s bottom line.
4. Avoid negligent hiring liability – Failing to perform comprehensive background checks on all of your employees could put you in hot water. If a new employee were to cause some form of harm, theft or injury to an existing employee, your business could be held liable. Avoid this liability by performing background checks on all employees.
5. Preserve your reputation – Your business’s reputation is everything. It’s what allows you to attract top talent and earn the respect and patronage of the community. One negative incident can sully your reputation both with customers/clients and with potential new talent you’d like to add to your team. Performing a background check weeds out the bad apples before they ever have a chance to impact your good name.
Some employers might view running a comprehensive background check on every serious candidate or new employee as an unnecessary expense. The truth is that having that background check does so much to protect your business, your reputation, your other employees and your bottom line that not doing them is potentially too costly to your business. To learn more about what background checks entail and explore using them in your hiring practices, call Bulldog PI today.
