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Conducting a Background Check for Pre-Employment

Doing Your Due Diligence

Checking on potential hires is fraught with hazards, legal and otherwise. Get written consent, and make sure policies are consistently applied. A signed and dated application is a must; be clear that lying on the form is grounds for dismissal.

From:| By: Inc. staff

Background Checks
Most employers hire outside vendors to conduct criminal background checks. Federal and state laws limit the kind of information you may retrieve and how you use it. (For example, a criminal record is not by itself legal grounds for refusing employment.) Conviction records reside at courthouses around the country, so be wary of screeners who promise instant checks. …. Screeners can search anything from credit reports to workers’ comp filings as well, but the fees can add up. Limit searches to those that materially relate to the job—driving records if the position requires a lot of time in the car, for example.

For the entire article go to inc.com

If you haven’t been running background checks on your prospective employers, then you probably have been out of touch with either related news stories or fellow employers who have their more alarming stories to report. It is in this day an age almost mandatory that you have a preemployment screening program in place. With the pricing as low as it is, the background search is very effective in weeding out the better job candidates from the worst of them.

As a background checking service, Corra has had a fair share of new clients lapse into shock when they discover their prized employment candidate has lied about his criminal records search or neglected to tell them that his education verification would reveal he only attended school but never graduated. Granted, most candidates will pass their background screening with flying colors. But the ones who don’t? Do you still want to hire them? The axiom in this business is to ask if they lie about their background history, then what won’t they lie about up the road.

Read the papers. Scan the blogs. I’m sure you will see a number of stores where a very embarrassed company, school or non-profit organization has hired an employee who has embezzled before or fund raisers who have either skimmed or scammed the prior employers.

And then of course there are the sexual offenders. Some will show up on your state’s registry, and some have moved from somewhere else and have neglected to register, as they are mandated by law. Perhaps they wish to make a new start in life or keep discrete their past transgressions either to find employment or to prey on a new group of kids. Sex offenders can deflate the morale in a workplace faster than a ten penny nail can force the air from a beach ball. Your female employees will hate him, and your male employees will want to kill him.

This article is quite right in noting that you should run the background checks you deem most appropriate for that level of employment candidate. If you are not sure, then call a service like Corra, and we can help determine which searches best suit your employment needs.

Check them out before you hire.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.