3 Pre-employment Background Screening Mistakes that shouldn’t be committed

by Thea Lewis Blogger

Nowadays, it is vital to conduct a pre-employment background screening because it is the best way to get an ideal candidate on board. There was a time when companies get honest and diligent employees so easily, but the table has been turned these days. It is so because most of the resumes that job seekers send to a company contain fake information, which consequently, leads to a bad hire.

To appoint the right candidate, global companies avail employment verification services of a reputed vendor. Unlike multinationals, small or medium-sized companies often prefer to run a pre-employment background check by themselves. However, they make some mistakes in the process that directly affect the business’s overall health.

With the help of below-mentioned pointers, we would tell 3 pre-employment background screening mistakes that you shouldn’t be committed. So have look:

1. Not taking the candidate’s permission

Generally, businesses that prefer to run a pre-employment background check by themselves make a silly mistake of not taking the job candidates’ permission. Owing to this, legal issues come out and result in mammoth financial loss.

According to FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) policies, companies can’t run a pre-employment background check until and unless they have the job applicant’s permission.

Furthermore, if the conducted pre-employment background screening results in disqualification, the employer has to explain the reason in a written letter. And if the job applicant feels that provided reason isn’t appropriate, he/she can file a case against the employer. This, again, can cost a big chunk of money.

Therefore, if you are an owner of a business and don’t want to face the negative consequences of pre-employment background screening mistakes, avail employment verification services from any reputed vendor as soon as possible.

2. Not appointing candidates owing to criminal history

After getting the nod from job applicants, when companies run a pre-employment background check, they solely put their focus in finding out the criminal history so that the problem of employee theft wouldn’t arise in the later stages. From the business’s perspective, this seems absolutely correct.

But the blunder that business owners often commit is not selecting job candidates after bringing the hidden criminal history to light. Because of this, legal issues come out and make a big negative impact on the business’s bottom line.

“Why do legal issues take place if the employer isn’t appointing the candidate that has a criminal history?”

Well, the major reason behind that is EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) policies that say the employer can’t reject the candidate (who possess criminal history) until and unless the nature of conviction is directly connected to the nature of the job.

So, if you have found that a potential employee has a criminal history after running a background check, consider these factors before making a hiring decision:

· The type of crime.

· Assess whether the committed crime is related to the business or not.

· The time duration that has been passed since the crime was committed.

3. Ignoring the social media background check

While running a pre-employment background check, companies often put their focus on checking the information that potential employees had mentioned in their resume such as academic achievements, work experience, etc. From the business’s perspective, this is really a good approach.

But the most cited mistake that companies generally do is ‘Not conducting a social media background check.’ This always creates problems for the business’s brand image in the later stages. It is so because employees have always been the face of any company, and if they don’t behave themselves online then somewhere a business’s reputation comes to question.

Hence, if you are a business owner and all set to take a hiring decision, make sure that potential employee’s social media accounts are free from inappropriate photos, offensive comments, disrespectful statuses, etc.

Don’t know how to conduct a social media background check? Avail employment verification services from an established BPO company.