The Best Time To Complete Employment Screening Background Checks During The Hiring Process

As you begin to hire new employees, it’s essential to complete employment screening background checks.

Hiring employees is a time consuming task, especially if you want to do a thorough job of it to try to ensure that you get the right person in your company. When doing employment screening background checks, you must be careful to follow all of the local and federal laws on the matter in order to avoid a lawsuit from a job candidate. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) sets forth guidelines that help employers follow proper procedures in order to complete an individualized assessment prior to disqualifying a job applicant. Many cases of discrimination have gone to court due to companies not following the law.

86% of employers use employment screening background checks

You don’t want to hire a cashier who has a criminal record of credit card fraud because of the risk that it possesses to your customers and the temptation it provides for the employee. Likewise, if you’re operating a child care facility, you don’t want the caregivers whom you hire to have a history of child abuse. In a 2012 survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, it was discovered that 86 percent of employers use employment background checks. The majority of employment background checks include a criminal background check, which can help to weed out a candidate who is not a good fit for the position that you are offering due to his/her criminal history.

Background checks should either be completed before you offer a job to a candidate or a conditional offer can be made pending the results of the background check.  By doing so, if something negative appears on his/her employment background check, you can then pause the hiring process with the applicant and take appropriate action.  Some companies make the mistake of hiring job applicants before doing appropriate background checks.

So as you consider your next hire, remember that it is very important to do a background check for the safety and security of your company, but be sure to do it in a way that is legal and non-discriminatory.