Five signs your organization needs a pre-employment screening company

While there are plenty of websites that advertise “free” background checks and employment screening, those sites typically provide very little information, if any, that would be useful to an employer.

Simply, applicant information like this is not the kind of information you can find with just a quick click of the mouse. That’s why, once a company starts hiring, they usually partner with a pre-employment screening company they can trust to dig up accurate and current information.

If you’re on the fence as to whether you’re organization needs this type of partner, here are a few signs it may be time:

1. You hire people who are put in positions of trust

Employees with access to money, financial records, or databases can cause huge problems if they don’t turn out to be trustworthy.

It’s not just the direct consequences of any negative employee actions but also the long term ripples that may come with potential lawsuits, loss of workforce and, ultimately, the effect this might have on profits.

2. You don’t have a team member committed to knowing latest local, state, and federal regulations

Regardless of how meticulous you are, it’s incredibly difficult to stay abreast of all the regulations and legislation in place around employment screening.

For example, if you’re hiring a employee in San Francisco you need to make sure you abide by federal, the state of California, and the City of San Francisco employment screening regulations. Miss just one piece of one of these and you could be in grave trouble with the respective authority.

3. Bad hires have cost you in the past

We all make mistakes, and most employers will, at some point, make a hire that they regret. In fact, according to CareerBuilder, 75% of employers said they have hired the wrong person for a position.

These kinds of mistakes are avoidable, though, and certainly shouldn’t be repeated. Pre-employment screening companies tend to have the experience and expertise to reduce mistakes and improve the effectiveness of your hiring process.

4. Your employee turnover is high

Employment screening can go a long way toward helping reduce employee turnover. The process has been shown to reduce employee terminations due to theft, violence, and illicit drug use.

If you find employees coming in and leaving on too regular a basis, you should consider bringing in an expert to help you make the right decision the first time.

5. You have trouble finding accurate information on applicants

This is the hardest part. The truth is, there is no singular databases to search. Any background database is an aggregate of many different databases and none of them are all-inclusive. These databases become easily outdated or inaccurate as quickly as activities go unreported.

Furthermore, verification of local, state, and federal databases is another matter entirely. Many pre-employment screening companies, like us, have teams across the country (and even in other countries), allowing us to verify the accuracy of an individual’s background at the local level. Most companies don’t have the resources to be this detail-oriented in-house.

The number of companies outsourcing pre-employment screening has increased dramatically over the past decade or so as many businesses realize that expertise in this field is required to do it right.

For more information on how you can get started with a pre-employment screening policy, get in touch with our team of experts.