Pre-Employment Background Checks: Why They Matter

Posted on: 12 October 2022

Pre-employment background checks are an important part of the hiring process. And while it can be time-consuming to conduct these checks, it's definitely worth it in the long run. Here's why pre-employment background checks matter and how to conduct them. 

They Can Protect Your Business from Potential Lawsuits

Background checks can help you avoid potential lawsuits down the road. For example, say you hire an employee without conducting a background check, and they end up hurting someone on the job. If it's found that you didn't do your due diligence in hiring this employee, you could be held liable in a lawsuit. You could be sued for negligent hiring. On the other hand, if you had conducted a pre-employment background check, you would have known about this employee's history of violence and could have made a different hiring decision.

If you work in a field where you will be handling other people's personal information, it's even more important to conduct pre-employment background checks. That's because if an employee with a criminal background steals someone's information, your company could be held liable. Your lack of a pre-employment background check could be seen as negligence on your part. Negligence lawsuits can be expensive and time-consuming. You'd also have to deal with the negative publicity that would come along with such a lawsuit. So, it's definitely in your best interest to conduct pre-employment background checks.

They Can Help You Avoid Hiring Incompetent Employees

A pre-employment background check can tell you a lot about a potential employee. For example, if an employee has a history of job hopping, that's something you'll want to know about before you make a hiring decision. Job hopping can be a sign of incompetence or poor work ethic.

You'll also want to know if an employee has any gaps in their employment history. Those gaps could be a sign that the employee was fired from their previous job. And if that's the case, you'll want to know why they were fired.

In addition, pre-employment background checks can tell you if an employee has lied on their resume. For example, suppose an employee claims to have a college degree, but your background check reveals that they never actually graduated. Or, say, an employee claims to have worked at a certain company for five years, but your background check reveals that they only worked there for two years. If an employee lies on their resume, that's a red flag. It shows that they're not trustworthy. And you definitely don't want to hire someone who's not trustworthy.

Conducting pre-employment background checks can help you avoid hiring incompetent employees. And that can save your company a lot of time and money in the long run.

Contact a local company to learn more about pre-employment background checks.

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