Employee Background Checks: For More Than Just Weeding Out Criminals
Author: Art Gib Date posted: Oct 23, 2008 Article views: 74 Wordcount: 537 Ezine Ready
These days, it is a fairly common practice for corporations and other employers to run employee criminal background checks. However, finding out whether someone has a criminal background isn't the only reason to run a background check on a job applicant.
Other types of background checks can and do include employment history and confirmation, credit history, driving record, and more. Why would you care to look into any of these items when considering a job applicant? Here are a few tips.
Employment History and Confirmation -- This is typically a very simple thing to check on. If an applicant says they worked somewhere, then calling their previous supervisor to confirm that fact as well as ask about their performance will provide you with an idea of the applicant's work ethic and whether or not they are telling the truth about their experience.
However, there might be more to the story than what you are being told. Are there any gaps in their employment history? If so, then it might be worth it to do an employment background check. The applicant might have decided to leave out a past employer because they left them on bad terms, were fired for incompetence, or some other reason that could affect your decision to hire them.
Credit Check -- What does how a person manages their personal finances have to do with how hard of a worker they'll be? Most of the time, very little. However, as a general rule if a person doesn't take care of their credit, then they probably aren't taking care of other aspects of their lives.
A credit check can give you a look into a person's level of responsibility. A credit check becomes even more important if the position you are hiring for will have the employee managing company funds or being issued a corporate credit card.
Credit checks are being used more and more often as a way to look into a person's habits and lifestyle, as these are things that can directly translate into the type of employee they will be.
Driving Record -- A check on a person's driving record is an obvious and expected check for anybody that is applying for a delivery position. However, if an employee will be doing any driving while on company time, then pulling up their driving record might be a good idea.
Since your company will be insuring an employee or will be otherwise responsible for them while they are "on the clock," anybody with a record of many accidents or several traffic tickets could translate into headaches for you.
The same holds true even if they won't be driving on company time. Someone who has a habit of performing traffic violations regularly could indicate an inability to abide by company policies and rules, not to mention the possibility of getting their driver's license suspended and creating problems for them being able to get to work on time.
While employee criminal background checks might seem like a no-brainer for any employer, the many other types of background checks can provide additional insight that you would otherwise not ever learn about until it's too late.
Triad Consultants (http://triadcon.com) is an employment screening provider offering employee criminal background checks for hiring managers and other employers. Art Gib is a freelance writer.
