When a company is seeking to fill a vacant position, the search for the right employee may seem to take a long time. Therefore, once the perfect candidate is found, it may seem easy to simply select and onboard them. With that being said, that final interview should not be the stopping point in the hunt for the right candidate. A background check is a necessary part of hiring a new employee.
Though it is becoming more common for small to mid-sized businesses to skip a background check, doing so opens a company up for potential injuries. For that matter, background checks should not be handled in house, where they may be subject to the human error that comes with amateur screenings. Rather, third party employment verification services offer avenues for employers to screen candidates and employees before and after they’re hired. With that being said, let’s looking into how employment screening services allow companies to maintain their security while selecting the best possible candidates for their open positions.
The Risk Behind Skipping Background Checks
Professional background checks conducted by employment screening services can reveal a lot about potential employees that would otherwise fall to the wayside. This is one of the reasons why upwards of 90% of companies recognize that screening candidates prevents threats posed towards not only the companies themselves but existing employees. Although most potential hires are perfectly safe, some could potentially be threatening, which is something that they obviously would not indicate on their job applications. Even if a potential hire has been referred to you by a seemingly trusted source, that source may not know everything about the new hire. Even if these potential employees do not mean any harm, that doesn’t mean that they don’t pose risks. It’s estimated that drug and alcohol abusers are responsible for 20-25% of workplace incidents. These people are also three times more likely than others to report a workplace accident, and five times more likely to apply for workers’ compensation. While drug and alcohol abuse cannot be found through a simple search, professional employment screening services can often uncover issues like these, as well as more worrying concerns such as criminal records.
The Reality of Falsified Resumes
Employment screening services are not merely used to look up potential criminal records or similar issues. They can also uncover whether or not a candidate — or even an employee that has already been hired — has falsified their job history. It’s estimated that about 50% of potential hires falsify or embellish their resumes; which, at first glance, may not seem like much of an issue. However, when someone lies on their resume that person is essentially depriving the company of the opportunity to hire a better candidate. For that matter, the chosen candidate’s ineligibility for the job could ultimately lead to them having a poor job performance. This will bring the company’s standards down at large.
The Advantage Of Using A Third Party Verification Service
Although background checks can be procedure individually, this process is lengthy and more expensive than it would be if a company simply managed their employee background checks through a third party employment screening service. For that matter, there is no risk of a third party employment verification service being biased in any way. A third party employment verification services processes quick results based on proven methods, which means that employers can be confident in what they yield.
A candidate embellishing or falsifying their resume may be a big issue in the long term, or a small one. Some candidates may fudge a few dates on their resumes, and in turn some employees may not view this as a major problem. However, it is nonetheless unethical, and employers need to be able to make informed decisions. This will help them hire the best possible candidates for the jobs, with the best possible results in the long term.
