What Why and How of Background Checks A Useful Guide for Staffing Agencies

Background checks are one of the pre-employment requisites to prevent bad hires.

About 96% of employers conduct at least one background check on eligible candidates. It determines if the candidate is honest and fit to work in the organization.

Besides, background checks also help create an idea about the employee’s ethical and moral values. Employee thefts are a common phenomenon in the industry. It costs companies about $60-120 billion every year. About 30% of businesses fail due to employee theft. Running a check on the candidate’s background can help reduce the chances of such mishaps.

But not all checks are efficient enough to understand the candidates and their intentions completely. One has to run thorough checks through different sources to assess their employability. As a staffing agency, you should do everything to prevent such issues in your client’s organization because a bad hire like this can have a serious impact not only for the client organization but for your reputation as well.

How to run background checks
Every staffing agency must consider checking a candidate’s background for criminal records, e.g., thefts, sexual assault, harassment, and the likes. Credit records should also be checked to get an idea about the candidate’s financial status. Apart from these, you may consider checking driving records for the history of accidents and insurance claims. Last but not least, you may need to get actual, verifiable documents on educational and professional qualifications, citizenship, etc.

If need be, you can choose to outsource the task of investigating agencies for covert missions. The background of the candidate must be crystal clear for such roles to prevent catastrophic situations. You may have to invest a good deal in running these checks, but the results will be worth it.

However, all checks should be legally compliant, as they are regulated by state and federal laws, like the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It deals with the collection of credit information of potential employees to evaluate their employability. It protects the rights to privacy of candidates, as well as prevents negligent hiring.

Now, let us give you some general ideas to run successful background checks. Scroll on!

Have a strategy in place
It is unwise to run checks on candidates’ backgrounds without a proper strategy. You may need a documented chart to decide what to check first and how. Haphazard checking may fail to give the results you seek. They may also make the process more complicated by involving legalities. You also need to create a robust plan to ensure that the checks comply with all the regulations.

Examine the resumes
A resume serves as the first impression of the candidates and reveals a lot about them. Nearly 54% of resumes have inaccurate information, and 95% of them have falsified facts. In a difficult market, the candidates tend to exaggerate facts on their resumes to get the job. One way to find out the truth is by asking questions about exact circumstances in the interview. The hiring managers should note if the candidate is elusive or concise with their reasons. If they tend to beat around the bush and talk unnecessarily, you can identify their lies.

Ask for references
You may learn a great deal about a candidate from the references they share. You can go the extra mile and talk to the previous employers. Most candidates, who have something to hide, will refrain from giving the previous employer’s details. They may provide the references of colleagues, who are on good terms. So, go ahead and run a check by contacting the previous employers and clients for contractual employees.

Consider social media
These days, people tend to put everything on social media. If you run a thorough check on someone’s profile, you can guess a lot about their personal, moral, ethical values, preferences, likes, and dislikes. You may also get an idea about what others think about them. However, while doing the social media background check, ensure that the screenings are FCRA compliant.

Seek legal advice
As mentioned earlier, you need to know if you are breaking any rule by running checks on a candidate. It is better if you can seek professional help in this matter. Know about the regulations and find out the best ways to run involuntary checks as well. While the voluntary checks can be pre-planned, it is the involuntary ones that bring out the truth. Getting legal advice will prevent you from committing any mistake in that.

You may also need a plan for ‘adverse actions’ after running a check on any candidate. What if you find something suspicious but not disclosable? Before you begin the disqualification process, you need a concrete strategy to answer the candidate’s questions and resolve disputes if they raise any. If things go according to the plan, you may have a hassle-free exit without raising any doubt in their minds.