We all know better than to hire or not hire someone based on their age, but it is important to understand the current trend Generation X employees are setting. It needs to become clear why running background checks are so important. There is a lot more that can be uncovered during pre-employment screening that might not be found during an interview.

The Generation X age range is the section of employees that have had ample time to get their college education – this includes Master’s and Ph D levels. They are also the ones that have years of experience in their field, but still might take a job for less money. This makes them a desirable hire for the current workforce.

However…

According to a recent poll about 44% of all jobs are held by a Generation Xer. Of those, 53% are completely disengaged and an additional 19% are so unhappy at their jobs they feel the need to make everyone else around them miserable too.

The flip side is that once hired, these employees tend to become very unhappy. That makes them more likely to perform poorly, or even starts to cross lines into employee theft.

Background checks help you evaluate potential risk. They can uncover high frequencies in job changes and possibly a trend that they might be leaving jobs quickly due to theft or other job related investigations. Background checks have a better potential to determine if there is a habit of theft of performance related issues than simply looking at an application.

To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547 

For most small businesses, employee background checks are a luxury that they do not have. Small business owners and managers usually have to manually review a multitude of paper applications.

The plus side is that you might end up with a paper resume with the application. I personally feel that you can see into an applicant’s personality better on a paper resume than through an online, standardized application.

Electronic resumes usually are amended to the website’s fonts and formatting. By seeing a paper resume, you know that everything was hand made by the applicant. This gives an insight into your applicant that cannot be tracked through an electronic employee background check.

You get to see more of their personality. Is the resume formal or personable? What type of paper was it printed out on- stationary or plain typing paper? How about a bright neon color paper with a crazy hard to read font? Did they bother to spell check and proof read their writing?

This type of pre-employment screening shows how well they take care of their things- and eventually yours. If an applicant comes in with a folder or binder that is protecting their resume, you can reasonably assume that they understand the difference between being professional and showing up with a crumpled or folded resume. That professionalism is insight into how they function.

No employee background checks can replicate that kind of advantage as a potential employer.

To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547 

Having a background check company run social security traces is a good way to have accurate pre-employment screening. Just because someone applies for a job and can provide a social security number does not mean that they own that number and are working in this country legally.

Let me make it clear that there is absolutely nothing wrong with hiring employees who are not natural citizens. Many are here legally and have the proper work visa or other documentation. It is simply a reality that there are some illegal immigrants who steal or borrow social security numbers to gain employment.

A background check company can conduct pre-employment screening that involves a social security number trace. This trace can be beneficial to your hiring process. No matter what an applicant says or shows you for proof, it is still the responsibility of the employer not to hire illegal immigrants.

If the trace shows something that seems suspicious like multiple employments in multiple states, or just simultaneous employments, you might need further research on this applicant. Law enforcement will need to be involved in any identity theft situations, even if the social security number’s owner’s credit or finances were not involved.

A background check company will know the steps to take if such a situation is uncovered through the course of their pre-employment screening. They will have your company’s best interest in mind when it comes to screening applicants.

To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547

While it is completely legal to conduct employee background checks, there are certain regulations that need to be followed. The biggest thing is complying with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. As an employer, there are a few points that relate specifically to what and how you can conduct this pre-employment screening.

In order to protect the employee, only certain outside people can have access to this person’s credit report. An employer is one of the people who have a legitimate need for this access. The Fair Credit Reporting Act calls this having a “valid need”.

However, this does not mean that as an employer you have carte blanche access to anyone’s credit report whenever you want.  To further protect the potential employee, they must give a written consent prior to you conducting a background check that involves their credit report.

Upon completion of the background checks, the employee has a right to know if they were declined employment based upon the information found within the report. This gives the employee an opportunity to determine the validity of the items reported. If there is an error, the employee has the right to have those items corrected and resubmit the report to the employer (you).

While it is in the hands of the credit reporting agencies to validate these disputes, they must still be completed within 30 days. Your applicant will probably tell you that the information is inaccurate, but a month’s time may go by before the applicant comes back with an updated report. This may delay the employee background checks ability to be redone. Don’t get too suspicious if you don’t hear back right away.

To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547 

Who would you rather have working for you? Someone who is responsible and alert? Or someone who is reckless with themselves and others? Yep, someone who is responsible is the ideal employee. Conducting a background check is a good way to decipher if an applicant is responsible.

If someone has been in criminal, financial or legal trouble, they have been reckless with themselves. For whatever reason, they did not hold themselves to a higher standard. By comparison, someone who has stayed out of trouble has been more responsible for themselves and their actions.

If a future employee has not proven to be responsible for themselves, why would we believe that they would miraculously be responsible with others?  An extension would be that they might not be diligent in protecting the store, your customers and your other employees from accidents.

Creating a safe work environment takes the responsibility of each and every employee in your business. They are the ones that will quickly respond to a spill or a wet floor. They will report or repair broken fixtures or ladders.

A background check won’t tell you who is a safe person, they will only tell you about the ones that have previously engaged in unsafe behaviors.  Pre- employment screening that shows results of violence or neglect are not employees who will generally create a safe environment.

There is a difference between not creating an issue and creating a safe environment. You want the employees who are going to take that extra step to keep themselves and everyone around them safe.

To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547 

It is about having all of the facts. The more information you have, the better qualified you will be to make the best possible decisions. Background check experts help give you those advantages. They help you discover if an applicant is telling the truth regarding their criminal activity.

Sometimes, an applicant may even admit to having a prior conviction, but they might down play what the actual conviction or offense was. That way they are being truthful about having a record, but are trying to make it sound better on paper than what it actually was. Ultimately you can now make that decision because you truly have all of the information to make that determination.

Maybe it’s just me, but if I was caught committing a crime that I was later convicted of, I would tell as few people as possible. In particular, if I were trying to get my life back on track, I would definitely try to avoid telling any potential new employer to try and get a better shot at being hired. That is why background check experts are a critical part of pre-employment screening.

These experts will conduct pre-employment screening on your applicants and determine if there is unreported criminal activity. They can tell you if this was something from the distant past, or recent repeat offenses.

Just because you find out (through the help of background check experts or the applicant’s honesty) that there was a conviction, does not mean you absolutely must reject that applicant. We built the correctional system based on the premise of rehabilitation. Some applicants will have learned their lesson and will not commit another crime.

To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547 

Do you know how much employee turnover costs? It might be more than you think. For a lot of small business owners, spending money on employee background checks and pre-employment screening seems counter productive when you are trying to enhance your profitability.

When you take a look at a bad hire, you are going to start incurring more monetary losses than what you initially bargained for. You hire a new employee with the intention that they will be proficient in their job after an introductory training period. Once they are up and running, they should be able to complete the assigned tasks of their job description within an allotted time period that maximizes your productivity and subsequent payroll goals.

If this hire is unproductive, or even worse begins to alienate customers, you will begin to decrease the leverage you might once have had by hiring this employee. You are now beginning to lose money by having them work for you.

Unfortunately, you can’t just bounce them to the curb. To avoid litigation, you have to have a disciplinary action plan where they are given the opportunity to find out that they are not fulfilling the required expectations of the job, and are given an action plan and time frame to complete their turn around.

This action plan may be repeated up to three or four times before the employee can be let go. In the mean time, you will continue to suffer losses from this employee.

Employee background checks help reduce these incurred costs by reducing the likely hood of hiring a bad employee from the beginning.

To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547

I am quite confident in my abilities and skills that have come from years of experience; however, I am not an expert in everything. I am also quite confident to know when I need to stop and ask for help. One of those areas is employee background checks.

I have found over the years, as a result of some bad hires, that I am not an expert in employee background checks. I am good at pre-screening and face-to-face interviews. But, after a few significantly bad new hire employees, I learned a very tough lesson about the importance of finding a background check company to conduct pre-employment screening and do a thorough investigation as part of the background check process.

It’s not only about taking the time to read between the lines when you interview someone for a job. It comes down to two things: time and resources. Neither of which I have much of as a manager and small business owner.

A Background check company will have both. They have the resources to really dig down below the surface of the background checks to find out anything that might be hidden, not disclosed or had happened in another jurisdiction.

They also have the time to properly evaluate the results that they uncover in their research. They can follow-up on information that might not be readily accessible, or might require additional investigation.

To purchase Pre-Employment Screening Services or for more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547