It does not make a difference if you are conducting background checks for a new employee or a current one. The question remains the same – what are your resources compared to those of background check experts?

I would start by asking myself what is the time frame that I am working under? The next question I would need to ask is what are the other commitments that I have for that same time frame?

If you are like most of us, we rarely are tasked with a single item at a time. There are ongoing issues to be dealt with, reports to run or create, stores to operate and sell in… You get the idea.

So I will ask again. What is the time frame that I am working under? The answer is that it is a very slim time frame. I probably don’t have a lot of extra time to run background checks twice. I am also probably only going to skim the surface of background checks. As long as nothing completely egregious shows up, I will be satisfied.

Now let’s ask those same questions of background check experts. How much time do they have to run those same checks? Do they have the time and or other resources to run a more in depth check? Can they run background check a second time if there is an error, or if something didn’t show up properly?

I would safely answer yes to those questions.

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

As a retail security manager, I have had the pleasure of working with some of the best companies out there. I have also had the misfortune of working with some of the worst, especially when it comes to pre-employment screening.

It’s not that these companies were bad, it was more about the resources they had available to conduct the employee background checks.

I noticed a significant difference in several areas depending on how thorough the pre-employment screening was. One of the biggest areas of difference was in turnover rates. The companies who spent the time and resources to conduct a more thorough background check ended up with employees who seemed to stay longer. Their retention wasn’t centered on the employees’ happiness; it was more specifically about the termination rate by management of their poor performing employees.

I also noticed that there was a higher rate of inventory discrepancies and unexplained cash shortages in those stores and companies who did not spend time on pre-employment screening.

Most people who have a spotty background or work history have a way of sniffing out companies who do not run employee background checks, or who do not call for references. This puts those companies and stores at a higher risk for poor performance, excessive absences, and ultimately a higher risk of cash and merchandise theft.

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 

My brother recently graduated from business school. He went back to school a little later in life, nevertheless, we were all so very proud of him. Even better, he had been offered an ideal job right after graduation. How many of us can say that in this tough economy! Everything seemed to be coming up roses until his pre-employment screening results came back.

His potential employer had not used a reputable background check company to run their pre-employment screenings. In fact, they didn’t use a background check company at all. They used an in house program to search through the internet databases to get their results from the background check.

Well, his pre-employment screening turned up criminal hits from a state he had never even visited. Because of this, he had received communication from the employer that his job offer was being rescinded due to the results. 

After much discussion and secondary verification, the problem was solved. When they ran the background check, they had only used his name and date of birth. There was a match to someone meeting these very limited search qualifications, and thus the problem started. After they used additional information like his driver’s license and social security numbers (and matching up his photo id to the mug shot on file) they were able to verify who my brother really was, and who he was not.

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 will grudgingly admit that I was duped. I had an acquaintance one time that was completely different than what I had first believed her to be. It was one of the few times that I wish I could have run a criminal background check for someone in my personal life.

I had been out with friends and was introduced through a mutual friend. She was very energetic and outgoing and we hit it off immediately. She had moved several times over the years, so she had many stories to tell of all the places she had been. That should have been my first clue to dig a little deeper.

She bounced around from laborer job to laborer job. This was another red flag because these are jobs that typically do not conduct pre-employment screening. Anyway, she was my friend so I didn’t question it much.

What I did start to notice was that she started to drink more and more frequently. Over the next few months, she began drinking so much that she lost her job, her car, and most of her friends.

As it turned out, she had always had a drinking problem. She also had several run-ins with the law. All of which she tried to hide by moving frequently and sticking to jobs that didn’t conduct criminal background checks. The last I saw her, she was moving (out of state) again, and I am sure she never changed, but continued to play her game of hide and seek with her past. I shudder to think of the mistake her next employer will make. If her closest friends didn’t know the truth, her boss surely won’t stand a chance.

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 ran into an interesting situation the other day involving background checks, specifically an employee background check, not pre-employment screening.

We had an associate guilty of employee theft.  It was a pretty open and shut case. We followed our company procedures to the letter, and the end result was that we terminated this employee. She was not prosecuted, but we did require restitution to be paid to us to make up for the losses she incurred.

We didn’t think much else about it. In an unrelated matter, or so we thought, a few months later we were in the process of promoting one of our employees to a management position. This individual would have keys to the building, safe codes and alarm codes.

As per our policy, we ran an employee background check before the promotion was granted. One of the points on the background check is address verification. As it turns out, the employee’s current address was different than the one we had on file from his application.

That wasn’t such a big deal. People move all the time and in the world of direct deposit paychecks, we are not always notified when someone moves. The problem was that this employee had moved in with the previous employee we had terminated for theft.

We now needed to question the judgment of our employee. If they were in a relationship with the employee who had been stealing, what are the chances that our newly promoted manager might not exert some sort of revenge once they had carte blanche access to our store?

Had it not been for the employee background check, we never would have questioned this employee or his motives.

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 

 

Where would I be in my life if it weren’t for employee background checks? It is hard to say. I know that I have been quickly approved for housing rentals because of my good background checks. I know that I can easily be approved for a loan or a credit card for those same reasons. So why would I think any differently about an employee background check?

For some companies it is a critical part of the decision making process to run and evaluate an employee background check. There is so much that can be scored or measured as far as credit worthiness (important if your employee will have access to cash or monetary funds). Even potential litigation or other liabilities can be foreseen through a criminal background check (is your employee going to work with children or somewhere with minimal supervision?)

Much of the criteria in pre-employment screening can point an employer in the right direction in a hiring decision. As a smart employee, I understand just how invaluable it has been for me to ensure my background checks show up not only clean (nothing on a criminal background check), but also in exemplary standings, like credit. I want to be the best potential candidate for a job in all aspects, which includes the ones on paper.

As an employer, I need to make sure I have more to go on than just a hunch, or gut feeling. I need something tangible and measurable to say that my potential new hires will do me justice for years to come.

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 

In the early days of my working life, I knew very little about loss prevention, security, or even basic background checks, much less that there were background check companies and background check experts that could handle the employee background checks for the employer. I was fresh out of high school and working in a small restaurant with a bakery.

There was a family consisting of a husband, his wife, and her brother that worked the early morning shift. After I was hired on, we ended up working several early mornings together.  We started to form a friendship of sorts.

They asked me to teach them some English, and I learned some Spanish from them. After several months, they did something I never expected.

They asked me to marry their brother.

It was then that I knew these were illegal immigrants. This marriage would allow the brother to stay in the country legally. They would even pay me cash to compensate me for my risk. They obviously had not had an employee background check.

I turned them down, but I never turned them in. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized the full extent of these actions. They were here illegally, and had to be using someone else’s social security number to be employed. It also meant that there probably hadn’t been any sort of pre employment screening including criminal background checks done by my employer that would have potentially caught their secret.

While I don’t think that these three would have ever stolen or embezzled from the company and risked their stay in this country, the bottom line is that they were here illegally. Consulting with a background check expert to handle the pre-employment screening conducted by my employer through a background check company that would have potentially caught their secret through the criminal background check process Background checks would have quickly discovered this oversight.

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

There was an interesting article in our local paper last week. One of our city commissioners had been sent a 1099 form from an employer in a different state. Her first thought was that it clearly was a mistake and a quick background check would clear the matter up.

How far from the truth that was.

She first contacted the company who sent her the 1099. As it turned out, this “employee” had been working there for about five years before they left. Since they had this social on file, there was not any other information they could identify.

In the process of her pre-employment screening, she had not consulted with a background check company or any background check experts to conduct criminal background checks and employee background checks.

The next step was to contact the credit bureaus. No suspicious or detrimental information had been recorded, but a flag was put on the accounts in case of any suspicious activity in the future. That was the good news.

The bad news was that in order to fix the taxes, she had to go through a rigorous process of proving who SHE was. She had to send every document she could showing her identity, as well as copies of her social security card and an affidavit stating who she was. The federal government was ok with the end result and she ahs successfully proven the 1099 and income is not hers.

As for the state revenue department, they still want their cut of this money. So they are not accepting this “proof” of stolen identity. As of this time a lawyer has been brought in to help clear up the matter.

No telling how many more hours and dollars will be spent to clear her name.

Consulting with a background check expert through a background check company to assist with criminal background checks and employee background checks can help ensure you are getting accurate information

This is another reason why background checks and pre employment screening are needed. There is often more damage than just making a bad hiring decision.

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 

 

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. That’s why you want to conduct pre-employment screening or hire a background check company to assist you with this before you hire someone.

Pre-employment screening helps to reduce these incurred costs by reducing the likely hood of hiring a bad employee from the beginning. A background check company is a useful resource. Unfortunately, you can’t just terminate an employee without warning for poor job performance. If they commit an unforgivable act like theft or violence, then, legally, you can take a different course of action, but that is an exception.

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.

Pre-employment screening will give you insight into an employee’s previous work history and work habits before you make the mistake of hiring them.

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