A retailer I once worked for asked the question, “Are background checks really necessary?” They found out the hard way.
A young and promising manager was hired expeditiously to fill a long open management position at metro location. Heavy customer flow, huge volume sales and an unruly staff encouraged the hiring managers to forego any pre-employment screening and background checks. As time went on, the store didn’t seem to be making any sort of headway on controls and as a matter of fact was experiencing a new concern…cash shortages.
Criminal background checks and pre-employment screening are important parts of the business environment. Nothing can kill a business faster than an employee that comes on board with the intent to commit harm on the store.
I and other members of the loss prevention department looked into this store, trying to figure out what the problems could be. It didn’t take very long to realize what was going on. There was clear cut evidence of theft. Now it was a matter of finding the culprit. Cash is secured in the safe, so we looked at personnel with access to the safe, then contacted our Human Resources Department and looked at any background checks and pre-employment screening information available. Obviously, no criminal background checks were completed on any of the 4 persons that had access to the safe.
Our investigation showed us the newly hired manager, and we interviewed him. In the short 6 months he was with us, he took us for nearly $10,000 in cash and more in merchandise. After, we looked into his background and found that he had been fired from 2 other retailers for theft and did over a year in prison for embezzlement. Certainly, criminal background checks and proper pre-employment screening could have prevented this.
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
