Home Service Workers Get Background Checks

Home Service Workers Get Background Checks

Customers who receive in home visits from employees of service companies don’t expect to be victimized by those employees.  They would expect the employees would have been subjected to some scrutiny, including background checks, before being sent to and allowed to enter a customer’s home.  The fact is that this is often not the case.

Service companies include electrical contractors, pest control, plumbers, appliance repairmen, heating and air conditioning repairmen, cleaners, you name it.

Most companies will publicize the fact that their employees are banded and insured, but that does not necessarily mean that their employee have been the subjects of a pre employment background checks.

Many times the company hired by the homeowner will subcontract another company to perform the work and don’t really know if pre employment screening has been thoroughly conducted or not.

In addition to theft issues, which occur frequently, there are instances of harm coming to the homeowner or tenant at the hands of the employee.

In 2001, for instance a homeowner paid a nationally known company to clean the air ducts in her house.  Six months later, the serviceman returned to the home, raped and murdered the homeowner, and set fire to the house to cover evidence of his crime.  The murderer was a registered sex offender and on parole at the time of his first visit to the home.

An employee of a plumbing company and his customer had a disagreement over the cost of the repair and the plumber assaulted the customer.  The plumber had previously been arrested for battery, something the employer should have known.  A negligent hiring lawsuit was soon filed.

Pre employment screening and background checks are an affirmative defense against negligent hiring lawsuits.

Businesses that conduct pre employment background checks instill confidence in their customers by demonstrating care in the selection of their employees.

For further information on pre employment screening and background checks, call 770-426-0547 or click here.