Criminal Background Checks and known risks

A crucial step in the hiring process is employee background checks.  Prevent future theft in the workplace by taking extra precautions now! Pre-employment screening which includes criminal background checks is vital in the process of protecting your store and hiring the most excellent employees.

I received a tip from a manager when working as an LP detective; apparently one of his associate’s friends visited him and shopped in the store frequently. This particular associate’s register consistently turned up short as well.

I began to work a case on this associate. I watched him and built my case over the course of several weeks. His friend came to visit one evening. The two of them shopped together around the store, choosing merchandise from the associate’s department. The friend ended up with six shirts and three pairs of jeans.

The associate rang the friend for one shirt and one pair of jeans but bagged the other seven unpaid for items at the register. The associate walked his friend to the exit where my fellow detective was waiting. Needless to say, we pulled both suspects into the LP office and notified the police.

When the police arrived, they ran the associate in their system to check for priors. The associate carried an alias which was linked to two charges of robbery. He had a bench warrant out for his arrest. We estimated a total of $2,000 in register shortage over his six months of employment. We never obtained a cash theft admission from him, but the shortage ended after his termination.

This entire debacle could have been avoided by the simple process of conducting pre-employment screening along with background checks. $2,000 of cash and an unknown amount of merchandise theft would have never occurred if only criminal background checks had been implemented by the background check company, the background check experts.

Visit the Loss Prevention Store to learn about retail anti-theft devices and Electronic Article Surveillance or EAS system from Checkpoint Systems as well as to find more information on the background check expert, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks and pre-employment screening. You may also contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547.

Internal promotions still require background checks

I recently interviewed with a company for a loss prevention position. Right from the beginning they made it clear that they were well aware of the fact that I was overqualified for the position they were offering me.

They wanted me a step down although the next level position was open. Their reasoning was the fact that they prefer to promote from within. It was extremely rare for this company to hire external candidates for upper level positions.

This is a very smart business move for many reasons.  Several advantages persist when promoting from within over hiring from the outside.  Some factors simply cannot be tracked – such as work ethic – even with the use of pre- employment screening.

Pre-employment screening simply cannot provide information revealing how a candidate responds in unpredictable situations. This information is quite significant and helps to determine (with first-hand knowledge of skill sets) when or if a promotion is justified.  Promoting from within is also a great motivator for existing employees once they recognize that advancement opportunities are attainable.

Taking care to conduct further employee background checks is also crucial when a company promotes from inside its ranks.  Passing all of the pre-employment screenings does not guarantee that a further employee background check is an insignificant step in the validation process.

Further criminal employee background checks will screen for any negative events that may have occurred since an employee’s start date. It is also an opportunity to screen for factors that may not have been necessary upon hiring. It is crucial to consider if a promotion will give an employee access to restricted files, cash or other assets, or possibly a new set of potentially liable situations. Knowing of criminal activity revealed by processing criminal background checks is an important step in the process.

For more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks, or pre-employment screening please contact us at background check company or call 1.770.426.0547.

 

Safety and Pre-Employment Screening

Pre-employment screening is becoming a standard process for many businesses.  Many large corporations employ background check experts to work in teams in order to evaluate criminal background checks as well as employee background checks.

Smaller companies frequently do not have the funding for the increase in payroll required to perform this function which is almost always available to large companies. 

This is where a trustworthy Background Check Company enters the picture. Background check experts skilled in performing pre-employment screening are standard with Background Check Company. 

The background check experts deliver specialty services like background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks, and other pre-employment screening services.  The execution of a comprehensive pre-employment-screening process prevents an employer from hiring a less than desirable individual at best and a thief at worst.

Insight into a potential employee’s integrity is provided with criminal background checks.  When hiring positions requiring leadership and responsibility this information is critical.  An employee background check examines the credentials and experience with objectivity.  This is especially important if the position requires a certain level of technical acumen.

Information as to the quality of employee as well as how former employers and peers view the candidate is provided by background checks. Background checks can also prevent an employer from hiring someone dishonest, under-qualified, or simply not the right fit.  Background Check Company provides all of these services for the business or individual.

For more information about background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks and pre-employment screening please contact us at background check company or call 1.770.426.0547.

Are you asking the right questions as part of Pre-Employment Screening?

Getting the answers you need to hire a suitable and qualified candidate can be challenging. Standard job applications only cover the basics of the position applied for – availability, previous work history, and education.

Resumes are somewhat better, they are usually more descriptive as to what an applicant does or did at their previous places of employment; however, they can also contain a web of deceit.

Without running background checks in order to verify information, who can know if or how much embellishment is conveyed in either the job application or a resume. Background checks are also somewhat limited in what they can uncover.

Many employers, for example, will often only release the dates that an employee worked for their company. They may choose not to state the reason why the person is no longer working with the company, leaving it up to the applicant to state the reason as to why they no longer work for that company.

Because they are adept at the process of calling an applicant’s personal and professional references, the background check experts are better equipped to uncover the truth.

Did you know that references are frequently unaware that they have been listed on an application? They may also not be clear about what they should or should not say about someone, thus giving too much or too little information than they should.

The background check experts are also adept at asking non-work related questions in order to obtain the answers really needed. Do you want to know what a reference really thinks? Ask the reference if they would let the applicant house sit or baby sit for them. This question cuts to the chase and you will have your answer.

For more information about background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre-employment screening please contact us at background check company or call 1.770.426.0547.

Is trust alone sufficient without Pre Employment Screening?

There is always some apprehension involved when one hires an employee. One needs to know that the new hire is both honest and hardworking and that the new hire will earn your confidence as well as confirm that you made a good hiring decision. The last thing an employer wants to discover is that a new employee is utterly unlike the person he or she presented during the interview.

Completing a thorough and detailed pre-employment screening is the most effective way to ease some of this apprehension. An effective pre-employment screening must include more than simply a question and answer session. An essential ingredient in an effective screening is a skills or critical thinking test – the perfect technique to get a more conclusive perspective of the candidate’s capabilities and skill set.

The employee background check is another effective tactic. This background check should include criminal and credit checks, if applicable. It is also important to take it a step further by verifying previous employment and education listed on job applications.

While the background check company effectively runs employee background checks, it is an excellent practice for the employer to run a practical background check. Simply pick up the phone and call the references listed. It is amazing how few people actually call references given by a candidate. It is also amazing what some references actually have to say about the candidate.

Let background check company alleviate your apprehension – allow them to perform pre-employment screening and you can rest knowing whom you can better trust to hire.

For more information about background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks and pre-employment screening please contact us at background check company or call 1.770.426.0547. 

Math – Employee Background Checks

I have worked with numerous cases of employee dishonesty, theft, and fraud for many years. It was always highly unusual if the case implicated a member of management. Statistically, the majority of those employees implicated were working in a non-management capacity.  Obviously I gained this experience not when working at a background check company.

Most of the commotion centers around the fact that managers are expected to operate within a different level of trust and professionalism. That’s the how and the why they are elevated to management in the first place.  Another significant reason is simply that a much smaller percentage of managers are actually committing theft and fraud.

Oddly enough, I see much more emphasis placed on doing drug tests and background checks for management positions from either in-house promotions or external hires. It seems counter-productive to run background checks on these individuals while ignoring the statistics. The lack of complete background checks being run for non-management employees is not wise and potentially extremely costly.

One could question the wisdom of the additional costs incurred by running checks on everyone. I question the risk of dollars lost from even a single case of employee dishonesty – it can be enormous and potentially debilitating to a company.

I have personally witnessed employee theft cases that involved thousands of dollars, some even tens of thousands.  Criminal background checks can reduce or prevent these types of losses.

When an employer runs a consistent check on all employees, the odds of keeping the bad ones out before they can be considered for management is greatly increased. And that is where processing criminal background checks through a background check company can help tremendously.

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

Roses and Criminal Background Checks

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is a commonly quoted phrase from a dialogue in William Shakespeare‘s play Romeo and Juliet, in which Juliet argues that the names of things do not matter, only what things are.Juliet was a young and extremely emotional teenager who expresses rather immature thinking, although it is expressed quite eloquently by Shakespeare in this classic tale of young love gone awry.

Perhaps this phrase is true when it pertains to roses; however, Juliet didn’t work for a background check company. Any reputable, experienced background checks expert will tell you that when it comes to background checks and pre-employment screening, the names of people do matter. Because a name gives a history and provides a portrait to reveal the real person behind the application and/or interview, it is essential that a wise employer have this critical information to inform his hiring decisions.

I worked a rather large internal case a few years back; we actually flew in our corporate Loss Prevention managers to help us resolve all the issues created by names. One of the first things these managers did was run a name and address verification on the employee in question. It was a similar protocol to what they followed when they had previously worked for a background check company to provide criminal background checks.

The amount of information pulled was staggering. It listed every place this employee had lived for the last ten years, including other occupants living at the same address. To our surprise, this employee had been living with another one of the company employees. Not only was this a clear policy violation, but it also opened a new gateway into the investigation.

These guys were truly background check experts. The criminal background checks they gave us introduced another employee critical to the investigation that we would have most likely overlooked and lost countless more dollars in the process of identifying the culprits.  Based on this new information, we were able to investigate and resolve close to $100,000 in losses over the previous five years that these two thieves had been employed at our company. Had we done this sort of pre-employment screening to begin with, these employees would never have been hired to begin with.

For more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre-employment screening or to learn more about counteracting employee theft and shoplifting, please contact us at the background check company or call 1.770.426.0547

Preventing Possible Theft by using Pre-Employment Screening

When thinking about conducting pre-employment employee background checks, one seldom considers how this step can prevent internal theft. I had an employee theft issue a few years ago with a group of associates who were stealing from our company. The losses we encountered could have been prevented if we had more rigorous pre-employment screening procedures in place.

The scam worked like this: one associate would make purchases when his friend was working the customer service desk. This was all within policy – what wasn’t within policy was the additional merchandise that was not rung up – thousands of dollars of merchandise. He confessed that the stolen merchandise was all being shipped back to his native country when we questioned him.

We could not locate the other three associates involved when we finished questioning the first employee. They simply walked out of the store while we questioned the first associate. When we took the case to our local law enforcement, it became clear that the employees we had hired used fake IDs with stolen information. We have yet to find our former employees.

Because we are not background check experts, we did not catch the discrepancy when these individuals applied for jobs. If we had possessed the foresight to take this simple and inexpensive step in the hiring process, we would have saved thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise and valuable resources in tracking down the thieves.  Background check experts would have done what we could not.

Employee background checks are not about prior convictions only. It is the way that pre-employment screening is equipped to do an adequate job and confirm whether or not the person you are considering hiring is EXACTLY who he or she presents himself to be.  

For more information on background check experts, background checks, criminal background checks, employee background checks or pre employment screening contact us at background check company or call 1.770.426.0547

Re-Checking those Background Checks…

If you complete pre-employment screening for your new hires, chances are you still have some sort of signed agreement from them allowing you to conduct background checks whenever you would like. Often times we conduct criminal background checks on our employees during the pre-employment screening process and then never take a second look at our employees. But what about those employees that are conducting criminal activity once they have already been hired? Going to background check experts to conduct periodic criminal background checks can be a great tool to help you ensure that your employees are up to the caliber that you desire.

Employee background checks can be a great tool to use during an investigation into internal theft activity. If you are experiencing loss and you are not able to identify any potential candidates, employee background checks can help you narrow the scope of your search.

Feeling like you are losing money or product and just can’t figure out where it’s going? Look to the background check experts to help you identify those who may be stealing from you in your business.

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

Did you get a thorough background check?

Background checks are important, but they should never be the only tool you use to determine if a candidate is a good fit for your business. Comprehensive pre-employment screening should include many aspects beyond just sending their information into a background check company. Criminal background checks, drug testing, reference checks, and an extensive interview process should all play a part in your pre-employment screening process. When you use a vast array of screening tools you will be able to find the best candidates to fit your needs that will be loyal and work hard for your company.

Criminal background checks will allow you to identify potential employees that have been convicted of a crime. From those results you can decide if the candidate is someone you wish to pursue or if you will decide to look elsewhere. This should not be where the screening stops.

Drug testing can help you to identify if the possible employee is involved in any illegal drug activity. Reference employee background checks will allow you to discover if the person is lying about their previous experience and will hopefully help you to get a good idea of the person’s character. The key here is asking the right questions of the right people. If the reference person that the potential employee gave you seems to be giving staged or fake answers, call back and ask to speak to another manager.

Lastly, the thing you can always count on is the interview process. Make this meeting count. Be sure to research the right questions to ask and how to effectively interview. Open ended questions can be your best friend; you would be surprised how much someone will open up with just a little probing. Using a background check company can tell you a lot about a potential employee, but it takes a lot more to make sure you are hiring the right people.

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