Where to start? When I look at a job applicant, I start by looking through their job application. Working with a bigger company, I get online submittals that are carefully screened by a key word system that looks to pick up on specific traits. It is like an initial background check. It is a pre-employment screening tool to help stream line the hiring process for us.

For most small businesses, this type of pre-employment screening is 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.

That can be a great way to do a type of pre-employment screening that automated systems do not have. 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. You get to see more of their personality. Is the resume formal or personable? What type of paper was it printed on – stationary or plain typing paper? How about a bright neon color paper with a crazy hard to read font? Did they bother to not only spell check but proof read their writing?

You can see a person’s attention to detail better on a paper resume than on an online, standardized 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

With so many companies making it blatantly obvious that the employees are an after thought, pre employment screening is frequently viewed as another company hoop to be jumped through. Maybe it is time we talk to our potential employees about the benefits that they will get from undergoing the employee background checks.

As business owners and managers, we are all aware of the benefits from low turnover, so we really should be presenting pre employment screening in the same context that we do vacation time, insurance, or 401K opportunities. In other words, these are benefits to and for the employee, not just a protection for the company.  The more an employee feels like they are taken care of by the company, the longer they will want to stay and be engaged.

Make sure that they understand the effects of employee background checks, and more importantly the direct effect of not having them.

When you verify work history, you can discover large employment gaps or frequent job bouncing. Those employees can exhibit a serious lack of commitment to their job and their productivity. Not hiring those candidates help keep high employee morale as everyone is doing their share of the workload.

When you are validating education history, you are ensuring that other employees will not have to work double duty to compensate for the lied about skill and knowledge sets of a potential bad hire.

When you are able to weed out potentially dangerous or deceitful employees, you are creating a safer work environment for the employees who do make it past the initial screening.

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 used to be pretty simple. All you had to do was go to any number of websites for your background checks. Most of these websites were not really background check experts, as they claimed to be. It was slowly discovered that there were issues with the accuracy of the credit report. As more job seekers were denied employment due to these inaccuracies, it eventually turned into a legal issue.

You see, employers were relying on bad information to make decisions. Job seekers had little recourse, as these unsanctioned websites were unwilling to correct the issues or to work to resolve them between the employer and job seeker.

The end result is that legislation was passed to protect both parties. By limiting the companies who could give a report to an employer, quality standards were put into place. Only legitimate background check experts could conduct background checks. The employers are now guaranteed to have more accurate information. Job seekers are given an opportunity to correct any incorrect information found on a report and then have that information passed back to the employer.

Job seekers must also give permission to have this pre employment screening conducted. This serves a two-fold purpose: job seekers must be aware of the checks to be conducted, and therefore have an opportunity to be honest and forthcoming about any potential information that will be discovered.

Now that only certified Credit Reporting Agencies can conduct background checks, it is easier to trust the information that is presented in order to make sound hiring decisions.

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 an employee referral program has many benefits for an employer. Amongst those benefits is access to an applicant pool that might have previously been untapped. However, if those employee referrals are from employees who are foreign nationals, it is imperative to conduct pre-employment screening.

Let me make it clear that there is absolutely nothing wrong with hiring employees who are not natural citizens. It is simply a reality that there are some illegal immigrants who steal or borrow social security numbers to gain employment here in the States. Conducting a background check that involves a social security number trace could 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. A background check can help you to sort out the truth. 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.

Having background check experts run social security traces is a good way to run an accurate background check. These background check experts will have a better chance of determining if something is suspicious, and how to proceed further.

They will also know how to legally handle the situation if the applicant is using a stolen social security number. Law enforcement will need to be involved in any identity theft situations, even if the owner of the social security number’s credit or finances were not involved.

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

Often when we are faced with dishonesty, our first reaction is to sneak around to try and gather as much information as we can. If it is a cheating spouse, we hire private investigators to covertly follow them around. Shoplifters are faced with undercover security personnel. A possible dishonest applicant gets the employee background check.

While it is completely legal to conduct pre-employment screening, 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 run these employee background checks. In order to protect the consumer, only certain people can have access to someone’s credit report. These people are specifically designated, and an employer is one of the people who have a legitimate need for this access.

However, this does not mean that as an employer you have carte blanche access to anyone’s credit report that you want. To further protect the consumer, they must first give a written consent for you to run their report (no sneaking off and running it without their knowledge).

Once the employee background checks are conducted, 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).

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 

Many companies, especially small businesses have no financial budget for workplace accidents. As a result, even a single accident can cause financial devastation. It is just one of many reasons why employee background checks are a useful tool in a store’s overall profitability.

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 pre-employment screening 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, the customers, and the other employees from accidents.

That means you might put your store at a higher risk for these unbudgeted expenses by employing higher risk applicants. By conducting an employee background check you have a better chance of determining if an employee will help facilitate a safe working environment. Remember, if they can control and manage themselves, they are more likely to control and manage their surroundings at work.

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

Not every applicant who wants to avoid employee background checks does so because they have something to hide. Sometimes they just want to ensure their drive and innovation will be put to good use and not squelched under a barrage of regulations and managerial control.

Some job applicants can perceive pre-employment screening as the precursor to being micro managed or watched once they actually begin to work at your store or company. That can make a difference in some of the applicants who would apply for a job opening.

That being said, the solution is not in forgoing pre-employment screening. The answer is in properly explaining the advantages that the employee will benefit from.

The number one benefit is safety. You (as the employer) are doing everything you can to provide a safe working environment. By eliminating employees with past criminal offenses that include violence or theft, you are securing the workplace for your employees.

Secondly, by verifying previous work experience, your employees have a better chance of working beside other employees whose experience and education have been verified. One of the biggest workplace complaints is that co-workers are inept. If they had lied on their resume to get a job they were unqualified for, they will eventually show their deficit in their job performance.

The employee background checks are designed to create an all around better work environment. It is not just the employer that benefits from this workplace. By ensuring upfront that the employees know how they are benefiting, you will help them to understand why you are the company they want to work for.

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 

When you have background check experts to do the digging, you will have more successful and thorough pre-employment screening. Unfortunately, just as you want to pre-screen your job applicants, you also need to make sure that your background check experts really are who they say they are.

Be wary of prices that seem too good to be true. There probably is a reason why a company might be boasting unreasonably low (or high prices). Most reputable companies should fall into a general price range. Anything outside of that price range might be a cause for concern.

There is usually a reason why the price is so low. They may not verify information through a legitimate credit-reporting agency. That can put you into potential legal problems down the road. If they give you bad information that causes you to decline an applicant, you are the one that will ultimately be held responsible. An applicant has a legal recourse as they can verify and dispute this information.

The price might also be low because these so-called background check experts are actually a scam. They might want to steal personal information for their own usage. By keeping a low price, they are attempting to lure in unsuspecting customers who will hand over applicants’ information without question.

The flip side might be a company that is priced too high. They might claim to have additional resources or benefits. In reality, they might just be trying to falsely inflate what they can actually and legally do for you.

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

If you do not weed out the bad seeds up front, how much will their initial training and later on for the training of their replacement cost? What about your potential inventory or cash losses created from hiring a career criminal? Not every employer prosecutes for theft, even though they terminate employees for it. That means that running criminal background checks along side employment verification is critical to pre-employment screening.

Only you can analyze the costs of hiring background check experts versus accurately speculating the costs of potential employee theft.

Most companies find out that conducting some form of pre-employment screening will eventually balance out the costs associated with a single bad hire. Unfortunately, most of those companies figure it out only after a major case of employee theft has surfaced.

In order to conduct a realistic cost/benefit analysis, you need to be able to anticipate both the short and long term costs. In this situation, the comparison would be between the immediate or short term cost of paying background check experts, and the long-term costs associated with hiring and then rehiring a replacement for a bad hire.

When you hire background check experts, chances are they can investigate more points than you can yourself simply because they have the time and better resources. Once you factor in the time you would have to be paid to do the checks yourself, you might find the cost benefit analysis is swayed in a different direction.

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 

Even before they see the results from a pre-employment screening, many hiring managers look at a few very important things when they review applications.

They look to see if this is someone with the skill set required for the position. They look to see if this is someone that might have some longevity with their company; reducing turnover costs.

As small business owners, we are the hiring managers. There is rarely payroll for someone other than us to be a hiring manager. As such, we need to determine what our end game is going to be for this employee. This is where we can take a hint from the hiring managers. We need to look at the long-term effects that hiring a specific applicant will have on us.

All too often we tend to hire the disposable employee. We need a position filled quickly. We can no longer wait for the perfect applicant to show up, we simply pick the best from what we have. “The Best” being very subjective.

When we do not hire an employee with the intention of training them properly, growing and motivating them to be promoted later, or even just to be a quality employee, we are starting a vicious cycle.

These are the applicants who will eventually cost us more money than they are worth. We may have bypassed the pre-employment screening in our rush to get them hired. As a result, we have the potential for dishonest or physically aggressive employees to be working in our stores

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