So you have a candidate for a job sitting before you.  He is well dressed, his resume is glowing, and his work history is a perfect fit for your company’s needs.  As the interview progresses he says everything you could ever want to hear, answering each question flawlessly and without hesitation.

Usually when something is too good to be true it is.

An example would be at an automotive service center attached to one of my stores.  It is a part of the company that suffers from a high turnover rate for a variety of reasons too long to list here.  At this particular center, the employee attrition rate was so high that the center manager had given up on performing thorough background checks and went by what he saw in front of him.  He was trying to fill vacancies which were crippling his ability to keep the center viable.

One day an applicant sat down with him for an interview with a resume that said he was capable and experienced as a technician and the references listed all gave him amazing reviews.

Less than a week into this individual’s career at the center he was tasked with performing a belt replacement on a car; something he claimed to have experience with. The engine blew within seconds of being started. The individual had never done a belt change before and ‘just winged it’.  Because of the incident a background check was done and it was found he had never worked ANYWHERE he had claimed and his references were all personal acquaintances posing as former supervisors.  These were all details that could have been easily discovered with pre-employment screening.

Basically the moral of this story is if the center manager had requested an employee background check per company policy, or even used one of the company background check experts he could have avoided hiring the fraud and kept himself from getting fired for his mistakes.

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 

Crazy can be defined in two ways; 1. situation (i.e. you witness an event and instantly declare “wow, that was crazy”) & 2. people (i.e. that customer that becomes hopping mad over you not printing that gift receipt).  When you work in retail you grow accustom to both kinds of crazy.  The crazy that you don’t get accustomed to is employee theft.

We started to see this pattern of high dollar merchandise cards, the kind you would give to a customer if they had no receipt, all issued by the same employee.  The matter was ultra sensitive because the employee issuing the cards was an assistant manager.  The investigation started with a handful of cards totaling about $250.00 and by the end we had a total of 50 cards spanning back 2 years totaling well over $10,000.  During the interview the manager admitted to the theft and then hit us with a needed dose of reality; she was fired from her last job for doing the same exact thing.

Our company at the time did no pre-employment screening, ran no background checks, and did no criminal background checks.  This was the dose the company needed to get involved with a background check expert.  It could have saved them thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars had all employees, pre-employment or not been subjected to a background check.  Seems like a smart thing to do seeing these are the people who handle the whole of your profit and goods.

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

To start a business you will need a location and merchandise. You will need to put a name on your building, you will need racks and shelves and electricity, but the most important thing you will need is people. They will do the work needed and they will drive your business. They will interact with the customer day in and day out. They will need to be hired, trained and monitored for quality. This will cost money and time. It will be your most expensive investment by far. They will be your most valuable asset. That having been said, it is important to get the right people from the start. One way to ensure that this happens is to do background checks. You can do some of this yourself by calling past employers, but this will only give you so much info. Having a background check company perform the check may be more thorough. They are the background check experts and can perform criminal background checks and other types of Pre-employment screening that can prevent you from hiring a bad seed. Employee Background checks should also be done on present employees. I have done this in the past and have been surprised at what has come back on a background check.

Background check experts or a background check company can also verify things like address, credit history and bankruptcy records, which can help if trying to hire someone that will be handling a lot of cash such as at a bank or someone who works in your cash office. At minimum you should perform pre-employment screening on key positions like security officers or management. Running at least these people through employee background checks will prevent you from putting a criminal or scam artist in a position where they may have unlimited access to your funds and merchandise.

One company I worked for used employee background checks in the top 5 highest shortage areas. They felt that they wanted their most trusted employees in those problem areas. The areas where we did not perform criminal background checks soon became the problem areas for employee theft as well as shoplifting. We soon realized that by performing background checks we were getting a better quality hire and had weeded out the people we didn’t need through the pre-employment screening.

In my career I have been used primarily to fix the stores that are broken as far as shortage goes. The first thing I do when looking at the stores is to take a good look at the employees. Making use of a background check company who are the background check experts often will identify where or better yet who the problem is and is the beginning of fixing the shortage problem of the store.

Make use of these criminal background checks or at least basic employee background checks to protect your biggest investment… your employees!

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

One of the parts of reviewing job applications that I dislike is trying to decide what a person is really like. A standard, fill in the blank application is often as useless as looking through a resume, or even worse, an online profile.

I feel like I am in a bad online dating program. Applicants are trying their best to come across as successful winners. The reality is often far from that truth.

Because the applicants have the ability to manipulate the data they enter, put their own spin on job descriptions and responsibilities, it can be impossible to tell the studs from the duds.

No one will ever put down that they were terminated for theft, or poor attendance. No one will ever admit that they slacked off at their jobs and their bosses were happy to see them quit.

This is where background check experts can drill down to get the real truth of the matter. They have the ability to run background checks that include both an employee background check, as well as a criminal background check.

Background check experts can even call up references to see if they, for one, even exists, much less would ever want to work with that applicant again. They will then review their findings from the criminal background check and the employee background check.

These background checks, along with the references will put together a more compete applicant profile than the one they might want you to believe in.

 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 

We all have a comfort zone. It starts at our house. That is where we can kick back, relax and be ourselves. We create our own little environments perfectly suited to our desires and tastes.

Once we have our home territory in satisfactory mental comfort, we start to move on. We have secondary territories that turn out to be an extension of our homes. These are places like a familiar restaurant, a good friend or even a relative’s home, or our workplaces where we start to settle in and start to create those same comfort zones.

This is when I often start to hear important pieces of information regarding my associates. They get comfortable at work, just like they do at home, and they start to talk. They discuss their relationships, finances, and off the record shenanigans.

It has been more than once that I have opened up employee theft investigations based off of information spilled in the comforts of the employee break room. Sadly, some of those suspicions were substantiated.

I don’t always get to see the full extent of the background checks that were run before they were hired on to the company. I do get to see them after the case is starting to come to a close.

Because we don’t hire background check experts to review the background checks, some of the potential red flags that I do see had gone unnoticed.

Maybe the background check experts would have caught onto a detail we overlooked, and would have prevented us from hiring that person who ended u stealing from us.

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

Do you have a best friend at work? For many employees out there, they do. It is someone who they joke and kid around with at work. They can vent about how they had a bad day, and the at work friend understands because they know the environment and the people in the story.

While some people do take these friendships to the next level and gather outside of the workplace, many companies do prohibit fraternization on any sort of level. At work friends, when kept at work, are an important part of employee morale so they are not limited.

The question is, do we really know our at work friends? Do we really know that person and what they are capable of if we only see them in a certain light or environment?

This is where employee background checks come into play. No matter how well you might think you know one of your employees, if you only see them on the job, you are probably not fully aware of any issues they might be having outside of work.

Employee background checks can uncover financial and criminal histories that may have begun since the employee was hired.

It is always disheartening for employees to find out that their at work buddy was caught stealing, or was terminated for drug or alcohol usage on the job. A background check might get you closer to that employee, so you really know what they are all about.

 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

Forget about your potential employees’ qualifications for a moment. Think about what are your qualifications, or what are the qualifications of your HR managers?

Very few people are qualified to be background check experts. It’s not that it is difficult, it is because it is a time consuming qualification that very few people have put in the hours to prefect.

Being a background check expert means more than just filling out a few forms on the computer and hitting enter. It is about utilizing resources, analyzing reports, and being adept at asking the right questions to personal and professional references.

I personally rely on the knowledge and experience of experts. I am aware that I cannot be an expert in every subject that could ever possibly arise.

I need to be able to have a broad understanding of the process and what to look for, for potential red flags, but the bulk of the pre employment screening as well as the employee background checks for existing employees should be sent out to a true background check expert.

These experts will also have a keen working knowledge of the legalities involved in running these pre employment screenings and employee background checks.

My qualifications do not cover background checks. My HR manager is more qualified than I am, but she still is not an expert in background checks.

It is time to let the professionals be the experts and have them run background checks completely and thoroughly.

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

 

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

Resumes are little better, they might be more descriptive as to what an applicant does or did at their previous places of employment, but they can also carry a web of deceit.

The reality is, without running a background check to verify information, who knows how much embellishment is actually on those pieces of paper.

Background checks sometimes are limited to what they can uncover. For example, some employers will only release the dates that an employee worked for their company. They may not give a reason why.

That leaves it up to the applicant to decide to tell the complete truth as to why they no longer are working for that company.

A background check expert will be more versed in uncovering the truth. They can call upon an applicant’s personal and professional references.

Did you know that often time references are not aware that they have been listed on an application? They also may not know exactly what they should and shouldn’t say about someone, and may give more information than they should.

A background check expert also knows how to ask other non-work related questions to get the answers you really need. Want to really know what a reference thinks? Ask them if they would let the applicant house sit or baby sit for them. Their answers might be very telling of what kind of work they will do for you.

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 

 

Employee background checks are a crucial step in the hiring process. Taking extra precautions now can prevent theft in the future. Working as an LP detective, I once received a tip from a manager that one of his associates had friends visit him and shop in the store often. It also turned out that the associate’s register consistently turned up short.

I decided to work a case on this associate. Over several weeks I watched him and built my case. One evening, his friend came to visit. They shopped around the store, selecting merchandise from his department. The friend ended up with six shirts and three jeans.

At the register, the associate rang the friend for one shirt and one pair of jeans but bagged the other seven unpaid for items. 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 they 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 situation could have been avoided during pre-employment screening and background checks. $2,000 of cash and an unknown amount of merchandise theft would have never occurred if criminal background checks had been implemented by a background check company.

For more information on background check expert, 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