The Small Business Administration is an organization designed with the specific intention of assisting and guiding small businesses towards better longevity and profitability. They have many programs on a wide range of topics, including pre employment screening and employee background checks.

Employee background checks are highly recommended by the Small Business Administration. They realize that one of the most important factors in a small business’s success is its ability to hire and retain quality employees.

If a small business hires improperly, their chance of success are drastically reduce. A “bad” employee can do unending damage to a business. When customer service is lacking, the company’s image is hurt. Customer’s stop coming in, and word of mouth takes care of any remaining customers who may have contemplated shopping with you.

A step up from bad customer service is bad employee morale. Ever heard the phrase “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch”? It rings very true in retail. An employee that shows up late to work, doesn’t pull their weight, or disregards policy and procedure brings everyone down. Time is spent correcting their actions and playing damage control with the rest of the “good apples”.

These employee infractions can pale in comparison to the damage an employee can do if they are stealing from you. These employees can still turn away customers and fellow employees, in addition to causing financial disaster from cash theft, credit card fraud or inventory theft.

For these reasons, the Small Business Administration strongly encourages pre employment screening and employee background checks to reduce the likelihood of hiring a bad employee.

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

Criminal background checks should be an essential part of a company’s standard pre employment screening. The results can be a red flag for the company so they can make a better-informed decision about the candidate they want to hire.

Every time my brother applies for a new job, he dreads the part where the potential employer runs criminal background checks. Mostly because he knows that his search results will show up with a laundry list of convictions from crimes committed in various states. The problem is, there is someone else living in a different state that has the same name and date of birth as my brother. This other person is the true owner of the criminal history that shows up on my brother’s criminal background checks.

He first found out about this problem after interviewing for a job and then receiving a rejection letter in the mail from this company. They stated that he did not divulge his record to them on the application, and based on the convictions he was ineligible for hire.

He then had to go through several other steps to prove that the records were not his and he had never even been to the states in which the arrests had happened. The proof came from the information found on his driver’s license such as race, hair and eye color, and the photo. Once matched to the mug shots and the arrest records, my brother was cleared and offered the position.

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

I was looking to hire a new Loss Prevention employee for one of my stores. Another manager had a great customer service situation at a competitor and had recommended this particular employee to me. I had them come in and fill out an application before I made any interviewing decisions. Even without a formal criminal background check, I had a concern with this applicant.

On his application, he put down that he had a DUI a few years ago. While I am glad that he admitted to his charge, I was still left with questions about his judgment. Is this someone with a drinking problem, or just had a momentary lapse in judgment? Can I rely on them in a high impact situation, or to have consistency in their day-to-day behaviors? 

I had to wonder if I would find anything else if I ran a criminal background check. In my experience, people will admit to the lowest denominator they think they can get away with. Employees and shoplifters only admit to a fraction of what they actually stole. Other criminals will downplay the number of times they committed a crime. Do they really think that they were caught the very first time they did something wrong? No, they probably had done the action over and over until it was so blatant that they got caught.

I wouldn’t take an admission on a job application as an excuse not to conduct more thorough pre employment screening– especially when it comes to criminal background checks.

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 

There is an ongoing debate over the legality of using information found on social media as a form of pre employment screening.

For some employees, Social media is an outlet for their personal expressions. In spite of their need to over share personal information or their questionable behaviors, many in the job pool believe that their personal lives should remain private. Any digging into social media sites would therefore constitute a violation of their privacy.

That hasn’t stopped all businesses from cruising the social media sites to see if they can find a potential candidate. With privacy and security controls as they are, it should reasonably fall to the responsibility of a job candidate to keep their sites private and block public viewing.

Unfortunately, this is not always the case as some businesses are finding out through the court system.

That doesn’t mean that there is some validity to information garnered from social media sites. There are sites specifically designed and created for the working individual. These sites give potential employers unofficial background checks that are allowable for hiring purposes. Since the site is to be shared within the professional community, instead of a personal network of friends and family, employers are welcomed more freely to investigate through those networks.

The down side to using these for informal background checks is that the job applicant puts the information on the site. It is at their discretion what is posted and what is omitted. The biased information may not be a reliable form of pre employment 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 

When you conduct employee background checks, your business can be held liable for the information that you find. In particular, if a potential candidate is declined employment based off of those findings.

If this candidate feels like they were wrongfully declined, they have the option to contest the check, and bring potential litigation against your business if the employee background checks were proven to contain misinformation.

When you hire a background check company, you push this liability back to them. They are now responsible for providing you accurate and timely pre employment screening. If for some reason there is determined to be erroneous information, the liability is with the background check company and not with you.

As a responsible business, obviously you would want to work with both your potential candidate and the background check company to fully resolve the issue. The common goal would then be to correct the errors and move forward before the situation gets to a point where litigation would be necessary.

When you contract with a reputable and experience background check company, this concern should be part of their standard operating procedures. They need to stand behind their work and the pre employment screenings that they generate for you. If for some reason, they will not back their work, or push the liability back to you, you need to go elsewhere.  That should be an enormous red flag that they may not be in the business of providing accurate reports.

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 

A majority of employees who are caught stealing confess to their first theft incident within the first year of their employment. These employees can be discouraged because they feel trapped in a job they thought would be better than what it actually is. They can feel like they were misled in the interview process about how great the business is. Without pre employment screening to evaluate an employee’s potential for on the job performance other issues like theft are more apt to occur.

Employees can feel slighted over job promotions they do not get, or working harder than more tenured employees. Sometimes employees apply for jobs at businesses they know they can steal from, and start their thefts on day one. All of which are justifications for an employee to steal from their employer.

All of those situations are more avoidable by using pre employment screening criminal background checks. The checks are designed to show work history, previous theft issues, criminal arrests, and validations of educational backgrounds.

Coincidentally, for many small businesses, the average length of employment for their non-management positions is also about one year. When there are only a few short months between an employee’s hire date and their first incident of theft, having the right people in place from day one becomes increasingly critical. There is not an extended amount of time that you can hire someone and then find out what a criminal background check will uncover.

In those twelve short months, many things can happen – both good and bad. Since that length of time is so short, conducting pre employment screening and criminal background checks is absolutely essential.

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 are successfully reducing the number of unwanted applications they need to sort through to hire for an open position within their company. An unwanted application is one that the applicant is embellishing their experience or education, padding their resume, or flat out declining (or denying) to disclose pertinent information like a criminal history.

In order to decrease these unwanted applications, companies, both large and small are starting change their hiring practices, starting by rewording their applications.

Somewhere on the application, whether it is computerized or on paper, there is wording stating that the job requires a through check to be conducted before final approval to be hired. Next is a signature line for the applicant to authorize the check to be completed.

What major hiring companies and managers are finding is that significant quantities of questionable applicants are declining to turn in their applications.

They know that they have potential red flags in their history that they do not want to come up. Instead of completing the application, they move on to the next business that does not require a background check.

In the meantime, you are left with fewer overall applications to sort through. Of those remaining applications, you are left with better overall applicants. 

They are more honest about any previous criminal activity, previous work history, and can actually validate their education and degrees earned. They are not afraid of any background or criminal screenings because they have nothing to hide.

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 

I speak often to the front line of defense that retailer’s should implement concerning merchandise and inventory security. The front line of defense also relates to company assets- including your employees. If you are not conducting employee background checks, you are failing to support your front line.

Your front line defense as it relates to your employees is the line of communication and representation between your company and your customers. If this front line does not represent your business, as you see fit, your sales will suffer from customers who leave and will not come back.

Customers are very in tune with how employees act and interact. Often, our customers see and understand more about our employee’s behavior than what we ever will. They see them at their best and also at their worst. Your customers see the actions of our employees when we are not there. That is the most important time to understand what our employees are doing.

They are not going to act out when we are there, they will act out when we are not. If we have hired employees who do not have drive, motivation or integrity, it will become most apparent the second we leave the building.

Pre employment screening and other employee background checks help to keep your front line strong. You can better ensure these employees have the knowledge, skill, and integrity that you need them to have in order to fully represent you to the best of their abilities.

 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 

Have you ever stopped to wonder how much damage a single employee can do? Depending upon your business structure and environment, an employee can create minimal damage or maximum destruction. Before we talk about background checks, we need to look at the ways and employee can ruin a business.

In the most common ways, employee can cause inventory losses. They can steal, defraud, or simply be so oblivious to policy and procedure; they cause losses through their negligence and inattentive behaviors. These financial implications create a tangible loss in your inventory, and an increase to your merchandise costs due to repurchasing your inventory to satisfy necessary stock levels.

The next level of damage comes in less tangible ways. A bad apple employee can create devastating issue with morale. The worse your employees feel, the less productive they become, and the more they turn off customers who will go some place else to shop. Once it starts, it is difficult and can sometimes take years or massive employee turnover to remedy. Costing you money in lost sales and increased training costs for rehires. It also takes away your productive time as you are spending more time dealing with employee issues.

Finally, a bad hire can be devastating to your financial or proprietary knowledge. Restaurants that have a “secret sauce” have had employees steal the recipe so they can copy it or sell it for their own profit. Are you innovative or have proprietary advantages? Don’t think you are invulnerable to this sort of attack.

Background checks can help you eliminate these hires and these problems before they even begin.

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 

Most businesses rely on a standard application process. Computer generated and screened applications are common in larger businesses with more resources. Smaller businesses still rely on paper applications, since it is easy to purchase a pack of pre-made ones from the local office supply store. Both ways offer little leniency to conduct pre employment screening before a candidate is even interviewed.

What if you started streamlining your application process and allowed applicants to give a better look at their capabilities?

Not every open retail position can have a job posting that allows for specific examples to be included with the application, but there are ways to incorporate tests of their skills.

Ask a potential employee to “sell” you an item, or solve a fictitious customer problem. It can give you a better insight into their skill level and their potential dedication to the job. This can be done in person when the candidate drops off their application, or it can be an essay style question at the end of the application.

Employee background checks are not just about conducting formal pre employment screening. It is also about how to streamline your hiring process to get the best-qualified and most productive employee each time you hire. Save the in depth employee background checks for when you are ready to make an offer of employment.

In the mean time, make attempts to weed out the inexperienced and under motivated candidates before you even feel the need to interview them. Asking real scenario questions gives a better insight into how they will actually perform in the job, which is really what you are wanting to know.

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