Who Do You Want? – Criminal Background Checks

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