Effective Pre-Employment Screening

Competitive economic environment in our times, firms can’t afford being sidetracked by problems involving employees like workplace violence, embellished résumés, theft, harassment, injury claims or embezzlement. The increasing growth of employers turning to pre-employment screening as the critical risk management tool to have chance to avoid having hiring bad employees in the first place, but at the same time, all companies are more cost-conscious as well. With the obvious benefits of pre-employment screening, the management always expects human resources professionals and security to produce big results with fewer resources. The Human Resources professionals and security are facing big challenge and they are finding new ways to carry out pre-employment screening program that is very effective and very cost-effective.

Four Goals of Pre-Employment Screening

One: Avoiding Negligent Hiring

The pre-employment screening program must show that employers use due diligence in the hiring process which means that employers needs to take reasonable steps to find a potential employee that is fit for the available job and protect the employer from negligent hiring lawsuit claims.

Two: Accurate Information

An effective pre-employment screening program gets factual information about the potential employee, to go with the impressions obtained from the interview part of the process. It is also a valuable tool for judging the accuracy of the potential employee’s résumés.

Three: Discouraging Applicants Involved With Crimes

Pre-employment screening is a tool that scares job applicants with something to hide, applicants with very serious criminal records will less likely to apply at a company that announces they have pre-employment screening

Four: Encouraging Applicants to Tell the Truth

Pre-employment screening should encourage job applicants to tell the truth in their résumés, job applications and interviews. And since they know the companies they are applying to have pre-employment screening and background checks, they can uncover information about themselves.

Evolution of Pre-Employment Screening to Mitigate Risk

For employers hiring new employees is a rushed process, especially if the job available is a critical mission. But neglecting to follow through on pre-employment screening will be more disastrous to the company than having an empty employee seat for a couple of months.

A limited pre-employment screening, a lack of checking the facts or single-minded policy about the hiring process could leave a company rushing the hiring process and pick an unsuitable new employee or worse with a tsunami of new liabilities and risks.

The Pre-Employment Screening Basics

There is no bare minimum for pre-employment screening, companies can do whatever they want, but that doesn’t mean they should leave pre-employment screening out of the equation all together. Employers need to look for the right fit for the job available and pre-employment screening will help to make sure that the potential employee is the right one.

Since every description of jobs is different, each place of employment needs to conduct different types of pre-employment screening and evaluation. Employers need to have a standard benchmark pre-employment screening process fir all levels of employment, from the retail cashier job to the CEO Job. A criminal background check is a recommendation in checking for any place the potential employee lived for the last seven years, including the state, city, county and multi-jurisdictional databases and educational verification.

Evolution of Pre-Employment Screening to Mitigate Risk

For employers hiring new employees is a rushed process, especially if the job available is a critical mission. But neglecting to follow through on pre-employment screening will be more disastrous to the company than having an empty employee seat for a couple of months.

A limited pre-employment screening, a lack of checking the facts or single-minded policy about the hiring process could leave a company rushing the hiring process and pick an unsuitable new employee or worse with a tsunami of new liabilities and risks.

The Pre-Employment Screening Basics

There is no bare minimum for pre-employment screening, companies can do whatever they want, but that doesn’t mean they should leave pre-employment screening out of the equation all together. Employers need to look for the right fit for the job available and pre-employment screening will help to make sure that the potential employee is the right one.

Since every description of jobs is different, each place of employment needs to conduct different types of pre-employment screening and evaluation. Employers need to have a standard benchmark pre-employment screening process fir all levels of employment, from the retail cashier job to the CEO Job. A criminal background check is a recommendation in checking for any place the potential employee lived for the last seven years, including the state, city, county and multi-jurisdictional databases and educational verification.

Misconceptions About Pre-employment Screening

Despite their importance, pre-employment screening is often subject to misconceptions and myths. Some of these misconceptions are harbored by employees and job applicants are mostly based on a basic misunderstanding about the process, laws and the very nature around pre-employment screening. To fully appreciate the importance and value of pre-employment screening, debunking the main misconceptions around them is the only way.

Criminal Records Are Signs of Unemployment

Both employers and job applicants tend to have misconception, most employers think that by virtue of having criminal records, a job applicant is not accepted. Most job applicants also think that criminal records mean they won’t get hired and they won’t have a job.

The reality is that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission places certain restrictions on employers who use criminal records as an excuse to deny them employment. One requirement of the commission is that the nature of the conviction must have an impact on the nature of the job available. Also, a lot of employers realized that pre-employment screening and background checks sometimes return false reports. Which means rushing to make hiring decisions can lead them to lawsuits.

Applicants Have No Power

A lot of job applicants believe that they don’t have any powers when it comes to pre-employment screening. Thinking employers have all the cards, which is what some employers also think.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives job applicants all the power. For instance, any pre-employment screening cannot be conducted without the written consent of the applicant.

All Pre-Employment Screening Are the Same

This is the most common misconception among employers, which is what being perpetuated by cheap pre-employment screening firms. The goal is to convince employers that their services are as good as the expensive ones.