Knowing Your Rights

For people trying to find a job, what are the chances that employers will run employment background checks on you?

The chances are very great, there are 96 percent of employers and human resources professionals say that their companies and organizations do background check services on all of their potential employees and new hires.

What are they looking for? Some employers use credit checks to screen their applicants while others verify the claims that their job applicant made on their résumé and in their job interviews and they also look at the criminal records, news reports and even the sex offender status.

 As a job applicant, the questions that pop up in your mind like what should you know about background check services and what are the preparations to face one?

The First thing to know is that they can’t do any background check services on you without your permission. Employers need to tell their job applicants that they intent to do background check services and they will ask you to send a written permission if you agree to their terms.

If you were not accepted because of something from your background check report, they need to let you know and give you the name of the firm that offered the background checks services and the report.

Pros and Cons of Pre-Employment Screening

There is a dilemma about Pre-employment screening which is controversial among businesses. There are arguments on both sides; some employers feel that they have every right to test applicants for illegal drug use for the safety of other employees while in the workplace and others think it’s not important to hire the right kind of staff for the job.

PROS in Applying Pre-employment screening

Workers who use illegal drugs shows a safety risk in the workplace while businesses face exposure to liability because of workplace accidents that relates to drugs. 20 percent of workers were in fatal workplace accidents and tested positive for illegal drugs and alcohol.

Recovery programs which came from the cost of the company, employers use these to place their employees to recover from drug abuse. Experienced employees that have completed a recovery program are helping the employer without having another applicant to do a Pre-employment screening and without having to train them. Employees who are free from drugs and alcohol are financially, spiritually and emotionally rewarding.

CONS in Applying Pre-employment screening

Random pre-employment screening may foster resentment among the applicants who feel that this is violating their right to privacy and it negatively affects productivity and lost revenues are costing businesses. Workers who are against Pre-employment screening in the workplace are saying it is a violation and they often threaten or sue their employers.

Even if the employee loses the lawsuit, the company will still lose time and money such as attorney fees which also need downtime. Adding a random Pre-employment screening program will cost a lot of money, and results of the employees may end up all negative.

Dealing with Background Checks

Employees will always ask why they are always asked to fill out any background check services. Are they not trustworthy enough for the company to go out of their way to conduct background check services on them?

No need to worry! Being asked to do it is a very good thing, which means the companies you’re interviewing with are professionals. Even though it is a good thing, employees should always know what they’re dealing with and how exactly it does work.

• What are in Background Check Services?

It is the information that will show up if there were any background check services which includes the Social Media Profiles, Records of Properties, Address History, Phone Numbers, Relatives, Neighbors and even Lawsuits of the person being checked.

• Why Is It Such a Big Deal?

Maybe it’s not as important as what you think, but to employers of major companies with high statuses or even a starting one at that point, they are a very big deal. The backbone of every company is their employees, which should always be trustworthy and loyal. If not, companies will always crumble left and right.

Even household employees, people won’t just trust a stranger and let them into their home, even if they say they are kind, caring people. You should always make sure the safety of your company or home, this is important and needs to conduct every time when hiring.

• Protecting a Business

Employees should know how important this is. Businesses have high standards, mostly. Limited resources are a challenge to them, they need to move fast when it comes to hiring, and applicants don’t come in and is immediately hired after coming in the door. Employees have to know that hiring people like them, it adds more to the security risk bar even though they think they are a great candidate for the job. Fortunately, background check services are a thing, a very essential and effective way to secure safety and discover potential problems that could affect businesses.

What to Expect in Pre-Employment Screening

“This is an offer that is contingent upon completion of a respectable and successful pre-employment screening.”

 The sentence that you see above is often heard when you receive a job offer. So does it work and what do what are the things you should expect when uncovered?

Leaving a short-term job, not putting it on their résumés and not mentioning that they don't have the said job anymore will leave many people concerned and it will show up in a pre-employment screening. This is very unlikely, it’s not like your life is open for all to see. Remember that your résumé is a marketing document and you are not required or put anything negative on them, but if asked to write a list of all the jobs, you should do as asked.  Dishonesty is one of the reasons for being fired from a job if you don’t.

What Can We Expect?

• Criminal Records

This is always the first on the list for employers. What kind of crimes, how many counts and what are the possibilities that they might do it again? All of these depend among the different state laws. Along the pre-employment screening process, it will put together a document that will explain what exactly happened and supported by the evidence. But don’t write up your version of the events that happened, we also have to include court documents. Employers who put too much emphasis on criminal backgrounds are also being checked, so expect employers to have some considerations.

• Education

Don’t lie about your educational attainment and never fake your certificates and diploma. Even if you are short on credits because your employer will always find out about it.  Library Fines and other things that can cause a denial of your claim that you received a degree from that school, so fines and other things that need to clear up before you apply for a job. The Public Records includes most Certifications and licenses, they are easy to verify. You can’t just go claiming your driver’s license was not revoked or it hasn’t expired yet.

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.