Employee Screening / Employee Background Checks

Your business is your livelihood. Can you afford to entrust it to the wrong hands? Employee theft (or "internal theft") is the most common type of business theft you're likely to experience, according to 2003 employment statistics from American DataBank. In fact, while only ten percent of companies ever find out they're a victim of theft, it's estimated that closer to 95% of companies are actually victimized. In many cases, employee theft could have been deterred by adequate employee screenings and background checks (looking for criminal records or other warning signs in a job applicant's past).

It may sound surprising that so many companies are victims of employee theft, considering that 79% of businesses conduct employee screening on some or all of their job applicants in pre-employment background checks (according to a 2006 report from CNN Money). The problem, however, is often the depth of those employment background checks - employers may be missing valuable information about their prospective employees, such as old criminal records involving employee theft.

Is your business digging deep enough with employee screenings to weed out as many potential cases of employee theft as possible? Is your background check policy protecting your business against fraud, embezzlement, and other types of internal theft?

The Importance of Employer Background Checks
An employee screening or background check, in its most basic form, means that you'll verify information found on a job candidate's resume or application form. This kind of background check is vital, given that up to 30% of job applications contain false information and 40% of the information on a job prospect's resume is often misrepresented (for example, the applicant might not fully disclose details of a criminal record).

It's a good idea to take employee screening even further though - specifically checking criminal records, financial issues, and driving records (especially if the job involves driving company vehicles).

You can't prevent internal theft if you don't know who you've hired to work for you - remember these are the people handling your money, customer data, company secrets, inventory, and supplies on a day-to-day basis. Your business can't afford to take a relaxed approach to background checks and employment screening.

Elements of the Employee Screening Process
A truly thorough employment screening / background check will (ideally) include all of the following:

1. Information verification (from a resume or application).
2. Criminal background check.
3. Employee credit check.
4. Drug screening.
5. Driving record check.
6. Past cases of worker's compensation claims or lawsuits filed against past employers.
7. Terrorist watch list check.
8. Sexual offender registry check.

A rigorous employee screening process may stop with the hiring of an employee, or may continue with deeper background checks after the hire (especially in the financial, healthcare, or childcare industries). It's up to you to determine the best course of action in terms of background checks and employment screening programs most appropriate for your business.

The Art of the Employee Background Check (or Who Should Conduct One?)
Handling employee background checks internally (by the business owner or the Human Resources department) may be tempting if you think it could save you money. However, it's usually a better idea to go with professional employee screening services for a few reasons:

1. Employee screening services offer trained investigators.
2. Background checks for detailed employment screening can be time-consuming, taking employees' time away from other important tasks with a more direct effect on the bottom line.
3. A business owner or HR rep may be able to access much of the same background check information, but they're not trained to evaluate all elements adequately together to determine the potential risk in hiring each employee.

You, or a company representative, are too "close" to the decision to conduct a background check in many cases of employee screening. In other words, your judgment may be influenced by irrelevant factors (such as a job applicant coming from your former school, or your HR Manager being the type who wants to cut a working parent a break despite other problems like a petty criminal record from years ago). This makes it impossible for you to act objectively in this phase of the hiring process, making third party involvement in employment screening practices the smarter business decision.