Screening Basics
Most businesses have a variety of requirements that potential employees must meet in order to be hired or even considered for a position. In order to find out more about job applicants, many types of employment background screening are often used.
Background screening can be done for specific information about such items as driving records, criminal records, credit history, social security verification, employment verification, address verification, workers’ compensation claims, professional licenses, education verification, drug screening, and other pieces of information that may be important for employers to know.
This information can help employers make good decisions when hiring new employees. Employment background screening may be the best way for human resources professionals and other people who are in charge of hiring decisions to verify that the information job applicants give on their applications and resumes is correct and true. Screening can also make businesses aware of job applicants that may have problems such as extensive debt or multiple workers’ compensation issues.
Employment background screening can help protect a company from negligent hiring lawsuits, which involve a company hiring a person whom they knew or should have known was likely to act in ways on the job that would create legal liability. A loss in a negligent hiring suit can cost the company millions of dollars for being found responsible for an employee’s actions even while he or she is not working. If a company makes use of background checks as part of their hiring process, they can go back to the background checks later and verify whether or not any issues arose regarding the employee in question before he or she was hired.
Screening Services
While some businesses may be able to support an entire department within the firm devoted to hiring and other practical employment issues, other businesses may choose to pay for a professional employment screening firm to do the work for them. Many such firms exist and can be easily found via business telephone directories and the Internet.
These firms generally charge for their services according to how extensive a background check is desired and what specific pieces of information are in demand. They may charge a certain amount for each specific type of information and allow customers to choose which information they would like to have found, or they may offer a variety of service packages priced according to how much and what specific information will be obtained.
Professional employment background screening firms can be found easily in the same ways that other types of businesses and services are found. Using the Internet is probably the easiest way to get access to information about a wide variety of employment screening companies and compare the services offered and prices charged. In general, it is best to choose a company that has experience in employment screening and providing results in easily-understood forms to clients. These companies should all be familiar with employment law and other issues concerning background checking and should be compliant at all times.
Background screening is a great tool for human resources professionals; it can be easily done by either the company or by another company that specializes in employment screening, and can greatly protect the company against liability.
By Kristin Cleveland