More and more businesses are finding it necessary to screen potential employees, applicants and business colleagues. Relying on gut feel is no longer a viable option.  Rates of resume fraud, white collar crime and identity theft have increased considerably over the past decade.

In order to protect yourself and/or your company from the risk and expense associated with these fraudulent activities, you need to be as knowledgeable as possible about the people you look to hire and do business with.

Backgrounds screening is one of the best ways to increase your knowledge.  The money you invest up front in screening will save you money in the long run.  Pre-screening employees will help you to:

• Hire the top quality candidates from your prospective applicant pool

• Verify training and credentials

• Reduce employee turnover

• Boost productivity, reduce absenteeism and improve profits

• Minimize loss, theft and inventory shrinkage

• Avoid costly workman’s compensation claims

• Lower your insurance rates

• Minimize possible violence in the workplace

• Minimize sexual harassment claims

• Avoid negligent hiring claims and multi-million dollar lawsuits

Screening your individual and business customers and colleagues will help you to:

• Reduce loss of inventory sold to fraudulent or non-existent individuals or businesses

• Issue an appropriate level of credit only to those individuals or companies with an on-time payment history

Years ago, the only way a company could screen potential employees or clients was to hire a private investigator. The costs to do so were extremely expensive, so few companies did so.  These days, the availability of background screening services has increased considerably and as a result, costs have dramatically decreased.

However, companies must be certain to find the right screening services for their needs and budget.  For businesses considering extending credit, screening an individual or company for the presence of identity fraud or whether you run an individual or business credit report will depend on several things, such as your internal policies, the level of credit requested and your own financial strength.  For employers, which background checks you run depends on your industry as well as on the responsibilities of your prospective employees.

Companies need to be certain that their screening policies are appropriate to their needs, and equally important: legal.  Companies should design their applications to collect up front all the information necessary to perform their background screening requirements.  Importantly, companies should work with their legal counsel to ensure that the screening they wish to do, and the information therefore collected, is not in conflict with federal, state or local law.  Companies should consider including an authorization form on their applications, notifying the applicant of background screening that will be performed.

[back to top]