Pre-employment background checks (also known as pre-employment screening) should be the most important aspect of your recruitment process. Not only does the practice ensure better quality hiring, but it also prevents unlawful hiring, as well as legal, reputational, and/or financial damage.
We look at 10 reasons why all companies should invest in pre-employment background checks.
1) Better Quality Hiring
By assessing your candidate’s background, you are more likely to make better hiring decisions and choices. Not only will this decrease staff turnover, but it will also protect your organisation (or your client’s organisation) from the cost of a bad hire. In addition, performing pre-employment background checks will provide a clear picture of your candidate’s experience and credentials.
2) Prevent Legal, Reputational, and Financial Damage to your Company
A bad hire can lead to significant, sometimes irreparable, damage to your organisation. This can range from theft (financial, data, or otherwise) to public defamation. Performing a background check will tell you if your candidate has engaged in any activity that could post a threat to your business. This can be as simple as a DBS check (criminal record check) or credit check, to more extensive, industry-specific checks.
3) Prevents Unlawful/Illegal Hiring
Without a background check procedure in place, you may offer work to a candidate who you can’t legally hire. For example, the candidate may not have the legal right to work in the UK. Or the candidate has a fraudulent qualification certificate. The cost of an illegal hire can be devastating, and in some cases, an employer could face a prison sentence and/or fine.
4) Improves Workplace Safety
The safety of your workplace, including your staff and customers, is likely a high priority for you and your business. To ensure safety isn’t jeopardised, it is essential that new staff are screened to lessen this risk. The things to look out for include a history of violent behaviour, gross misconduct in a previous role, and any crimes relating to theft. We discuss what to look out for in more detail here.
5) Helps Determine Whether A Candidate Is Right For The Role
A candidate who interviews well may be perceived as the ideal person for the job. However, a strong ability to interview does not always mean the candidate has the right skills, experience, or knowledge for the role. Therefore, you should implement a process that assesses your candidate’s work and educational history. Your process should include an analysis of their work history (including all gaps), educational credentials (e.g., certificates), and genuine references.
6) Legal Compliance
Non-compliance is one of the biggest problems companies face. This is particularly difficult for growing businesses and companies bound by regulatory bodies. By performing pre-employment background checks on candidates, you can avoid hiring individuals who are untrustworthy or inadequate for the role. In addition, background checks will help you determine if your candidate has the legal right to work in the UK. In the long term, this will prevent non-compliance issues.
7) Reduce Staff Turnover
With pre-employment background checks, the quality of hiring will be better. As a result, you can expect to see a lower rate of staff turnover, as well as a more productive and trustworthy work force.
8) Data Security
Within the last few years, the emphasis on data security has grown exponentially. When it comes to your candidates and staff, how do you screen them before allowing them access to data? Your pre-employment background checks should look out for behaviour within your candidate’s background that might impose a threat to your company’s data. This can be in the form of a criminal record check, or even a credit check (which some companies and sectors have been known to use).
9) Fraud Prevention
It is a widely known truth that some job applicants will lie on their CV or job application. A survey by CV library revealed that 92.5% of Brits got away with lying on their CV. The most common things that candidate lie about are past employment, qualifications, skills, and experience. Without pre-employment background checks, you could end up hiring ill-experience staff. This could have an impact on business functions, productivity, and quality of service. This is where references are useful, but it may be worth looking into other background checks.
10) Lower Costs
Considering the small cost of implementing a pre-employment background check process, you can expect recruitment costs to lower in the medium/long term. This is simply because of the lower rate of staff turnover, the increased likelihood of hiring competent candidates, and the prevention of financial damage/loss from poor hiring choices.
Software For Pre-Employment Background Checks
Handling pre-employment background checks starts with a policy that is regularly audited to prevent non-compliance, discrimination, and company damage.
It is also important to note that once your candidate has been hired, you still have to perform background checks on them on an annual basis (DVLA, credit check, DBS, etc).
The whole process can be time-consuming and ineffective without a system in place.
Therefore, it is worth considering the benefits of Employment Check Pro.
Employment Check Pro is a secure, fast, and robust platform that offers instant employment checks. Its easy to use and has helped all our clients manage all elements of the screening and recruitment process.
It is designed for all sectors, including aviation, education, healthcare, recruitment, and more.
And not only is it secure, but it is also fast and fully GDPR-compliant.
Pro adds value to both your organisation and to your candidate. Save time and reduce paperwork; all whilst maintaining compliance.
Learn more about Pro here or complete the contact form below to book a demo.
Further Reading
Background Checks – 10 Common Misconceptions
5 Quick Ways To Ensure Employment Checks Compliance