Background checks are an integral part of your hiring process. Hiring the right candidate can save your business regarding employee morale, client relations, brand reputation, and sales.
Reference checks verify employment history information, in addition to checking professional licensing or credentials. Verification searches, like lawsuits, also look into county or federal civil court records.
Confidentiality
Background checks aim to gather vital intel on a candidate to help inform your hiring decisions. Still, balancing gathering essential information and respecting candidates’ privacy is delicate. Look for a screening partner with a written policy on how searches are conducted, explains the purpose and scope of the search, and includes a straightforward consent process.
You can also look for a screening partner with mobile-friendly workflows, digital consent, and seamless integrations with your ATS. These features will ensure that the process is smooth and transparent for candidates, allowing them to log in and access their reports from any device. In addition, the best background check services offer 24/7 customer support, which can be a lifesaver if you’re facing a deadline to complete a check and need to get results quickly.
Legal Compliance
Hiring the wrong person can be costly, whether a criminal record or a lack of integrity. A background check service can mitigate risks and help businesses make informed hiring decisions that keep their teams, customers, and brands safe.
Hiring the wrong employee can result in negligent hiring lawsuits, which can hurt a company’s reputation and cost it money in legal fees, lost productivity, and damage to customer relationships. A background check service can help employers make informed hiring decisions and save time by reducing the research they must do independently.
A trusted background check service can also save time by automating the process and eliminating human error for more accurate results. Lastly, using a background check service that adheres to FCRA laws and other privacy regulations can protect the business and the candidate from claims of discrimination or illegal use of data. Ideally, the company should have a dedicated team of experts who can answer questions about federal, state, and local laws related to employment screenings.
Safety
Employees are the lifeblood of any business, and hiring the right people is critical for success. A company can face legal liabilities and damage its brand reputation with the wrong employees in critical positions. Pre-employment background screening reduces risk and allows companies to hire the best employees for their business.
A reliable background check service will offer various search options, including criminal records, driving record searches (MVR), employment verification, education verification, and credit checks. Depending on the position, some search options may be more relevant than others. For example, a healthcare role may prioritize criminal checks, while a position in the financial industry might focus more on verifying professional licenses and employment history.
It’s essential to consider the volume of background checks your company will need to run regularly when choosing a provider. Look for a service that offers flexible subscription plans and a customizable client portal for easy reporting.
Time-Saving
Background checks are one part of the hiring process, and they can help you make more competent hires while protecting your business. A good employee can save your company money and reputation. Background checks can help you find the right person for the job, and they can prevent wrongful termination claims by ensuring that your employees are trustworthy.
Many background check companies provide a convenient online experience that allows businesses to place orders and receive results quickly. This helps HR managers and businesses stay on top of their background check workflows. For example, VeriFirst provides a clear timeline and procedure for a pre-adverse action notice when a search returns records that may be relevant to the hiring decision.
The best background check services offer a customer-friendly, digital, and mobile-optimized process that includes candidate consent and ongoing status updates. Some background check companies offer flexible payment plans and pay-as-you-go options to accommodate different budgets and needs. GoodHire is an affordable background check service that offers FCRA-compliant searches, including criminal records, employment and education verifications, driver’s records, and credit reports.