28 Jul 4 reasons to run an employment background check

Hiring a new employee can be risky when it comes to knowing if they will make a great employee for years to come. Many large businesses run employment background checks in house for every hire. When you’re a small business owner; however, you may have some questions about whether running a background check on every new hire is worth the cost. If you’ve been asking yourself whether running pre-employment background checks is right for your company, we have 4 reasons why it’s a good idea.

Safeguard your workplace

When you interview a potential new employee, you make judgments based on first impressions. While many potential employees match their first impression and their resume, others have issues in their backgrounds you may not always be aware of. Running an employment background check can give you peace of mind when it comes to hiring that new employee. Background checks can help you uncover information not on a resume like confirming education and experience, or even past criminal or fraudulent behavior. It also protects you from negligent hiring where one of your current employees can make a claim of injury against you based on hurtful behavior from another employee. The claim will assert that you as the employer should have known about every employee’s history. Running a background check on every future employee can give you and your current employees peace of mind as you protect your workplace.

Make quality hires

There’s nothing worse than hiring a new employee, and finding out later that they are not a good fit for the job or your team. Did you know that managing a bad hire takes 17% of a supervisors time? In addition, 95% of employees feel that a poor hiring decision affects team chemistry and employee morale. Performing pre-employment background checks can help you make more quality hires that are a good match for the job and your team. Background checks can uncover intangibles that are not found on a resume like confirming education and licenses, and will give you direct insights from previous employers like how they work with other people, their work ethic, and previous experience that makes them qualified for your job. When you are armed with information from background checks, you can more easily spot those potential employees that have a track record of longevity and which applicants might raise a red flag.

Reduce Turnover

Performing background checks on every applicant can also help you reduce your turnover rates. Background checks will help you verify accurate information on a resume, confirm experience and education, and identify which candidates have question marks for you and your team. When you armed with all the information before making that offer, it can help you get the best people on the team so that you’re all moving in the right direction. Most employers who perform background checks on any new hire find that their turnover rates decrease by hiring the right employee the first time.

Protect your bottom line

Did you know that according to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost per hire is $ 4,129? That’s a big investment for any small business – not to mention the rising costs of going back to the drawing board when that new hire is not a right fit. When you find out a few weeks into that new hire’s tenure that there’s an issue with their driving record (especially if they are going to drive for your company) or they have some criminal behavior in their past, it can really hurt your bottom line. If you need to let that employee go when new information comes to light, that can increase your hiring costs astronomically. Running background checks for every new hire protects your bottom line as you confidently hire the candidates that are right for the job.

Adding pre-employment background checks can be worth the investment when they help you protect your workplace and team, increase the number of quality hires you make, and protect your bottom line. If you’re thinking about adding background checks to your hiring process, we recommend performing comprehensive background checks, being consistent, and identifying issues that may be a problem for a long-term hire. If you’re ready to get started with employment background checks, we’d love to help. Simply complete our contact form and we’ll be in touch to get you a quote on your unique needs.