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Conducting Employee Background Checks – Why Do It and What the Law Allows

Making the right hiring decisions for your company is critical to your business success. But getting it right isn’t easy.

We all know the negative consequences of making the wrong hire – it can lower your team’s morale, hinder productivity, and even impact customer relations. But did you know that the cost of replacing an experienced worker who doesn’t work out can cost 50 percent or more of that individual’s salary and these costs go up if the employee has specialized skills such as nursing

There are many things you can do to ensure you make informed decisions and hire quality employees and one of them is to use Background checks.

Reasons to Conduct a Background Check

A pre-employment background check can not only save you money in the long run, it can also protect your business. How? If your employees come into direct contact with your patients (for example, in a care capacity) and cause harm to a patient, your practice can be liable if that employee has a criminal record. A background check can also provide insight into an individual’s behavior, character, and integrity.

Which Types of Background Checks Can and Should You Conduct

There are several background checks that you can consider as you build a profile of a future employee. Not all of them, however, are appropriate or even possible for every company. For example, how you may employ the information gleaned during a criminal background check when making hiring decisions varies from state to state. Furthermore, any check on an individual’s credit score or military service requires consent.

Stay Within the Law by Working with a Screening Firm

Many private screening firms will offer complete background checks while helping you stay compliant with the law, although you should concentrate only on checks that pertain to the job at hand unless you need to know every little detail about your next employee and have the budget to pay the costs.

Do Your Own Detective Work

While an outsourced screening firm can help you comply with the law and run the checks your business needs, there are still some basic checks that shouldn’t be ignored that you can do yourself:

  • Verify what’s on the Resume – Call colleges and universities to verify the degree earned and ask previous employers to confirm the applicant’s work history (not a reference just a yes/no confirmation of tenure).
  • Use the Web –You’re not looking for dirt on this one, but a quick web search can actually help you round-out the profile of your future hire, their interests, achievements, and even mitigate information that a formal background check has revealed.

 

HCRC Staffing can help with a full complete background check, please call us for details at 267-251-5275

Brian Torchin

Healthcare Recruitment Counselors LLC

255 South 17th ST suite 2703

Philadelphia PA 19103

www.healthcarerc.com

[email protected]