Pre Employment Screening - Why it's important

Do you really know who you’re hiring?

The resumé may seem impeccable—but 51 percent of all resumés contain inaccuracies concerning employment history, job performance, and educational achievements, according to data provided by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). The candidate may impress your interviewer—but so did the 12.4 million illicit drug users who were employed either full or part-time in 2003 (Bureau of Labor Statistics). Substance abusers are six times more likely to file a workers’ compensation claim, are absent three times more often, and use up to sixteen times as many health care benefits as “clean” employees.

The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 30 percent of all employees are hard-core pilferers while a staggering 80 per-cent would engage in theft if they thought no one was looking. It’s not surprising that employee theft causes one out of every three business failures (U.S. Department of Commerce). The unfortunate fact is that dishonest people and criminals are applying for positions at your company every day. Allowing them in the door exposes your business, your employees, your clients, and your reputation to enormous risk. Just having to replace a poor hire costs 30% of the employee’s annual salary.

Worse, with increasing frequency employers are being held responsible for the actions of their employees—if it’s found that the employer knew or should have known that a particular candidate wasn’t fit for the job. An employer may be found liable if the employee injures a co-worker, customer, or member of the public even if the employee was not acting within the scope of their job duties when the injury occurred. New Jersey employers, may even have an affirmative obligation to report any unlawful employee activity to the police, or face being accused of “negligent hiring.” According to the Workplace Violence Research Institute (WVRI), the average jury award in negligent hiring trials is $3 million.

The Best Defense

Whether you’re a small business or a Fortune 100 company, you need to know who’s actually behind each resumé. That’s why most experts recommend making a thorough background check an integral part of the hiring process. The good news is that the very fact of implementing pre-employment screening—and advertising the fact—yields immediate results. Simply announcing the intention to conduct background checks will often discourage some candidates, particularly those with criminal back-grounds, from applying at your company. Similarly, most substance abusers won’t seek employment at companies with a policy of drug testing. Such a process of self-elimination improves the general quality of candidates avail-able for hire, ultimately leading to an improved work-force. Other benefits of screening include:

• Better attendance and lower turnover
• Reduced health care and workers’ compensation costs
• Less employee theft
• Fewer incidents of litigation
• Increased productivity
• Criminal Background Screening

It’s a common misconception that there’s a true national criminal records database available to the public. One exists, operated by the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), but it’s open only to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. Employers can only obtain criminal records by searching individual courthouses. Most criminal records are stored at the county level in the courthouse that handled the case. Most counties also copy their records to a central repository, where they are stored on a state level. Typically, employers will decide between conducting a state and a county search. If he or she has lived in the same town for the past decade, a county search may be the most cost effective. On the other hand, a person who has moved to several different places within a state is probably a good candidate for a state search. County Searches County arrest and court records are considered the most up-to-date and reliable. Unfortunately, there are over 10,000 courthouses located in 3,145 counties in the country and they don’t share information.

Nor is the type of information provided consistent from county to county. Some county searches cover only felony records, some have a separate search for felonies and misdemeanors, and some include traffic violations.

State Searches

The main advantage of conducting a state search is that the information from many counties may be searched at one time and for a single administrative fee. Unfortunately, information obtained from a state search may not be as timely as data from a county search. Another drawback is that state repositories may maintain only certain classes of records, such as cases with final dispositions, or re-cords of convictions occurring after a certain date. Furthermore, not all state repositories make their records available to the public. Some require a physical visit to the courthouse in order for records to be retrieved.

Screening Policy

Given the complexity of American legal record-keeping, an effective background screening process typically will consist of a combination of several searches. Starting with basic education, employment and social security number verification, an open position may require more focused searches, such as a search of Department of Transportation records for potential drivers, or a Credit History report for cashier or teller applicants. Depending on an applicant’s past work history, a single state search may be required, as well as one or more county searches. Adding to the complexity of the process, any background screening policy must be compliant with Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) regulations. Essentially, employers may use arrest, conviction information, and misdemeanor offenses in the selection process, as long as they consider the whole picture of an applicant. The screening process must also be consistently applied.

Extensis is able to offer our clients a robust menu of screening services at very competitive prices. Extensis will consult with you to ensure that you are getting the information you need to make the right hiring decisions while remaining in compliance with all regulations concerned with this service. The key to a successful screening process is knowing what information you need and how to use it. Extensis can help!

Call Extensis Human Resources at 888.473.6398 for more information.