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Skeletons in the Closet? 9 Reasons Why Your Small Business Should Conduct Background Checks on Your Employees

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It takes an average of 42 days to fill an open position in the workplace. It also costs business owners about $4,129 to onboard a new hire. 

Adding a new employee is a monetary and time-consuming investment. This makes it smart to undergo a thorough screening process before you fill a position. This ensures you are hiring the best possible people to join your company. 

A background check lets you look into a candidate’s personal and professional history. It allows you to learn about past work performance, education, and professional licenses. You can also gain access to any criminal records and driving violations. 

Read on for 9 reasons you should conduct background checks in your business. 

1. It Builds a Safer Work Environment

Business background checks allow you to cultivate the right people to join your workforce. They help do this by creating a strong network of people you can trust. This places less risk on the company and provides a safer work environment.

A screening process helps you to avoid hiring people who have a history of criminal activity. This includes ex-convicts, thieves, and people with risky legal issues. As hiring these types of employees can reduce workplace safety

This way you can hire people who are best for your business mission and values. It’s one way for small businesses to create a thriving environment with excellent workplace morale.  

2. It Protects Your Other Employees

A business owner gets responsible for the safety and satisfaction of every employee. When you check backgrounds of your employees you’re making a commitment to keeping your current team safe.

This helps to avoid hiring someone who could end up being dangerous. Or someone who is likely to cause issues with other employees. 

Always look into criminal records for charges of previous sexual offenses or assaults. This is especially important for helping women avoid harassment in the office. Employees will also feel safer knowing you abide by a policy that screens every worker. 

Performing an employee credit check can also help protect your business finances. Pulling financial records can show how responsible a person is with managing assets. This is especially important when hiring people for roles that involve money management.

3. It Offers Less Liability

A thorough pre-employment screening process can also help lower your liability risk. Without conducting proper research, you could get held liable if crimes get committed in the workplace. This could include high legal fees, insurance costs, or losing your business license. 

So it pays to pull driving records for potential candidates. This way you can find out if the employee has any history of DUI’s as well as traffic violations. 

Drug testing is another way to decrease company liability and promote a drug-free work policy. Learn more about other types of background checks you can conduct for new employees. 

4. It Meets Legal Requirements

Company background checks are an easy way to meet work eligibility requirements. This ensures you are hiring people who have a legal right to work. You’ll also be able to avoid any issues with immigration. 

Screening is also a way to confirm a person’s true identity. Be sure to always check and verify a new hire’s social security number. This can stop you from hiring a fugitive or person with a false identity. 

5. It Results in Less Employee Turnover 

Note that it takes about 8 months for an employee to reach their full productivity potential. Within this time businesses invest both time and money in their new hires. 

Adding employees also involves administrative duties and lots of paperwork. This makes it especially stressful when someone doesn’t work out or needs to get let go. 

Screening can help you hire the right people from the start to experience less turnover. You get to invest in your employees, presenting them with more growth opportunities.

6. It Attracts Honest Applicants

85% of people lie on their resumes. A background check can help to weed out dishonest applicants. It offers a way to learn if applicants lie on their resumes, which shows they are untrustworthy. 

It pays to be upfront about your background check process. List it in your job posting so interested candidates will be aware.

Doing this may stop unqualified candidates from applying to your company. It’s less time spent looking through resumes and interviewing people with fake credentials.  

7. It Protects Your Business Contacts and Clients 

As a business owner, it is also your responsibility to keep client information secure. Hiring honest and reliable people is an important part of protecting your many business contacts and clients.  

This will help you keep any private information more secure. This includes credit card numbers, home addresses, and personal contact information. Doing this will help prevent a security leak as well as spam and cyber crimes.  

8. It Provides a Fair Hiring Process

Checking backgrounds of your employees is a consistent and fair approach to management. You can set the same policy and process for every single employee you bring into the company. 

This promotes an office culture that does not get molded by favoritism. It treats each employee as equal.  

With screening, always be sure to follow proper compliance laws. This includes written consent to conduct a background check. 

9. It Gives More Confidence in Hiring Decisions

Small business employees can rest assured in their hiring decisions after they perform a background check. It gives a strong peace of mind once you know who you are hiring and have verified their records. It’s another way to protect yourself and your business.  

You also want to speak with past employers to find out about job performance and work ethic. This type of inside knowledge should get used to influence your hiring decision. 

When you feel more satisfied with your new hire this translates well to the employee. This can result in better job satisfaction and higher productivity levels. As it’s an important technique to learn to improve productivity in the workplace. 

Improving Your Business with Background Checks

While background checks are not always required, they can offer more security and satisfaction in the workplace. You’ll feel assured that you’re hiring the best possible person for each role in their company. 

To save on time, there are many resources and companies that offer these services. Yet, always be sure the new-hire gives consent and you follow all legal requirements. Here are more ways to improve your business and build and maintain happy employees.  


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