Employment Screening: Facts Every Savvy Business Owner Must Know

Nine times out of ten, even the smartest business doesn't look for an employment screening service until they've already been victimized. It's normal for people to be unprepared - most people who haven't run into tragedy always think it can't happen to them. But if you take a few minutes to look at the facts, the pure shock will drive any thoughtful business owner to take action!

So, what do you need to know once you've decided to pursue employment screening? Here are the basics:

Fact #1: Employment screening companies are closely regulated by the government...

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires you to give written notice when you're conducting a background check on a potential employee, and if you take any action as a result of that information, you have to tell them the details of what you learned. It's important to cover all your bases to avoid a lawsuit from a disgruntled employee. That's not all -

Fact #2: You can be held legally liable for failing to do a background check.

It's called negligent hiring. According to the results of numerous civil suits, employers are expected to have basic knowledge about employees that interface with customers and the public. According to USA Today, Employers lose 79% of every negligent hiring suit that's brought to court. And the average jury plaintiff award in employment law cases? Over 1.6 million dollars!

Fact #3: Criminal history alone isn't always grounds to dismiss an employee.

The prospect of hiring someone with a criminal background can make many business owners nervous. But legally, your nervousness isn't grounds for dismissal. A prospective employer has to take the seriousness of a criminal offense and its relevancy to your industry into account before taking any action.

Fact #4: Online screening services are a waste of time.

If your business is on a budget, you can be tempted to pay a few dollars a month to membership to a website boasting some massive national database for employment screening.

But the vast majority of online background checking services check in the state or county of residence for the subject. In many cases, that's completely harmless, but if you've actually got something to hide, wouldn't you take some basic action to elude those kinds of searches?

Fact #5: Criminal record searches aren't through.

Public records and criminal background searches don't give a complete picture of an employee or prospect. You should also give thought to:

Aliases.Active arrest warrants.Civil suits.Social media profiles.Other jobs websites.

If you aren't looking at that, then you're getting left behind and missing out on possible red flags. It's vitally important to check out all possible leads relating to the background of a prospective employee. Who they talk to, their conduct after hours, their public profile, and other items from their past could come into play.

A quality private investigator can go a long way in streamlining the employment screening process. A lack of resources isn't an excuse to skimp on this - in business, your success depends on your word and your reputation, and the people you hire have a greater impact on that reputation than almost anything else.

If you want to get professional advice on employment screening, contact Huntting PI right now at http://www.privateinvestigatorservices.org/ for a no-cost, no-pressure consultation.

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Pre-Employment Screening: Hire Professionals Or Suffer The Consequences

It would be great for businesses everywhere if we lived in a world where pre-employment screening wasn't necessary. But the sad reality is, all employees don't have the history, background, and qualifications they claim to have. Employee fraud has always been a problem, but the turbulence in the economy has turned this problem into an epidemic.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners is the world's largest fraud detection organization. According to their research, the average US business loses 7 percent of their revenue a year to internal fraud and theft. That equates to almost a trillion dollars worth of income.

Despite those numbers, plenty of small business owners will still look for a way out of hiring a pre employment screening service. They'll say things like:

I trust the people I hire.I'm in a low risk industry.I just run an online background search.It isn't right to dig into the history of an employee. I just want them to show up on time.

But the truth is, there are con artists who thrive on manipulating the trust of others, and there are people who are so desperate for a position that they'll convince themselves of their own lie before they step into your office for an interview. The need for pre employment screening services isn't limited to college professors and high-powered investors anymore. In fact, small businesses might need to pre-screen more than their bigger counterparts, because one bad apple can spoil the reputation they've worked so hard to create. It's no longer a question of whether you're smart to prescreen. The real question is how to implement it.

So, what kind of pre employment screening service is the right one? Plenty of businesses have looked to save a buck by hiring a firm to do an "online background check" on the cheap. But there are plenty of reasons why you shouldn't trust your pre-screening background checks to an online only firm.

First, every state doesn't have the same level of information available for online queries. You might get some records from sex offender registries, but investigations into stuff like criminal history have to be done in person, and you have to be authorized by the state.

Other states only report partial information, and every state has a different level of commitment towards keeping their online records up to date. When you're doing a background check between borders, you need the steady hand of a professional who knows how to navigate the bureaucracies of each state.

Second, a search engine is only as good as the underlying code. Plenty of online only pre employment screening companies have an expensive, glossy front end to lure in potential clients, but the backend is a cheap script that plucks public information from databases. Part of the reason you see so many companies like this is that the script is sold as a "plug-in" system. These cookie cutter programs get sold to a bunch of sites inexpensively, and they focus their resources on marketing instead of delivering effective results.

When you think of the cost of a corrupt employee, a quality pre-screening company is a minimal expense by comparison.

No matter the size of your business, you need a strong, experienced partner who specializes in pre employment screening, background checks, and criminal record searches. Please don't wait around and let potential problems go unchecked. Visit us at http://www.privateinvestigatorservices.org/ -- we'll give you peace of mind when it comes to the people your business needs the most.

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