The top 4 areas of background checks

Start-ups Agonize Over Employee Hiring.  When You Have A Team Of 3 People And You Add Someone, It Can Dramatically Alter The Social Cohesion Of The Team.  Some Companies Never Recover From A Bad Hire. If You Are Trying To Recruit For A Large Corporate, Perhaps You Should Have The Same Perspective As The Start-up.  

The Recruitment Start-up ReWork took Nearly A Year To Take On Their First Hire. Maybe You Can’t Afford To Wait That Long, But Can You Afford To Make A Mistake? Every Hire Counts And The Wrong Hire Could Kill The Company. 

Below Are The Four Mission Critical Areas Every Hiring Manager Should Review Before Offering A Job To A Prospective Candidate:
 

Employment History

Hiring Any New Employee Is A Long Process, Especially After Advertising The Position On Various Job Boards. It Seems Like There Is A Never-ending Pile Of Candidate Resumes To Review And Interviews To Arrange. 

At Some Point, You Need To Begin The Process Of Winnowing Down The Candidate Pool To Only Those Most Appropriate For The Role You Wish To Fill. Some Employers Use A GPA Threshold For Fresh Grads. For More Senior Roles, There Might Be A List Of Key Companies In Your Industry Known For Rigorous Training.

Whatever The Method You Use, It Will Be After The Initial Screening Stage That You Will Dig Into Individual Employment Histories. When The Candidates Are Shortlisted You Should Verify Their Previous Or Current Employment. 

You Don’t Want To Spend Energy Verifying Employment Of Every Applicant. That’s Why This Step Comes After The Initial Screen. In Some Cases, You May Even Hold Off On Doing A Check Until After A Face To Face Interview.

Some Candidates Are Very Convincing During The Face To Face Interview. However, The most Common Lie people Make On Their CV Are The Dates Of Employment.

Education Qualifications

There Are Lots Of Fake Qualifications Out There. Depending On The Job, Verification Of Candidate Qualifications May Be A Medium Vs High Priority. For Example, If You Deal In A Health And Safety Environment Or An Industry With Strict Compliance Rules And Regulations, Having A Qualified Candidate Is The Bare Minimum.  

However, In Other Industries, Education Qualifications Serve As Either A Signal That The Potential Employee Has The Wherewithal To Do The Job. Or, They Are A Way To Limit The Pool Of Potential Applicants. For Example, A Health Club Requiring That Security Staff Have A College Degree Is Not A Prerequisite For The Job, But It Will Narrow The Applicant Pool. Given The Pressure In Some Industries To Make It Past The Initial Screen, Lots Of Candidates Lie About Their Qualifications.

Earlier This Month, We Highlighted The 10 Biggest Fake Diploma Blunders from Around The World.  To Show That There’s No Dearth Of These Examples, We Found Yet Another Example Of Scholastic Subterfuge. In 2014, A Serbian Minister Claimed A PhD from The London School Of Economics As Well As An Award From The University Of Oxford.  As It Turned Out, He Had Neither.  Simply A Bogus Prize He Bought From A Private Company In England. He Resigned His Post After His Faux Diploma Was Uncovered.
 

Professional Qualifications 

Some Industries Require Specialized Skills And It Is Very Important To Verify The Competence. This Is Something We Cannot Or Should Not Take For Granted. In Some Instances, Accreditation Is Something That Needs To Be Renewed On A Semi-regular Basis. Simply Because A Candidate Was Qualified At Some Point, It Doesn’t Mean They Are Currently In Good Standing.

In Other Instances, Professional Qualifications Are The Bare Minimum To Start The Application Process. You Have An Obligation To Contact The Professional Body Or Their Authorized Agents To Confirm The Candidate’s Professional Credentials.

Knowing The Position For Which You Need To Hire, It Is Crucial That This Review Is Done Early In The Process If It Is A Mandatory Requirement.
 

Social Media 

Last Week We Went In Depth Behind The Increasing Importance Of Social Media Screening. The Hiring Process Has Changed Over The Last 10 Years And This Is An Area Hiring Managers Need To Review More And More. 

This Is An Opportunity To Know The Candidate Other Than What Is In Their Resume. Some Candidate’s Real Personality Is Either In Line With The Company / Country Culture Or At Odds With The Corporate Ethos

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Recently, A West Virginia Woman Got In Hot Water Commenting On Michelle Obama And Melania Trump. Her Off-the-cuff remark On Facebook About The First Lady resulted In An Online Petition Of Over 100,000 People Asking For Immediate Termination.

You Should Tread In This Space With Caution. The Use Of Social Media As A Screening Tool Isn’t A Global Practice And What You Can And Can’t Review Varies By Jurisdiction. For Example, Race, Religion, Sexual Orientation Along With Other “protected Classes” In The United States Can Never Be Used As A Grounds For Denying Employment.  One Way To Protect Your Company From Liability In This Regard Is To Use A Third-party Firm Like CheckBox  To Conduct Social Media Background Checks On Your Behalf.  If You Like This Post, Feel Free To Share With Your Colleagues.