Don’t Sacrifice a Comprehensive Background Check for a Cheaper Price

Running a successful business is often a juggling act. You need to keep a lot of balls in the air, including vital elements like profit and workforce development. While you need to be careful not to overspend, you also can’t afford to scrimp on the important stuff.

It’s a difficult balance to reach, and we completely understand. That’s why we felt it was important to provide the following warning and professional tips to help ensure you’re getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to optimizing your employee background screening process, while still maintaining that balance you need to stay profitable and grow your business.

Where a lot of businesses go wrong

The key problem many businesses run into with their background screening strategy is going to the extremes:

1. They’ll seek out the bare minimum option (even skipping the background screening altogether) to cut costs, or…
2. They’ll insist that every new hire be put through the full gamut of every available background search imaginable, “just to be sure.”

Unfortunately, there are pre-employment screening professionals out there who encourage both of these options (depending on their specific business model), even though neither option is the optimal choice in nearly any circumstance.

The need for customization

When you consider the tremendous differences that exist between two different positions being filled at the same company, then step back to consider all the different company sizes, business models, and industries where employee background screening is either required by law or highly recommended, it becomes easy to understand why a “one-size-fits-all” approach simply doesn’t work.

Every role in your organization has a different combination of skill level, prerequisite knowledge and experience, educational background, and security requirements. Also, different companies doing essentially the same work can vary widely in what’s required of a given position, and two different industries will rarely look alike.

So how much sense does it make to order a pre-built package of screening services for a bargain basement price, and confidently conclude you’re getting exactly what you need across the board? No more and no less.

Because of all the inherent differences in what a pre-employment screening needs to cover for various roles, and the fact that most screening partners work with clients in multiple industries, any pre-built package of minimal necessary services is sure to be lacking in some way if it’s not combined with a thorough understanding of the client’s unique needs.

At the same time, when a prospective employee is applying for a position that doesn’t require the most comprehensive levels of screening, wouldn’t a company be exposing themselves to unnecessary liability (not to mention wasting time and money) by putting them through a pre-built package at the maximum possible level?

Obviously, the better alternative is for any background screening firm to review all the details of the role(s) you’re looking to fill and — using a consultative, partnering approach — build out a custom suite of screening services that perfectly delivers what each role needs, and nothing that isn’t.

By doing so, the firm can ensure you’re paying as little as possible for the highest possible value in pre-employment background screening… which brings us back to juggling and balance:

If your current background screening partner tends to think and operate in a “one-size-fits-all” manner or makes recommendations at either extreme of the screening spectrum, the experts at NationSearch would love the opportunity to give you a second opinion that’s customized to the unique circumstances of your organization and the role(s) you’re looking to fill.