5 Reasons You Need the Help of Employment Screening Services

The Importance of Employment Screening Services

As an employer, one of your most important tasks is hiring. It’s critical to make offers to the right people who will contribute to the success of your company and help your business thrive and grow.

Especially for small businesses, hiring the wrong person can potentially derail your business, endangering its very existence. While this may not be as much of an issue with bigger companies, one bad apple can still ruin the whole bunch, as the saying goes. If you hire someone who becomes a threat to other employees or who simply doesn’t have the knowledge, background, or credentials they claim to have, you jeopardize the success of (at a minimum) the department this individual was hired into.

It takes time, energy, and resources to conduct thorough, proper employment screenings. In today’s blog post, we want to go over five key reasons your company needs the help of employment screening services.

Conducting a Thorough Criminal Records Check

How do you know the person you’re interviewing isn’t a criminal? They may look great sitting in business attire in front of you, answering your questions with poise and a confident smile. The majority of the time, job candidates don’t have a criminal past; however, there are candidates who have committed crimes that you need to know about.

Of course, not everyone with a criminal history is automatically a danger to your company or to coworkers. Many individuals with a criminal record end up completely reforming and becoming upstanding, law-abiding citizens. Perhaps they were young when they committed a crime, and the experience actually helped them grow into a caring, compassionate, and conscientious individual. Such a person could be a great fit and a genuine asset with stellar qualities and the ability to contribute to the success of your business.

But there are individuals hiding a criminal past who may not be the right fit at all. In fact, they may be at high risk of endangering your business or anyone your enterprise interacts with.

For example, you may not want to hire someone to work in your human resources department who has been imprisoned for hacking into private personnel files and stealing sensitive information. In the majority of cases, you’ll also want to steer clear of candidates with a violent criminal history; if you hire this person, you may be putting some of your employees into vulnerable, dangerous situations.

For the safety of your employees, clients, and business colleagues, as well as their families, you don’t want to hire someone who is a sexual predator or has deep-rooted anger management issues. In addition to putting your employees in possible danger, you run the risk of a potential lawsuit against you and your business. For your protection, it’s a good idea to stay clear of individuals with certain criminal pasts.

As part of pre-employment screening services provided by reputable agencies, a thorough criminal records search can be conducted for real-time felony and misdemeanor convictions. County and state courts can be searched for eye-opening entries among the millions of public records that are out there. In addition, specialty databases can be searched, such as the national sex offender registry.

Other specialized searches can be conducted as well. For example, at NationSearch, we do a Patriot Search that assists our clients in their efforts to be compliant with The Patriot Act. Through this search, we can scour key databases including the FBI Most Wanted lists for terrorist activity or crimes against children, just to name a few possibilities.

Providing Necessary Drug Screening

Another huge reason you need employment screening services is for help with doing the necessary drug screening that’s so important in this day and age. Pre-employment drug screening solutions are critical to maintaining a drug-free workplace. What’s more, to maintain the integrity of the testing and the specimen validity, as well as to preserve fairness to each applicant, it’s important to go with a drug screening company that knows what it’s doing.

Depending on your type of business, you may need to conduct ongoing drug screening beyond pre-employment testing. For example, the Department of Transportation requires that professional drivers are tested for a wider range of drugs. Drivers may be required to be subject to periodic testing to ensure compliance for the safety of others on the road. In addition, there are many situations where random or ongoing drug testing needs to take place. Random testing is designed to deter employees from using and abusing drugs.

As you might expect, there’s a right way and a wrong way of doing random drug testing. If you try to create your own program, you may not handle it correctly if you don’t have experience in this arena. It’s best to outsource this task and let a company that specializes in drug screening solution implement a program for you that is fair and unbiased and that works.

Verifying Credentials

Unfortunately, some people lie on their resumes. They’ll list degrees that they never actually earned, or credentials that are completely made up. Do you have the time to check and verify every single piece of information that comes your way? It’s a very time-consuming task. Imagine having 50 applicants for one position and having to verify credentials for each person! It’s a daunting task. You’re best off contracting a company that specializes in employment screening services to do the verification for you. Verifications can include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Professional license verification
• Certification confirmation
• Past employment verification
• Ensuring worker eligibility in the U.S.
• Verification of educational background
• Healthcare practitioner data bank search (to check for malpractice details)
• Verification of any other important credentials and qualifications

Checking References

How many times have you picked up the phone to call references? Many employers completely skip this step because they find it time-consuming and inconvenient. However, an employment reference check can turn up valuable information. If you simply don’t have the time for checking references, an alternative to skipping this step is to hire out these services.

Making Sure You’re in Compliance

Finally, another top reason for getting help from a pre-employment screening services provider is compliance. A reputable provider understands the importance of FCRA compliance. What exactly is this? First of all, it’s the law! FCRA stands for the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and it’s in place to ensure that businesses don’t violate the rights of job candidates. From the standpoint of a business, compliance is especially important because you want to do everything in your power to avoid a federal court lawsuit.

Learn About What NationSearch Can Do for You!

Now that you know five great reasons for getting help with employment screening services, we’d like to tell you a little bit about NationSearch and how we can help you. We provide the screening services discussed in this blog, and we’ve been at the cutting edge of the background screening profession since 1987. Our reliable, formalized process leads to better hiring decisions and, ultimately, improved productivity, retention rates, and even profit for the businesses that work with us.

Based in Northglenn, CO, we serve clients throughout the nation and beyond. We are known for our attention to detail, our commitment to being fully present in every interaction with our clients, our comprehensive yet easy-to-read reports, and of course, the top-quality services we provide that help employers streamline the hiring process. Reach out to NationSearch to learn more about how our pre-employment screening services can be advantageous to you!