Employee Criminal Background Check

Do you know that employers could be charged with inattentive hiring if it turns out that they hired the wrong kind of employee?

Hiring someone who turns out to have a criminal background is a risky matter. To avoid this, employers conduct an employee criminal background check as an essential part of the interview process nowadays.

A criminal conviction, including gross violations like substance abuse and sexual harassment in an employee's record serves as adequate warning that he or she may be liable to future offensive and inappropriate acts.

Thus, before employing someone, you must not neglect to go through your applicants' records and conduct an employee criminal background check. It is your right as an employer.

Your pre-employment screening should involve several background checks like the following:

• Verification of Social Security number (SSN) – doing this will provide some personal details about a person.

• Checking out the driving history – conducting this would help in getting records like reckless driving and substance abuse. These data can be easily found in the motorist history at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

Further information like accidents encountered and manners on court summons may be obtained. Just by finding out about an individuals' drug abuse problem provides enough insight on how a person might behave in the future.

This could also provide enough grounds to turn down the application.

• Checking credit history information – can be helpful in finding out if the applicant has bankruptcy records.

• Verification of previous employers and referrals – conducting this may just be as simple as calling up the list of previous employers given in the applicants' resume or hiring the services of a professional investigator to verify the data in the resume.

• Looking into the previous employment background - may turn out interesting information about an individual's past case of substance abuse or committing sexual abuse.

• Checking out the worker's compensation history of the applicant can also give you information how fond the applicant is of suing his or her previous employers.

The background checks enumerated above, however, is but a sneak peak on an employee's criminal background. Getting a more comprehensive employee criminal background is still needed, especially if there are already unpleasant details that turned out in your screening.

10 tips to get more out of an employee criminal background check:

1.) Obtain thorough information from the applicant. Do not allow important data like, the schools where he or she attended or the complete address of the company where they last worked should not be overlooked.

2.) Know more about the applicants' address history. Some previous residence search sites involve logging in a person's SSN and name.

3.) Compare the address history the applicant gave against the results of the criminal background checks you already conducted. Inconsistencies may serve as warning signals to probe deeper.

4.) You can also compare the criminal background check results against the previous work locations.

5.) Obtain a report on the applicant's credit history for purposes of employment.

6.) Use several options that would enable you to get the applicant's birth date, legally and use it to run a Criminal History Search.

7.) The employee's previous supervisor and co-workers can provide you with in-depth information about your applicant, aside from the basic previous employment information. Make it a point to find out their names.

8.) Running a Statewide Criminal Search could be helpful, but do not depend on it as the only basis for an employee criminal background check.

9.) Building an Applicant Tracking System is advisable.

10.) Getting a web-based provider for employee criminal background checks can also save you more time.

Do not be negligent in hiring an applicant. Cover all the necessary grounds and you will never hire the wrong kind of employee.