Hiring a new person for your company can be an exciting time. You get to bring in someone who can blend with your team and help your business move toward its goals. You also get to find a person who’s got the skills you’re looking for, so you can increase your bottom line, develop better marketing, or focus on other valuable changes. But you want to be sure you’re getting a person who is everything they say they are. A national criminal background check can help you do that, and provide you with more peace of mind.
What is a Background Check?
A background check is designed to do exactly what it’s called — check into the background of a specific person. There are different types of these checks, and the one you choose will depend on the information you’re looking for. Some companies do credit checks, while others do criminal background checks. Still, other businesses may choose a screening that looks at both of those areas along with past addresses, relatives, and other information.
It’s possible to get nearly any piece of information from screening, but you don’t want to just spy on people you’re considering for employment. Only focus on the areas that really matter to your hiring process. For example, someone who’s being hired for a banking or finance position might need to undergo a credit check. A person who works with children may need a national criminal background check. Many companies require these screenings, and they’re generally pretty routine — but still very important.
Is a National Criminal Background Check Really Needed?
Not all companies or industries require a criminal background screening, but there are many markets where it’s vital to be hired. Passing a background check is needed for many jobs that work with children or the elderly, along with employment in fields like real estate, law enforcement, and several others.
If your company wants to use background checks as part of the hiring process it can in most cases. But you’ll need to be sure you’re requiring them of all applicants that make it to a certain point in the process. If you only ask some applicants you’ll be playing favorites and breaking the law.
How Can You Get a Quality Screening Before Hiring Someone?
To get a quality screening, you want to hire a company that’s qualified to perform a national criminal background check on your job applicants. Make sure you’re picking a company you can trust, and one that’s established and has good reviews. Background screenings need to be thorough and accurate to be valuable. When you know you’re working with a company that does things right, you’ll feel comfortable with the quality of the results when you receive them.
Since a criminal screening of an applicant’s background could make or break whether you can hire them, you want to be sure the screening company didn’t overlook something or confuse them for someone else with the same or a similar name. That’s happened before, and it could cause issues for your company and the person who applied for the job. By making sure you do your research into the criminal background screening company you hire, you’ll trust their research into your applicants’ pasts.
What Issues Should You Look For?
There are some specific issues you’re probably looking for in a national criminal background check. Depending on your company and industry that could be anything from a criminal past of any type all the way through to one very specific kind of crime. Most people won’t have any criminal background, or they might have something very minor from their younger days. But occasionally there’s someone with a significant criminal past, and most companies won’t feel comfortable hiring them.
For many jobs, a company wouldn’t be able to hire them even if they wanted to, because there are legal requirements for certain types of workers and whether they can have criminal records. There’s no reason to settle for an applicant you don’t know anything about when you can have peace of mind and a candidate you know you can legally hire for the type of work they want to do. A background check can provide you with comfort and knowledge, so you can make the right hiring decision for your business.