With the advent of centralized and online background check services, employers are increasingly turning to background screenings of job applicants to minimize their legal and financial risk. There are always concerns of violence, lawsuits, damage to business, wrongful terminations that make employers more selective about job applicants.
Background checks benefit both employers and employees. For applicants, this can mean that the employer is very concerned about creating a secure, trustworthy work environment and that all his colleagues would have been screened too. This directly means an environment of trust, and healthy, productive cooperation.
Screening also helps employers a lot by avoiding unworthy candidates. This helps them save a lot of time, money and resources in the recruitment and training of wrong candidates.
Background check tools can help an employer in following four critical ways:
1. Having a background screening can discourage employees to hide anything. An applicant with criminal record will most probably not apply.
2. It bases hiring process on concrete information rather than just the interviewer's instincts. Interviewers can also be confident about their hiring decisions.
3. A screening procedure during hiring shows that the employer has exercised due diligence. This can go a long way in providing legal protection in case of a lawsuit.
4. It gives a feeling of trust to the applicants that they will find a safe and secure environment within the employer's office and he can trust his colleagues. This adds value and credibility to the employer's organisation.
Fair Credit Reporting Act allows employers to run background screenings on applicants in a set way and hire candidates that qualify the employer's expectations. A screening done on an individual for his professional life isn't considered to invade privacy.
An employer can use one of many online background check services, to get a compiled report of an applicant. Screening companies usually prepare their indexes through a large number of online and offline sources, databases and public records. However, it is possible that a screening agency gives wrong information on an individual. This can leave a job applicant on the mercy of the screening agency and the employer. However, the Fair Credit Reporting Act behests several rights to an individual who is being screened.
For example, the applicant being screened must be notified of the screening. If an applicant believes that information is wrong he/she has the right to get the false information removed. The applicant also has the right to see the screening report. The law is designed to address the insecurities of an applicant being screened.
Screening also helps employers validate any negative information provided by the applicant. Therefore, applicants must always proceed with honesty. If the employer finds invalid information through a third-party, this can seriously narrow the chances of the applicant in getting the job. If an applicant has any criminal history, it must be declared in the application too. A criminal conviction cannot disqualify an individual from employment without considering the nature of offense. Honest work and good job performance can really overwhelm any past convictions.
author is the webmaster of http://www.backgroundtools.com