Hiring a new employee is one of the most important things an owner can do. A new person can either fit the team perfectly, and make the whole company better, or they can disrupt the way you work, and create delays and blockages. Because of this, no matter how small or big the position is, you need to make sure that you are hiring the right person.
As we all know, there are a lot of interviews and skill checks every new hire must go through, but there is one additional thing some companies choose to learn about the person before they hire them. Background checks can tell you things about the employee that they may not choose to disclose. Some companies require their hires to share if they’ve been convicted of a crime, or if they have a criminal record, but not every business owner is aware they can do this.
In this 2024 guide, we are going to give you more information about the pros and cons of the process of vetting the person before you give them a chance to work in your company. Continue reading if you want to learn if these checks are the right thing to enforce in your business.
Pros
First, let’s look at the benefits you are going to get from demanding these checks. We are going to talk about some of the most important parts of the background vetting process, and how your company is going to benefit from doing these things when it comes to hiring a new person.
1. Safer environment
Some people have a criminal record because they got in trouble with the law when they were young and reckless, but others may have committed serious crimes. This could affect your business and your employees, and you definitely don’t want to risk the safety of all the people you work with just because of one person.
When you know that the person you are hiring has never done anything wrong, you will be sure that everyone, including your whole business, is safe. You won’t risk someone doing damage to your company, stealing money, or harming someone else. There are many online services on which you can access public information, and do a check without spending a lot of time and money.
2. Negligence liability
This part of the law says that the employer is to blame if they hire someone who is a danger for other people working in the same company. In case you skip the vetting process, and it turns out that the new employee harms someone in your business, they can not only sue the person responsible for the crime, but they will also be able to sue you for negligence.
Even though the safety of your other hires is more important than the money you’d need to pay, you still want to protect yourself and your assets. In case you do a background check for every new person, and if something bad happens, you won’t be responsible for negligence and you won’t have to pay expensive lawyers to prove your innocence in court. You will also save a lot of money in the settlement process, and you won’t have to pay for someone else’s crimes.
3. Verification process
Unfortunately, not everyone is sincere about their work history and education. When someone applies for a new job position, they can list as many experiences as they want, and unless you do a vetting process, you won’t know for sure if they are telling the truth.
When you check the real experience a new person has, and when you know that they really worked in the places they say they did, it is going to be much easier for you to know that you’re giving the right person a chance.
Cons
Now let’s talk about the negative sides of the verification process and how it can potentially damage your business.
1. It’s unfair
The first thing is that if you learn someone has a criminal record, you are going to be biased, and you won’t give the employee a chance. Just because someone made a mistake in the past, it does not mean that they are not changed and that they won’t contribute to your business.
2. Expensive
If you want to do a thorough check, and if you want to learn everything that a new person might be hiding, that can be extremely expensive. If you are the owner of a small company, it won’t cost you too much to check all the new people you are hiring, but if you work at a large corporation, and if there are dozens of new hires every month, it can cost thousands to check the history of each and every one of them.
3. Possible errors
When you check someone else’s history, you need to make sure you are vetting the right person. Sometimes mistakes can happen, and you may end up vetting someone else. There have been known errors in the whole process, and people with the same first and last names can get mixed up. You may lose a valuable addition to your team if you don’t check the right employee. This can also lead to potential lawsuits, and you may have to pay a lot of money to settle just because you were biased.
These are some of the advantages and disadvantages of checking the criminal and working record of your new potential employees. At the end of the day, it is your decision to do or avoid that, just make sure you use the right service in case you decide to go with it.
Hiring the right person is crucial, so do everything you can to find the right addition to your team. Remember that sometimes you need to have a leap of faith and find out if the person you want to hire is going to be good for your business during the interview. Talking to them is going to tell you a lot more than just checking some records. However, if you think that the person’s record may damage your business, you should hire someone else.
