Your employees are the lifeblood of your company. You will need high-qualified, trustworthy, and hard-working employees to make your business reach heights. Hiring the right talent is a perfect investment for your business so to know if a candidate is perfect for your company or not, a pre-employee investigation is very essential.
Whenever a company holds the recruitment process, its main motive is to hire good employees who get engaged with them for a very long period and work hard for the growth of the company. If you hire employees without any pre-employee investigation, then there are possibilities that these new hires might turn into bad hires in the future which would be a waste for the company in terms of time, money, and other resources. Therefore, a pre-employment investigation is one of the perfect ways to be safe from bad hiring.
What is the need for a pre-employee investigation?
A pre-employee investigation also known as a background check is important to ensure that your company chooses the right candidate to contribute to the business. It is also the perfect way to protect your business from such individuals who may later display fraudulent behaviour in the workplace once they are hired. It also improves workplace safety. A report stated that frauds in workplaces were 21% double in 2018 compared to what it was in 2002 making pre-employee investigations more essential for the companies.
What do you require to conduct a pre-employee investigation?
To conduct a pre-employee investigation of the job applicants, you need their basic details such as the applicant’s full name, date of birth, address, and social security number. You will also need some other information about the candidates such as their credit report, school mark sheets, and other important reports for which you will have to get their permission. Apart from that, an employer also has the right to ask for the social media handles of the potential candidates to check their online presence.
Some statistics show the importance of conducting a pre-employee investigation.
- It was reported that around 85% of job applicants lie on their resumes.
- 45% of the candidates do not reveal the real reasons for leaving their previous jobs.
- It was also stated that almost 53% of job applications are full of inaccurate pieces of information.
What are the several factors of a pre-employee investigation?
The factors that a pre-employee investigation reveals are:
Social Security Verification – The verification of the Social Security Number (SSN) of the candidate helps you to figure out whether they are providing the correct information about their identity or not. It will also reveal if the candidate is eligible to work in the county. An employer may collect the social security records of the applicants by connecting with the Department of Homeland Security or the Social Security Administration.
Criminal records of the candidate – A pre-employee investigation shows up the pieces of evidence of a criminal record of your potential candidate if any. It helps you to determine whether the candidate has participated in any fraudulent activities or crimes previously.
Drug testing – It is one of the major tools of pre-employee investigation. It works as a wall preventing a lack of productivity in the company and helps in increasing employee turnover rates.
Credit check – Pre-employee investigation also involves a credit check that enables the employer to verify the identity of the applicant such as name, address, and contact information. Apart from that, checking the credit records also helps to get an idea about how responsible they are in terms of finance.
Employment history – A thorough background check of the potential candidate also includes their employment history. This can easily be revealed by browsing the internet. A search on the internet will verify the existence of a company and the potential candidate’s qualifications.
How to conduct a pre-employee investigation?
You can either conduct a pre-employee investigation by yourself or you can hire a detective agency in Delhi to do it professionally. There are a few steps that are involved in a pre-employee investigation. They are:
You must inform the candidate before conducting the investigation
It is very important to send an email to the candidate mentioning all the areas that will be checked during the investigation so that your company remains in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). You must also create an attached document with the email and ask them to provide their digital signature on the document which would confirm their consent to proceed with the investigation.
Check out the state laws & regulations about pre-employee investigations
An employer must always remember to go through the specific rules and regulations crafted by the state regarding the areas that can be investigated and what are the details that constitute dismissal for the applicants within your state boundaries. These laws & regulations are available on the website of the Department of Public Safety of your state.
Establish contact with the candidate references
Always ask for at least three contact references of the potential candidates while opening the hiring process. This will help you in verifying the information provided by the job applicants. You can email each of the references to connect over a phone call to discuss the candidate. Being an employer, you may also decide to meet the references or organize a video meeting to verify their real identity.
Take help from a background verification website
Most companies prefer hiring a professional background investigating service to collect details of the candidate such as criminal record, civil record, etc. But, you can even try doing it yourself by using an online background check web portal. These websites might ask for a small number of fees but it is worth paying them.
CONCLUSION
A pre-employee investigation would provide you with all the required information to conclude whether a candidate is suitable to work in your company or not. Employers need to know how to conduct a proper pre-employee investigation to hire the best candidates for their company and save it from future losses. Always remember that conducting a pre-employee investigation would help you to narrow down the candidate pool to the most worthy ones that would work hard to make your company reach heights.
