This article was sourced from thehrdigest.com
Unsure of whether you’re allowed to conduct employee background checks before hiring? So are our readers but Jane is here to put your fears to rest.
Dear Jane,
I’ve just started expanding my small electronics business and we’re in the initial phase of growing our mini-team into something more substantial. It’s a little scary getting started and there are a lot of things we’re uncertain about, including whether it’s appropriate to conduct background checks on candidates before hiring them. A lot of my friends and family have recommended we make it a part of our practice but we don’t want to start off on the wrong foot with employees and risk upsetting them. After hearing so much about the risks of not knowing who we’re working with, I’ve started to get a little worried too and think they might be right about protecting the business and being selective about who I entrust it to. Now how to do a background check for our employment needs without scaring employees away? Please help!
Dear reader,
Congratulations on expanding your business! It must be such an exciting time for you, even if it does come with a little bit of stress. Your reservations about conducting employee background checks are completely understandable—it includes a lot of work and it’s generally not looked at as a pleasant experience for either the employers or employees. Still, to decide if it’s worth it to your growing business, you might have to ask yourself, “Why are background checks important when hiring an employee?”
WHY ARE YOU CONDUCTING EMPLOYEE BACKGROUND CHECKS?
The employee background check process allows you to verify the details your employees have provided to you and take a closer look at whether there is anything relevant to the job that they have chosen to hide from you. Employee background checks help you avoid legal troubles when hiring someone who might bring undesirable habits and behaviors to your organization such as excessive absenteeism at their previous organization. A candidate who lies about the experience they have on the job may end up hurting your organization almost instantly, so it’s safe to cross-check their references and ensure you have all the right details before you move further with their application. If your background checks are done with this goal in mind, then there’s no harm in reassuring yourself that you’re hiring someone whom you’re willing to trust.
On the other hand, you need to assess whether your reasons for conducting these checks are malicious and whether you have internal biases that will reflect in the process. The employees’ personal lives and preferences outside of your work may have little bearing on how good of a worker they are, but you might find yourself cutting them off your list anyway. Weaponizing background checks is a very serious matter, even if it doesn’t feel like that’s what you’re doing with it. That is why it is important to have your reasoning straight and develop a clear policy on what you’re going to look for via these checks.
HOW TO DO A BACKGROUND CHECK FOR EMPLOYMENT
These checks should ideally be done by trained professionals and should be with very fixed goals and assessment areas in mind. You could hire a company to take care of it or a professional trained to provide such services, just to ensure that it is done the right way, as they’ll know how to do a background check for your employment needs without crossing any boundaries.
They will likely also be in the best position to tell you about the legal conditions and what is and isn’t allowed for background checks. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law that provides the guidelines that need to be followed while conducting employee background checks. You might also do well to inform candidates that you will be conducting background checks as a part of your routine process, just to keep things transparent and secure their consent. Honesty is the best policy, as they say.
Regulations like the Ban-the-box laws require employers to postpone asking about aspects like criminal history right at the start of the hiring process to give candidates a fair chance to prove themselves at work. Take some time out to read up on all the specific regulations in your state surrounding employee background checks and you should be good to go.