The Importance of Background Checks For Your Employees

If you’re looking to hire a new employee, you want to know about their history and if they are who they say they are. Many times you won’t have a problem – but what happens if someone isn’t quite who they seem?

Having a background check on a potential new recruit is always the best thing to do, even if you never find a less-than-perfect person. Here’s why you should run checks on even the most trustworthy applicants.

You can check someone’s criminal history with uCheck DBS Checks

Using services such as uCheck DBS checks means you can find out about someone’s history quickly. One of the reasons why a company will run an enhanced DBS check on someone before employing them is to flag any previous criminal history that the applicant may have. If you don’t carry out a CRB check, it may be that you are found liable for an incident because of your negligence. As an example, imagine you hire a driver, and you don’t run a background check. If the driver is then involved in an accident while driving under the influence and it is discovered that they had three previous DUIs, you may be considered liable because you didn’t run a background check. There could be major repercussions especially when it comes to transportation and medical fields so be sure to check out Nebraska background checks before proceeding to hiring.

Knowing about this person’s criminal history means an employer can make a final decision. By using a service like uCheck DBS checks, you can then make safe decisions about recruitment.

You can look at other data from someone’s past

There are particular roles where you will need to know about other aspects of a potential employee’s background that won’t be highlighted by looking at a criminal record. Knowing someone’s credit history, for instance, is an important point to know about for many people.

You may also want to know if they are on any watch lists or offender registers. You could find out if they have been living under different names or aliases, too, which may hide information you don’t know about from criminal records. Checking if they are involved in any court proceedings may be of interest to you as well.

You get peace of mind

Background checks can be a valuable tool for selecting the correct candidate every time. This step can eliminate many future problems for a company when it is used consistently.

As an employer, having background checks mean your candidate is screened, so the experience and credentials they have listed are accurate for the needs of the job. You can also present this person with confidence to your HR manager.

Your policy for background checks should be clear and consistent, though. You don’t want to appear to show favouritism to a candidate or reject one for a reason that’s not supported by the background check (other than insufficient suitability for the role).

If you find something negative from a check, then you may wish to have a policy to speak to the candidate about what you’ve found out about them. It could be there’s a reasonable explanation or is due to a clerical error.