Dear Entrepreneur, this startup is your dream that you have nurtured from years. This is something very close to you and you would want to protect it from any hardships and would want it only to grow, just like a baby and so you would want just the right candidate for the job. Background check for employers is a thorough process until the candidate joins her/his responsibility and amidst the hiring journey background screening is the very first step to ensure the right candidature. Background screening of employees is conducted to get the knowledge of the candidate’s educational details, professional attitude, criminal record etc. A comprehensive screening can ensure the verification of the details shared by the candidate and come across as a convenient risk management tool.
Reasons for Background Check:
- For Quality Hiring – Background Verification can help an employer collect performance-based information about the potential candidate. Performance background becomes all the more important for a startup as a candidate with skills and performing ability can contribute to the growth of the company.
Ensure safeguarding of office assets –
A company’s reputation lies with its employees and so hiring someone with a disagreeable background will not secure the organization’s assets and can also pave way for future legal actions. So, for a startup these risks are to be avoided.
- To avoid negligent hiring – It could so happen that a candidate may fit to required skills but has a debatable record which can affect the credibility of the organization.
- Safety and Security – Considering the jobs where sensitive information is shared with employees, either of the company or customer related, more precautions should be taken for the background screening as misuse of this information can be threatening.
The main idea behind background screening is the need to hire efficient, truthful, decent and skillful individual and in this process to avoid fraudulent and deceive. Deciding upon a background verification, an employer can filter out the one’s not applicable and hire someone who can work towards the growth of the company.
How to do carry out background screening?
By now you know the reasons for conducting a background screening for your hires, but its time we deep dive into the procedure. We will now look into the do’s of a background screening so that the process remains authenticate and transparent.
- First and foremost a well organized and consistent process should be prepared for the background checks and the same should be applicable for every new hire. Background checks should not be biased based on the applicant’s backgrounds.
- As an employer you should be aware of the legal aspects of background screening, such as, you are not expected to unearth some sensitive private information of an applicant and doing so may land you in trouble. So, it is advisable to have onboard a legal advisor for guidance.
- Sometimes a background screening may go wrong and you may land up with some incorrect information, so, it is essential that the applicant is given a scope to review the information collected to clarify the same.
- Always remember to carry the checks complaint to the laws of the state, as again digging up certain information can be anti-law and can lead to legal trouble.
- It is important that the hiring managers are very particular to every information collected during the screening as chances are that a little negligence can lead to missing out something important.
- And finally, the most important is to inform the applicant that you are conducting a background screening.
What are the parameters of a background check?
Now that we are enlightened with the reasons and different aspects of a background check, we will now look at the parameters based on which we are to do our background check.
- Educational Details: Cross checking educational details is important to avoid fraudulent and also to find the right candidate for the required position.
- Address Check: It is important to verify the address of the applicant as that will give an idea about the jurisdiction in which the applicant lived and will allow to verify other background information such as criminal records etc.
- Criminal Background check: Criminal history checks are very important as this ensures the safety of the organization, employees and its customers.
Apart from these important parameters a background screening is also carried on some other parameters such as: Right to work permits, social media, Anti Money Laundering, Visa & Passport verification along with Identity check, Due diligence etc.
To Sum it up
Background verification is very essential for startups as this gives a complete impression of the potential candidate and helps in the right selection of candidates. So entrepreneurs gear up for the hiring procedure and remember to always give a chance to the candidates to review your findings so that you don’t end up losing that asset for your organization who can work hand in hand and take your startup to new heights.
