The Risk of Hiring Without Verifying

A pizza delivery man raped a lady customer. He had been hired without having his past as a sexual offender verified. The price? The company that hired him had to pay the victim $6million in compensation fees.

A school bus driver was found with drugs while on the job. The company that had been contracted to provide bus drivers for the school failed to look into this man's background. The result? The children's parents filed a lawsuit against the school management board for having put their children in jeopardy being driven around by a man in possession of cocaine and a previous record of DUI.

Hire with care

Hire the wrong person for the job and you stand to lose out on a lot, meaning money, reputation, productivity. Not to mention the added risk of having a criminal on board! It's far too common nowadays that companies are hiring applicants with fake education diplomas, criminal records and even pending charges against them because they never looked up their past records. Negligent hiring can come at a heavy price. It's always better to be careful now so you don't get in trouble later.

Record 'wise'

Most reputable companies in the US normally conduct pre-employment checks before employing a new person, even if that person comes with recommendation from their previous employer. This includes at least scrutiny of their driving records, credit reports, criminal history, past education and employment verification. Some jobs that are high security risks or involve handling confidential data require thorough background history search and verification of the facts associated with new applicant background file. Imagine having a criminal in the banking, government, law, military, medical care, aviation or education sectors! It could be disaster just waiting to happen.

Handle with care

Still a decade ago a company had no other choice than hiring a Private Investigator for having a background done. With evolution of the Internet quite a number of all kinds of public records have become available online – that's too for free! Unless you hire a professional investigator or have the screening outsourced from a private or government agency, you may just surf the Internet for information you're anxious to find about person, but doing so implies pitfalls we are not to speak about specifically in this review. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act as an employer you first need a prospective employee's permission before hiring someone to dig into their past.

Be wise

You might face certain unwillingness from an applicant's part while consenting to submit to a background check, since many people just dislike the idea of their past being unearthed and scrutinised by outsider, even if that outsider is legally bound to keep the information private regardless of the nature of the facts. As an employer, you need to know that an applicant can't be denied position just because he or she refused to agree to submit to background check. It may not be because your prospective employee have anything to hide, it may be just due to feeling of having their privacy invaded. After some patient explaining as to why it is important to you to run a thorough check on person applying for this or that specific job, you'll most likely get the permission you are seeking. If you don't get your hands free, then you should realize that all you can do based on the fact of refusal is just take it into account and stay on alert and vigilant concerning hiring that person. First estimate the risks involved, so your decision-making process would be grounded and motivated, for wrong decision may result in facing risk of lawsuit for negligent hiring.