Can a Background Check Really Prevent a Bad Hire?

Estimated Read Time: 4 Minutes

• Identity verification’s are extremely important when doing a background check to ensure valid identity of an individual
• Verifications evaluate a person’s resume, licenses, educational achievements, employment history, and professional references
• By checking an individual’s background check and not their verification, you are limiting yourself from information about the candidate that you may not know
• Companies can team up with a background screening provider that have verification services already included in the cost that can save them money as well as time

The process of on-boarding new employees is expensive and time consuming, regardless of the industry. As costs for employers continue to rise, hiring managers in all fields are looking to reduce turnover and make smart employment decisions. The consequences of making a bad hire are more far-reaching than one might think. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reports that the cost to recruit, hire, and onboard a new employee can cost an employer as much as $240,000. If you’ve selected the wrong person, you’ve now wasted the money you spent bringing that person into your business. You then are forced to turn around and spend the same amount of money, if not more, on a new candidate. Hiring the wrong person has more than a negative financial effect; a bad hire affects morale within teams, and ultimately results in lost productivity and quality.

What Options Do Hiring Managers Have?

There are steps that hiring managers can take before bringing a new candidate into the workplace to minimize the possibility of a “bad hire.” The most commonly used tool is a background check; however, not all background checks are created equal. When you think about background checks, do you think about verifications? Verifications go hand-in-hand with pre-employment criminal history checks, yet verifications are often lost in the shuffle as hiring managers feel rushed to fill positions as quickly as possible. Verifications can be performed to validate the essential pieces of a person’s resume, including professional licenses, educational achievements, previous employment history, and professional references. Verifications are equally as important as conducting criminal history checks.

Verifications = Time and Money, but They’re Worth It

If verifications are so important, why do many businesses fail to thoroughly check into the education and previous employment claimed by prospective employees? The simple answer is, time. Locating the correct source to provide accurate and complete employment and education verification data can require extensive research, repeated games of phone tag, and multiple follow up attempts to get the information. A thorough review of a prospective employee’s educational background and employment history can consume a hiring manager’s entire work day, leaving them unable to perform the other essential functions of their own position.

Performing verifications is time consuming, but there’s another factor to consider, money. The actual cost of obtaining employment and educational records continues to rise as many employers and educational institutions utilize third party verification services that require expensive annual memberships. In addition to annual memberships, most services also charge a pay-per-verification fee, ranging anywhere from $5.00-$50.00 per verification.

How to Make Your Next Hire Your Best Hire

The time commitment and financial burden combined make a complete background check with verifications for every potential candidate very tedious, if not impossible, task for hiring managers to complete themselves. Due to the proven importance of background screening, many businesses have a working relationship with a background screening company to perform initial pre-employment screenings and annual background checks on current staff. Businesses can save time and money by partnering with a reputable background screening provider. For example, Validity Screening Solutions has established and maintained accounts with more than forty different third-party verification services, which saves our clients money upfront and in the long run. In addition, Validity employs trained Verification Specialists and Criminal Research Specialists who perform live research and verifications for our clients throughout the day, so our clients can truly focus on their own business needs.

Verifications Help Hiring Managers Make Informed Decisions

It’s about making decisions that are smart for your business and for your team. People lie about their education, invent companies, fib about their former job title, and even exaggerate about their number of years of work experience in a field. The Society for Human Resource Management estimates that more than 50% of resumes have lies in them. Employers cannot afford to blindly trust the words written on a resume. If you’re spending time writing a job description and discussing the requirements that a potential candidate must have, the next step must be taken to verify that the applicant actually possesses the skills, education, employment history, and credentials that fit your business needs.

Closing Thoughts

Want to learn more on this topic? Well Check out our podcast episode “Resume Fraud…Uh, Oh”, below, where Robert Sanders and I discuss resume fraud and just how common it really is. We’d also love to know what you think, or answer any questions you may have. So please leave a comment below to tell us your thoughts. If you have any questions, please email me at abishop@validityscreening.com. And for more great blogs and content please subscribe to our blogs here.