Today’s most widely accepted best practices for safe and responsible hiring uniformly call for some level of pre-employment background screening. The costs of onboarding individuals who do not have the credentials and experience they claim or who have a history of unlawful behavior are simply too high to ignore. Fraudulent, criminal employees pose a significant risk to your company’s assets and reputation.
The need for reliable background checks has given rise to a wealth of professional background screening companies. Many of these companies promise instant, inexpensive results, but can they deliver? The following takes a brief look at why choosing a professional background screener is a good idea, and what finding a reputable screening partner requires.
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Why Choose a Professional Background Screener?
You have access to the internet and you can type any applicant’s name into a search engine to see what you can find. Why isn’t that a sufficient background check? What can an expert screener provide that you can’t get on your own?
Lower Costs
Surely it must be cheaper to do your own background check than it is to hire a professional. While it might be hard to believe, a DIY check is really not less expensive. Background check costs include time to perform the research plus fees for accessing information. Professional screeners perform thousands of checks; they do them in much less time than amateurs and use economies of scale to keep costs down.
Greater Accuracy
While it may seem like getting information is easy, getting the right information actually takes significant skill. A misspelled name or a missing address can skew results considerably. Criminal record background checks can be quite complicated, as there is no single repository for criminal records. And, if your applicant has lived or worked in a foreign country, the process gets even more thorny. Trained screeners know where to get the information they need and have built-in controls to double and triple-check their results.
Increased Compliance
The laws and regulations governing the collection, use, and storage of personal information are complex and ever-changing. If you are conducting a background check on an applicant on your own, the chances of violating these laws are high. Professional screening companies are vigilant about compliance.
What Should You Look for in a Screening Partner?
Not every background screening company is created equal. Stay away from companies that promise instant, cheap, nationwide results. Instead, look for the following:
- FCRA certification and membership in the NAPBS (National Association of Professional Background Screeners).
- Efficient results. While good background checks are rarely instant, they can’t take forever either. You never want to lose good talent because the background check took too long to come back.
- ATS integrations. Smooth ATS integrations make everything associated with background checks easier for you and the applicant. Built-in compliance tools also give peace of mind.
- Flexible pricing. Your background screening partner should have a pricing model that allows you to get the checks you need at prices you can afford.
Don’t give in to the temptation to cut corners and run background checks on your own. Hiring a professional screening company will give you better results at a lower cost every time.
