5 Different Types of Background Checks Employers Should Perform

Having your candidates interviewed before hiring is great. You get to have an idea of what they bring to the table. You ask them questions and try and analyse whether they are the right fit for the position you offer. But the process comes with several limitations.

As an employer, you need to ensure that whoever steps through the door of your office isn’t a risk. That means you need to be cautious with a lot more things than just superficially assessing the candidate’s competence.

A third-party background checker can offer great services in this regard. Why? Because there’s a limit to how much you can know about a person. What’s their life and character outside of the interview is crucial to assess. By having some checks, you can have an idea of the type of person you’ll hire.

Here’s a list of background checks that you must consider running on a candidate before finalising their hiring:

Criminal History Check

You’d want to see if someone has some criminal record or not. You do this to try and develop a safe workspace for everyone. There’s no point in hiring a highly competent employee but who could end up being a danger to the staff.

A criminal check helps you assess how much of a threat a person is. Oftentimes it may happen that a person has a criminal record many years ago but are now ready to be a normal part of the community.

If you want to help them have this chance, then sure, that’s up to you. But as an employer, you shouldn’t be in the dark about a candidate’s past activity and have all the necessary information that’ll help you make informed decisions.

Employment Verification

You’d want to see a candidate’s professional past records. A lot of times, people will lie on their resumes to hide something that’s not worth sharing. However, as an employer, you must know the kind of professional record a person holds.

You must know the type of performance a candidate has maintained in the past. If there’s any gap period or something suspicious, then that can be found via employment verification. You may question the candidate and ask them for the justification, but as an employer, you must know their work history.

This check may not be relevant for junior level or entry-level resources but can help a lot when filling up for senior and managers level posts.

Education Verification

A diploma from a prestigious university isn’t equivalent to a professional degree. A lot of candidates spice up their educational achievements to make their CVs shiny and pompous. For instance, they’d attend a 6-week workshop in Harvard and mention it as something else.

As an employer, you must know the right educational achievements of your candidates. That way you can better assess who deserves the job. Those who lie about their educational records might pretend to be something that they are not.

That way, they can easily prove to be an incompetent resource and become a liability for your business than an asset.

Social Media Check

You must try and understand the personality of the person who’s likely to become your candidate. Doing a quick scan through their social media can help you understand their likes and dislikes. Some people may argue what does it matter what a person does in their personal life.

However, remember, the same rules and principles that a person applies to their lives shall come to your workplace. Seeing their interests can help you understand who you are hiring. For instance, if a person has shared a lot of drug-related posts, then you may need to observe caution while hiring them.

Or if they regularly enjoy dark humour, then that’s a red flag you need to factor in before hiring them.

Final Words

Employee background checks are an essential tool that helps employers make better candidate choices. While it is true that people shouldn’t always be judged based on their past, knowing their tendencies can help you have a better idea of who they are.

If you are an employer looking for Employment screening services in the UK, then contact us. We’ll help you with different background checks and help you refine your hiring process.

6 Things to Know About Employment Background Checks in the UK

Background checks are becoming an increasing necessity for employers. There are numerous benefits to this, and employers are increasingly recognizing the utility it brings. However, there are many misconceptions about background checks. For instance, some people think that background checking companies can hack into electronic devices to get information.

That’s false. There are several rules and restrictions that background checking companies have to follow. All that’s done is within the bounds of GDPR. This article shall communicate six things about background checks in the UK that everyone should know:

Some industries have made background checks mandatory

While these checks are an employer’s preference, some industries are making them mandatory. For instance, the security industry or the financial industry.

Primarily because these are sensitive industries, and getting resources without knowing their background can result in severe losses.

GDPR rules are laid out about storing employee data

Employers get a lot of applications, and they have to store the data for business use. The GDPR guidelines have been stated, which inks out the terms about how the data can be used. Here are the points to help you understand the rules better:

  • The company or business that stores the data is liable to protect it against any theft or data breach.
  • The data can’t be stored without the candidate’s consent.
  • The data can be requested by the candidate.
  • The employer must have a legit reason to store the information.

A security check cannot be requested for individuals that’d like to have the data for personal use

According to the law, security checks can only be requested by employers. This is

because they’d like to figure out who they are hiring and prevent making wrong hiring decisions. However, this information cannot be requested for personal interests as it can be used for unethical purposes.

Individuals may have personal grudges with other people. If this rule wasn’t in place then people in power could easily abuse their position to cause harm to someone. While it makes complete sense for businesses to ensure that they don’t hire a wrong resource, it doesn’t make much sense to allow security checks for individual gains.

The costs of background checks vary depending upon their type

Not all background checks are the same. And not all of them are done for the same purposes. There are instances where superficial checks would do just fine. On the contrary, there are other scenarios where an in-depth check is required to see if the person is the right match for the job or not.

So the costs of an employee background check really depend upon what type of check the employer signs up for.

Employers outsource background checks to third parties

It’s a common practice for businesses to outsource background checking processes to professionals. This practice is common because most businesses don’t have the resources to set up a dedicated department for this purpose.

Plus, many small to medium-sized businesses don’t hire that often that they’d need a dedicated department. Hiring the right service is an easy process that gets the task done quickly and the business doesn’t even have to spend a lot of money for it.

Employers can know what value a potential candidate can bring

Background checks don’t just let the employer know about a candidate’s qualifications. The check can also extract out the performance reports of an employee. That way, the employer can know better who they are hiring.

Every business needs the right resource for them to function well. However, it’s not just the skills or competence that matter. What soft skills, ethics, and morals a person must also be thoroughly considered. Because it isn’t always the best talent that pushes companies towards progress.

By conducting multiple checks on a candidate, you can better understand what they bring to your organisation. That’s a great way for hunting gem employees.

Final Words

Background checks for employment help employers understand their potential staff better. By conducting such checks, they can make the workplace safe and productive.

There are several misconceptions about the field. We hope that the above-mentioned points paint a better picture of background checks for you.

Getting your candidates through background checks is a great way to ensure safety and efficiency. Remember, a little incompetent candidate is a better option compared to someone with great talent but who is also a potential murderer.

By running checks, you have a better position in making the right hiring choice.

To know more about background checking or to hire our services, give us a call right away!

What Are Background Checks And Security Background Checks?

Background checks are essential within the hiring process. Some people may argue that that’s an invasion of privacy and that people shouldn’t be judged on their past actions. However, this allows employers to make a more informative decision when hiring.

Any employer knows that bad hiring can cost them a lot more than hiring an undertalented resource. Some people may have wrong intentions, and it is always a better step to know who you are hiring.

This article is about background checks and why they are necessary for employers. First, let’s see what’s a background check:

What’s a background check

Essentially, a background check is verifying if a person is trustworthy and truthful or not. While this can’t ever be determined for certain, running a background check helps you know whether hiring a resource is risky or not.

Usually, this is done to see if the person has a history of detrimental behaviours. If you just want to carry out the hiring process based on what the candidate says, then you are leaving too much to chance.

What’s a security check?

A security check is where you investigate a person and see whether they are or were involved in any criminal activity. They may have a criminal record that’s veiled behind their flashy resume and on-paper competence.

It’s true that everyone can make mistakes, and that a person with a criminal record doesn’t mean they’d do that again. It’s just that it’s better to know who you are hiring, rather than regretting it later.

Here are a few risks that you expose yourself to if you don’t carry out the background check and the security check before hiring:

You may hire incompetent resource

A lot of people are eager to get a job. This means that they’d be willing to be dishonest about their credentials if that can help them get money in their pockets. As an employer, this can be a source of loss for you because you’d be paying for incompetence.

By running a background check on the potential employee, you can at least know whether the candidate is truthful about their credentials or not.

You may hire a criminal

Part of your duty as an employer is to keep your other employees safe. If you don’t run a background check, you expose your existing workers to great risks. Anywhere from small theft to some major crime can happen, and that day you’ll regret hiring the wrong resource.

It’s always better to be safe than sorry, no?

What do you get when you conduct background checks?

Many businesses avoid paying for background checks, but this is something that they may end up paying for later on. You deserve to run the business with peace of mind.

Even if you have to hire someone for their competence despite their history of misbehaviour, you’d be in a better position to manage the resource. It’s better to know the past of a person instead of taking a shot in the dark and trusting everyone that you interview.

By having Security Clearance for the Backgrounds of your employees and candidates, you ensure that the business runs efficiently. Plus, you ensure that the workspace is safe for you and for the other people that work with you.

Money spent on background checks is an investment for your company when you realise the risk that you mitigate via this process. Plus, the professionals know the right way to get the necessary details without breaking any laws.

Get the experts now

If you are looking for a service to vet out the right candidates for you, then you should contact us at The Background Checker. We have the right experts to get the job done for you. Our processes are fast and completely within the legal and ethical boundaries.

We have helped numerous businesses build up safe spaces, and we’d love to do the same for you.

Final Words

Running the candidates through background checks is truly beneficial for businesses. If you’ve read the article so far, then you know the risks that you are exposed to when you hire people without precaution. The rest is up to your good intelligence to decide what’s the best for you and the business.

Background Checks – Identify Theft and how it can affect the workplace and more.

Identify Theft

In the UK, as in many other countries around the world, identity fraud is on the rise. This is where someone pretends to be someone else, usually to avoid arrest or simply to improve their current situation such as a job application. A background check can provide vital information on anyone whose background is considered suspect by the UK authorities and specific databases.

How Is It Helpful?

For example, if an employer does a background check on a potential employee, he or she may find that the prospective employee has a criminal record, including convictions for fraud and forgery or source that the right to work documentation is fake or using somebody else’s. Often if they are seen to be using another true document the owner will not be aware that this has been stolen from their possession or that a counterfeit copy has been created.

Why Are Background Checks Important?

There have been many instances when the UK authorities have caught people who have tried to use another person’s birth certificate to get a UK passport. In most cases, these fake UK identities were designed to provide a cover for illegal activity. For instance, an individual who wants to get a UK passport may falsify his original birth certificate to get one. It has also been witnessed that some criminals try to use British citizenship in order to dodge detection or avoid arrest in another country.

On the other hand, a birth certificate issued in England and Wales can be used as valid proof of age. However, this does not mean that someone can just go ahead and issue someone else’s birth records as a duplicate. Many people do not realize that issuing a duplicate birth certificate is a crime. In fact, such crime is taken very seriously in the United Kingdom. 

Background Checks For Employees

In addition to the need to be careful with your own identity, you must also be careful with the identity of any person you intend to hire for work. With this in mind, it would always be advised to run an ID verification check to ensure that the person you intend to hire is the real person. There are varying levels of the ID verification check that may be suitable for your organization. For this reason, you will need to find a reliable and professional background check company so that you can get hold of the right documents and ensure their validity. The Background Checker provides these services at an affordable rate, also able to provide you with a detailed history of anyone’s background. With a professional service provider, you can relax and expect a safe and secure working or studying environment.

This kind of service provider is available online. All you have to do is visit The Background Checker website and reach out to the team. You can then make your choice and start your online investigation. The results of the investigation/screening process will then allow you to make a more informed hiring decision and therefore limiting the level of risk you are liable to. 

Why Applicant Screening Is So Important for Small Businesses?

Why Applicant Screening Is So Important for Small Businesses?

Not too long ago, a job application, a decent resume and a simple interview were considered enough to hire someone. However, nowadays, news reports and social media news sections are fraught with countless crime stories. Therefore most hiring managers have now become increasingly cautious.

Considering the potential risk, pre-employment background checks have become a common practice. However, the idea of running background checks on one’s existing and prospective employees is still in its infancy. This is why a lot of business owners wonder why it is even necessary. If you also happen to be one of the sceptical business owners, here are some practical reasons to change your mind.

  1. It protects your business from liability

Picture a scenario where you hire someone solely based on their credentials, professional attire and friendly attitude. Since you did not seriously consider background screening, you will likely see the applicant’s different version after hiring.

Most of the time, in similar situations, the hired employee can turn out to be manipulative and sometimes evendangerous. Consequently, the other staff members get adversely affected by the new employee’s practices.

For example, an employee could seriously harm someone. Being a business owner, the liability incident would fall on your lap and defame your brand.

It is every business owner’s responsibility to keep guard of the well being of their employees. Thus, they ought to do everything possible to ensure the security of their hired staff.

  • It helps you determine whether the prospective employee can be trusted to handle money

Financial background check is an integral background checking technique. Hence, by employing background screening, business owners can discern whether their candidates can manage funds. For example, the may have the responsibility to money shuffle to and from stockbrokers.

You can judge one’s cash handling capabilities by observing how one manages their funds. Credit checks also provide valuable information regarding your employee’s financial past.

  • It tells you whether you can trust the employee in future

Unfortunately, not everyone tells the truth about their past in the job interview. Lying about the length of your work experience and glorifying its quality has become so common that people no longer deem it deception.

If you are keen to unearth your candidate’s past work experiences, we would recommend hiring professionals to do the job. A reputable background checking companywould help you find whether your employee is honest or not. Plus, they would help you decipher your candidate’s professional license, spot their educational background and verify their past job experiences.

Many malpractices stem from dishonesty. Therefore most employees prefer an unqualified honest employee over a qualified dishonest one. So if you also want your staff to be loyal and truthful people, background screening is the way to go.

  • It indicates towards your candidate’s performance in their earlier job

Background checks involve reference verification that looks into the employee’s personal and business references. Employers use this information to formulate judgement about their potential employees.

Sometimes, this process includes talking to the employee’s former bosses and colleagues.  Although times change, you will be able to make a better judgement on who you are hiring into your company based on their previous experiences.

Conclusion

Background checks do not just help you learn more about your applicant, but they are also a means to discover traits about your candidate that are not mentioned on their CVor disclosed in their interview.

So if you want to employ resourceful staff, contact The Background Checker today!