3 Great Benefits of Pre-Employment Screening

If you're an employer, you're probably trying to figure out who job candidates are during the interview process. This, however, may not be sufficient to vet them thoroughly. You should consider conducting pre-employment background screening, also known as background checks. Using this investigative process has several significant advantages.

Conducting a pre-employment screening

1. Ensure a Safer Workplace

You want to ensure the safety of your team at work. This is a matter of ethics, business, and law. After all, in addition to being abhorrent, workplace violence can significantly disrupt your business and expose you to liability. A pre-employment investigation is one of the best ways to ensure that a new team member will not turn violent or threatening.

While past behavior is not a guarantee of future behavior, it is the best and most reliable predictor. A background check, for example, may reveal that an applicant has a history of assaults. The last thing you want is to hire someone who could endanger or harm your team members. Not only do you owe it to your current employees, but it could also turn into a costly problem.

Furthermore, people with violent and unstable personalities are more likely to cause disruption in the workplace. It's not just about physical violence. Feeling unsafe at work can be detrimental to both individual and team morale. In short, employment background checks are a must for the sake of your current employees and the financial health of your company.

2. Find Better Employees

You do not have to limit your pre-employment investigation into an applicant to their criminal record. You can also have an investigator investigate their employment history to confirm the claims made on their résumé. When looking at an applicant's work history, it's difficult to tell what's true and what's not. You could contact each of your previous employers, but this would take a long time. Hiring a private investigator to do the legwork for you is preferable.

The benefit of doing so is that you will feel more confident in your new team members. If Triton Canada has reviewed the applicant's work history and discovered that they have held all of the claimed positions and have never been fired or significantly disciplined, this is a good indicator of an honest and capable employee.

3. Lower Your Turnover Rate

Troublesome team members lead to turnover. Either you realize they are not who they claim to be and let them go, or they frustrate and frighten their coworkers. If you hire someone prone to violence unknowingly, other employees are likely to leave because they feel unsafe. You will almost certainly have to fire that employee after some incident. 

If you hire someone who lied on their resume, you will almost certainly have to fire that person due to incompetence. If you don't, they may create a toxic work environment, driving your current employees to leave.

In short, hiring the wrong people can be detrimental to your company's success. Fortunately, by conducting pre-employment background checks, you can greatly reduce the risk of making a bad hire. A simple background check is preferable to doing nothing, so start your check now, and it could save you a lot of trouble and money in the long run.