The hiring process can be lengthy and stressful. As an employer, you want to find the perfect candidate as soon as possible. Unfortunately, it’s never quite as straightforward as that. Regardless, it’s vital that you perform your due diligence and complete the required background checks. If you aren’t convinced, keep reading as we walk you through the top five reasons why all businesses need to conduct background screening.
1) Keeps Your Business and Employers Safe
As an employer, it’s your responsibility to keep your employees safe. Therefore, you need to know precisely who you’re hiring. If you wonder, ‘how long does a background check take?’ and think it isn’t worth the time, consider the risk at hand. Not only are the finances and reputation of your business at stake, but the well-being of your employees could also be at risk.
2) Essential Part of Fraud Prevention
You need to know who you’re hiring. Simply knowing their name and believing what they write on their resume isn’t enough to ensure they’re trustworthy. Businesses lose significant amounts of money through employees stealing funds from the inside. There’s no way of guaranteeing that an employee won’t steal from you, but with the proper screening processes in place, you at least have a better idea of who you could be working with.
3) Protects Your Reputation
It’s not just about the money, either. If your business loses its clients’ data or potentially even their money, your reputation will take a huge hit. No one will want to work with a company that seemingly doesn’t care who they hire. A successful business relies upon the efforts of its employees, so you need to know that they are reliable individuals. If you don’t, you may pay for it later.
4) Ensures Your Cooperation With Data Protection
Speaking of protecting your client’s data, the emphasis on data security will only increase as the years go on. More and more information is stored online or within the cloud, including payment details, addresses, and other sensitive information. It’s your responsibility as an employer to keep your customer’s data safe, which extends to who you choose to employ. Background checks can mitigate the risk of hiring an unreliable candidate.
5) Guarantees Your Applicant is Appropriate for the Position
Lastly, you need to know if your prospective candidate can handle the offered position. They may need specific educational qualifications, previous experience within the relevant industry, or a mixture of both. A 2020 survey found that as many as 78% of applicants lie on their resumes. Most of these are relatively innocuous, but you can’t identify that if you don’t perform the necessary checks.
Don’t Take Risks; Complete Background Checks!
Cutting corners throughout the hiring process will only result in increased risks and a potentially costly outcome. We advise you not to take any risks at all when it comes to building your team. They don’t take as long as you might expect, and the benefits more than make up for it.
