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Today's society has created an
environment that requires businesses to be equipped with numerous tools
to protect their employees and investments. One tool, though not
emphasized often enough, is to prescreen employment applicants and to
conduct background checks. Failing to complete these simple steps could
be a result of employers being hard-pressed to find new workers, but the
consequences of not taking these precautions can be staggering.
Consider:
- An HVAC company recently paid $750,000 to a customer who was
raped by a service technician. His employment application indicated
no criminal convictions and the employer did not perform a complete
background check.
- After driving for a telephone company for one week, an employee
was in a traffic accident. The jury learned that the company never
saw the employee's driver's record which had five tickets within 18
months. They awarded the injured party $550,000.
Bad hires can be devastating for a firm. Background checking cannot give
employers everything they want, but there are sources for information;
criminal databases, sex-offender registries, workers compensation
histories, etc. While it might be impossible to safeguard against every
potential act of dishonesty, companies can minimize the chances for
unscrupulous behavior by developing easy to institute background
checking procedures.
To help avoid problems like the examples above, MEP Jobs recommends
every new hire be screened. According to American DataBank's research
statistics from 2002 and 2003:
- 40% of the information on resumes is misrepresented.
- 30% of all business failures are caused by employee theft and
dishonesty.
- Workplace theft tops out at more than $120 billion annually.
Businesses today cannot afford to bypass these precautionary measures.
The small cost you may incur to complete a background check on an
applicant may save you hundreds, thousands, or even millions of dollars
later on. It is important to know whom you are really hiring and to
verify the information in that person's employment application.
Following the proper procedures with an applicant is critical to making
informed decisions and building your firms reputation. With the
necessary tools and measures in place, any business can successfully
protect themselves and their employees against a bad hire.
MEP Jobs is the largest
specialty job board specifically designed for construction-related
industries. Employers using the services available through MEP Jobs have
the opportunity to search an expansive database of job seeker resumes as
well as to post position openings on the job board. MEP Jobs offers the
background checking services as an affordable option for employers
looking to prescreen incoming job applicants. |
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