Pre employment screening is an essential hiring activity for most employers, who prefer avoiding lawsuits and hiring someone that is prone to or has made mistakes in the past. Sometimes as a professional investigator I am asked to do a pre-employment screening on top executives.

The main reason Pre-employment screenings are done is not only to avoid lawsuits but also results in a safe workplace, by considerably reducing the risk of hiring an ex-con. That is not to say most don’t slip through the system, but it does alleviate some of the trepidations involved when hiring teachers, bank tellers, and other ethical and secure level positions.

According to professional research, about 25 percent of the job applicants lie about something in their past or on their resume. Many times, the lies are normally regarding previous work including positions work to education accomplishments, while sometimes the lies are graver including the misrepresentation of monetary accomplishments made, or reason for leaving another job. Sometimes Professional investigators are hired in order to minimize confrontational terminations if that issue would ever arise.

The Importance of Pre Employment Screening

Employers usually perform pre employment screening to put off the applicants who have something to hide. One thing I noticed when dealing with pre-employment screening while in the field as a private investigator is that people with falsified qualification or criminal backgrounds will not submit a job application, if they expect that a pre employment screening will be performed.

Pre employment screening, also displays due attentiveness. It demonstrates that the employers have taken all the necessary precautions to get rid of improbability in the hiring process. Additional pre employment screening also promotes honesty among the applicants at the time of the interview.

Majority of the employers also carry out background checks as a part of their pre employment screening procedure. These checks involve the examination of the applicant’s background, comprising of criminal record history, educational achievements and credit history. Some employers also maintain psychometric testing and drug testing, as a component of the pre employment screening process. This process includes scrutinizing a person’s academic records, credit records, driving records, workers payment details, criminal records and personal references.

All employers looking to perform a pre employment screening process have to apply for the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to attain an individual’s background details. This Act is not just limited to credit reports, but additionally includes the consumer reports.

However, pre employment screening does not assure the discovery of every dishonest applicant. Nevertheless, it reduces the probability of an employer, mistakenly hiring a bad employee. Examining the background of a prospective applicant will definitely, minimize the threat of careless hiring and lower the legal proceedings involvement.

These days, it is possible to out source pre employment screening to private investigation firms that deal completely with this issue. These professional investigators take about six days on an average to give a general report on the applicant.



Thanks to Gabriella for contributing this article to our Careers blog:

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