Scary Background Screening Situations

Boo!
Over our 24 years in business, Data Facts has seen many scary surprises hiding deeply in applicants’ histories. Job candidates who look perfect and sound great can still have dangerous skeletons in their closets. Let’s talk about a few scary situations that, if undetected, may leave businesses open to a risky and dangerous hire.

Scary Situation: A witch cast a spell on the resume.
Ok, so this is probably an exaggeration, however, lots of resumes are so phony it seems as if they are an illusion. It’s a fact around 40% of job seekers misrepresent themselves in some way.
Fight it by: look at every resume and application with a critical eye. Verify every bit of information the applicant provides.

Scary situation: The promising applicant turns into a pumpkin after he is hired.
Maybe he dressed in a nice suit, and had perfect answers. But once you hired him, he is unproductive and has a bad attitude, and poor attendance.
Fight it by: obtain reference checks. Check the references thoroughly, verify dates worked, the specific tasks the applicant performed and the overall attitude towards work.

Scary situation: Some of the black cat’s 9 lives were very unsavory.
Job candidates may be hiding a criminal history that would be detrimental to a company’s well-being.
Fight it by: implement a solid plan for checking out potential employees’ criminal histories. This includes, at a minimum, a county criminal search, as well as a national criminal database search. (NOTE: make sure the type of job warrants a criminal search,and that it is relevant to the job position).

Scary situation: The job candidate was a murdering zombie out in Texas.
During the interview process, an applicant may omit entire places of residence. This may be because of a criminal history, bad driving record, a job that ended badly, or other secrets the applicant would rather you not uncover.
Fight it by: be sure to order a social search. This search shows every address associated with a person’s social security number. So, if there has been an omission, this search may uncover it for you.

Don’t be haunted by a bad hire. By doing your due diligence up front, you can avoid falling prey to these scary situations. Make sure you are hiring the best person for the job by utilizing background screening to thoroughly verifying the applicant’s claims. This will help you to maintain a safe and productive workplace.

~~Susan McCullah is the Marketing Project Manager/ Background Screening Division for Data Facts, Inc, a 24 year old Memphis based company. Data Facts Inc -an NAPBS accredited company- is a leading provider of employment screening solutions. Check out our website for a complete explanation of our services.