Hiring a new employee can sometimes be a long and exhausting process. So many factors come into play, including verifying a candidate’s claims about their qualifications, employment history, and personal identification information. Fortunately, background checks make the job of confirming a jobseeker’s history easier. Here’s what information can you find by conducting a background check.
Personal Identification Information
Ensuring the person you might hire hasn’t lied about their history is important. Background checks verify their name, birth date, Social Security number, and other identifying marks. Confirming these qualities allows you to avoid hiring someone who is attempting to cover up their past.
Employment History
A comprehensive background check of a jobseeker’s employment history will turn up or confirm previous employers, job titles, employment dates, and more, showing where they’ve worked before and for how long. This verifies the accuracy of their résumé and provides insight about the candidate’s experience, stability, reliability, and performance.
Educational Verification
Some jobs require specific levels of experience, certification, credentials, and education. The right educational background can make or break the decision to hire someone. Educational background checks verify whether the person has the diploma, degree, or other qualifications required for the position.
Criminal Record
There are several myths about hiring ex-criminals who have served time. However, some crimes are dealbreakers when it comes to certain positions. Criminal background checks can reveal crimes and convictions, and pending arrests that may automatically eliminate a candidate from consideration. However, there are laws in place dictating the use of criminal records in hiring decisions, so confer with your legal representative about proceeding, or rejecting, a potential candidate.
Driving Record
If the position involves a lot of driving, then a background check on the candidate’s driving record is in order. Such reports can reveal traffic violations, license suspensions, accidents, and DUI incidents. Most jobs in the transportation industry require a perfect driving record, though consideration should always be given regarding the time of the offense and their driving record since then.
Now that you know what information you can find in a background check, you can confidently move forward in your hiring process. Thorough background checks are essential, but to optimize time and resources, carefully consider which checks are most relevant to the position. Good luck with your search for the perfect candidate!
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