As a background screening service, one of the most common questions we get is, “Why should my organization use a background screening service?” Here are five good reasons why you should.
1. Make an Informed Decision
When you hire an employee or bring on a volunteer, you likely chose them based on your gut-level impressions as well as the information that they provide to you in their application, on their resume, and during interviews. But what if the candidate lies to you? Or their answers are technically accurate but leave out a pertinent piece of their criminal background?
Background screening can help ensure that you bring on the employee or volunteer you think you are hiring. A reliable, comprehensive background screening service can:
- Check candidate’s criminal background
- Search sex offender registries
- Verify prior employment
- Verify educational background
- Conduct ongoing monitoring of employees and volunteers
- Tailor services for your organization’s needs
The decision is whether to bring on an employee or volunteer despite certain “negative” information in their background check. A background screening simply helps ensure that you make an informed decision.
2. Protect Others
The criminal and sex offender registry checks are a key part of background screening. These checks help protect other employees, volunteers, clients and patrons, and anyone else that would interact with the prospective employee or volunteer. For example, by conducting a background screening, a nonprofit youth sports organization can avoid hiring sports coaches that have a sex crime conviction and thereby help protect the participating children.
3. Avoid Potential Liability
Conducting a background screening helps organizations avoid legal liability, including liability for negligent hiring. Organizations can be liable for negligent hiring if their employee or volunteer causes harm to another employee or a third party and the organization knew, should have known, or through reasonable investigation could have known of the risk of harm.
If a background check was not conducted and could have revealed relevant information like, for example, a propensity for violence, fighting a negligent hiring claim is difficult. By contrast, if a comprehensive background check was conducted and did not reveal any information from which the employer could have recognized the employee or volunteer posed a risk, a solid defense can be raised.
4. Accurate Results
Not all background checks offer the same level of reliability. The results from reputable background screening services are more accurate than self-performed background checks using “immediate” online check services. Many of the immediate background checks use outdated or often incomplete databases and do not independently verify the information.
At BIB, we have the experience and resources to help you evaluate the scope of background screening you need and produce a reliable screen based on your needs. One of the many ways we help ensure our results are accurate is by starting searches based on a residential profile and searching local records, then working our way into broader searches. We routinely find results that would have been missed in an “instant” national database search.
5. Efficient and Tailored Process
Background screening services can help make your hiring process and screening management more efficient. Modern screening services, like BIB, use technology to help you gather candidate information and receive and access screening results. For example, you can access results from multiple types of screens in one place. Additionally, you can set your preferences so that you only have to individually review results that meet criteria based on your organization’s policies.
BIB for Your Screening Needs
BIB offers streamlined background screening with integrity. We screen, test, and verify the backgrounds of employees and volunteers. We have been helping our clients quickly hire with peace of mind since 1995. BIB is a founding member of PBSA and a member of SHRM, AASPA, and NRPA.
Want to learn more about BIB? Contact us at (704) 439-3900 or visit us at www.bib.com.
