Taking on a new hire and running the risk of skipping background checks can sometimes seem attractive. With competition for talent high, the pressure is always on for getting a new hire onboard and contributing as quickly as possible. However, when someone new enters your workplace, you need to consider the risk that person may be bringing with them. This can range from the reputational damage of an unqualified employee impacting their fellow staff or members of the public, to fraud risk, IP or data theft, or an unsafe workplace.
Carrying out the screening process yourself, perhaps with an eye on cost-cutting, can still leave you open to risk and end up costing your business more than using a specialist screening service in the first place, especially if there are complex legal or global requirements for internal teams to grapple with.
For some professions and sectors there is no option but to screen using a professional service. Regulations and compliance mean this must happen before a candidate enters the workplace. More generally, employers need to be aware if their more senior appointments are, for example, company directors elsewhere who may have conflicts of interest with their new role. In these days of remote and hybrid workforces, any candidate could already be working for other employers, creating conflicts of interests or simply putting into question whether they’re truly free to work for another business in the first place.
What are businesses risking?
Taking on someone without carrying out a professional screening process gives that person the power to decide what they want to tell you about themselves, and that isn’t always going to be the full picture. The risk of skipping background checks such as Accurate’s will cross-check information from multiple sources to give a full and complete employment timeline. This means candidates cannot ‘forget’ to mention a workplace which may not have been so good for them. Education qualifications can also be properly verified, and references thoroughly checked for their origin – rather than leaving the possibility that they have been provided by a friend.
Employers going it alone are also at risk of accepting fraudulent documents or even being targeted by someone who might use an employment service which falsely supplies everything from CVs to references.
How you might be costing your business
The cost of getting a new hire wrong is significant. A bad hire can cost a business months of productivity as well as having to find someone new – a cost which increases with the status of the position. Add to this the cost to the business if the candidate actually acts against their employer – should they commit fraud or steal from the business, should they behave in a way that causes reputational damage – all these issues can be avoided through using a proper, professional screening service. As a result of this, employers can experience a true return on investment for screening, derived from lowering the cost of risk and increasing the quality of hires.
And this kind of service does not present a significant delay to hiring someone. It is worth remembering that professional screening services now offer practically instantaneous checks, giving employers access to reliable information on a candidate swiftly and with minimal disruption to the hiring process. Accurate uses the latest in screening technology and techniques to give their customers what they need when hiring new talent – peace of mind every time.
By using Accurate’s screening service, employers gain an edge over their competitors. They know that when they hire someone, they’re getting the person they think they’re getting – someone who doesn’t come with unknown risks, from financial background to social media – someone who will perform as expected and in a way that drives their business forward.
Want to find out more about how to protect your business from fraud, data theft, unqualified personnel, and more? Chat to our team of experts – fill out the contact form.
