A Ounce of Prevention Equals a Pound of Cure

When To Perform Background Investigation

 

This article intends to highlight the drawback of performing the background investigation after the employment offer has been issued and accepted by the applicant.
The objective of doing a background investigation is not necessarily to discover who to hire but rather who not to hire because of information discovered during the background investigation. This discovery may reveal that the applicant didn’t have the credentials alleged on the application or has exhibited unacceptable dangerous behavior in the past or both.
A decision to do a background investigation is most likely done when you, as the employer, have a candidate to whom you would like to extend an employment offer. An employer can perform a background investigation on the individual during various stages during the hiring process. The major alternatives are either before the offer is extended or after the offer is extended to the individual.
NEWS FLASH!! Up to 8% of people in the workforce population have criminal convictions in their background and various studies indicate from 20% to 30% of prior employment and education may be falsified.
If an employer performs the background investigation before the employment offer is extended, the employer can be assured there are no falsifications on the employment application and no potentially dangerous behavior has occurred in the individual’s recent past. That’s a plus. The drawback is that the employer has unnecessarily incurred the cost of the background investigation should the applicant decide to not accept the employment offer.
In an attempt to avoid the cost of a background investigation if the applicant declines the employment offer, employers sometimes have a policy of performing the background investigation after the offer has been accepted by the applicant. Sounds efficient as long as nothing is discovered that indicates the applicant has falsified the employment application and also does not have unacceptable dangerous behavior in their past.
But, knowing that up to almost one-third of people falsify your employment application, do you really want to postpone doing the background investigation? An employer may think they are avoiding the $50 to $100 background investigation without realizing the cost of waiting and then discovering the individual has major “issues” in their background. Then you have incurred thousands of dollars of on-boarding costs and training only to discover you have to terminate the individual. And, the individual has already left their former position.
We would be glad to help you “run the numbers” to show that doing the background investigation before the offer makes immense economic and business sense in your particular situation.