Many small business leaders face major issues when choosing their background check options. And the result is often costly.
When you’re a small business owner, choosing the right background checking service is a more demanding and difficult task than it is for a huge corporation, which can draw upon dedicated, more expensive resources. This is the exact reason why Crown Vetting a provider of national security clearance to the Commonwealth started Cleard.life.
Small businesses are the companies that need help the most as they aren’t operating with a huge HR department so they often don’t have a full time HR department, the way that huge corporations do; so they will benefit from the pooled expertise and resources that we offer.
A typical client put it this way:
“We were challenged to find a way to satisfy ourselves that background compliance was being done without losing sight of hiring the right person. What frightened us was getting bogged down in a sensitive or potentially negative discussion with a candidate about their life and (1) not really knowing the right questions to ask (2) how to analyse that information correctly and consistently and (3) come to a sound non-discriminatory conclusion.”
“Thanks to the commitment of Cleard.life to be inside the hiring process, each Candidate went through ten checks and we received the recommendation before the second round of interviews took place. It reduced stress, effort, time and compliance costs. We couldn’t imagine the drama involved in trying to complete 10 checks in the traditional way: it would be in the thousands of dollars, weeks or months of waiting, and a whole HR department for the expertise analyse and assessment. Cleard.life was a solid solution, quick affordable and value for money.”
Unfortunately, many small business leaders may not know how many background checks to use. And the result is often costly mistakes. Here are three of those mistakes leaders can’t afford to make when considering background checks.
1. Believing a National Police Check is the gold standard for pre-employment due diligence
The NPC deliberately do not disclose things they think is irrelevant to you – each state varies on what they think is important for you to know. Any result places a greater legal obligation onto you from a discrimination perspective. No small business owner wants to go to the Human Rights Commissioner to defend their hiring decisions, but this is happening more and more.
Starbucks, Home Depot, Wegmans, Lowes, Avis. Do you know what do these companies have in common? Lawsuits brought against them for “improper” criminal background checks. More than 4,000 of them in the US alone. Class action and individual lawsuits are on the rise.
- Related: 1 in 4 Complaints to the Human Rights Commission are due to Criminal Record Discrimination. Are you next? Read more here
2. Believing that the mental health of a candidate can be always known during a job interview
Now-a-days you cannot ignore the fact that some candidate’s hire “Interview Coaches” who train candidates in positive impression management. And from a Candidate’s perspective, it makes sense to be able to present yourself in the most positive light to an employer. However, if you or your interviewer is going to assess with ‘gut’ instinct or “intuition”, you could be in a distinct disadvantage. Be very careful, because lurking behind a great performance could be the genuine article or maybe not. Finding out about mental health issues after the hiring will cause everyone pain and stress.
- Related: 1 in 4 fail pre-employment integrity tests. Click here
- Related: 1 in 4 potential employees admit to behaviours that most employers consider high-risk. Click here
3. Trusting that your candidate has never had a security violation
In a world where 9 in 10 data breaches involve trusted insiders (mainly to due to negligence) and 1 in 5 data breaches are caused by malicious employees, there is a distinct possibility that your candidate would not want to disclose an incident to you. Maybe you could hope that a Previous Employer Reference would capture that (but not necessarily so because it would be depend on the quality of the referee and the quality of the questions). New data breach legislation states that companies could be fined $1.8 million from the Privacy Commissioner. Do not hire a serial offender.
Whether a company’s goal is to grow into a global enterprise or simply gain 10 new employees in two years, background checks are crucial to mitigating employee risks – be they criminal, mental or eight other risks.
- Related: $1.8m fine for a Data breach? New legislation. Read more here.
Conclusion: So when you are considering your background checking provider, settle on several features that will be key to your selection process:
· the total price of the check/s
· the thoroughness of the assessment
· the qualifications of the assessors
· the speed of the recommendation
· the reputation of the company
Contact us today on (02) 61-71-41-71 or sales@cleard.life or order your first check here.
