Employers often prioritize speed and timeliness when choosing background screening services, believing that the acquisition of top talent depends on efficiently vetting candidates to make hiring decisions as promptly as possible. Although an excessively time-consuming screening process can negatively impact talent acquisition, when employers sacrifice accuracy and thoroughness in background screening, they increase hiring risks, compromise HR compliance, and risk exposure to damaging consequences like negligent hiring lawsuits, employee safety issues, diminished employee retention, and reputational harm.
In this article, we’ll explore the pitfalls of quick background checks in comparison to comprehensive screening that ensures fair and responsible hiring. We’ll offer best practices for adopting a more sustainable background screening strategy that retains efficiency while improving accuracy and thoroughness in the screening process.
The Importance of Background Check Accuracy
While aiming to outpace competitors and fill key positions with qualified candidates, employers sometimes enroll the support of background screening services that emphasize speed over thoroughness. Inevitably, these providers periodically fail to take the extra steps needed to manually verify or responsibly investigate results that require a deeper inquiry. This can lead to the hiring of an individual with a criminal record or even the disqualification of a candidate who is falsely linked to a criminal record due to a common name or another informational error. To avoid increased liability and workforce safety issues, employers should avoid all of the following pitfalls associated with quick background checks.
Incomplete, Inaccurate, or Misleading information
When employers or the background screening providers they work with overemphasize speed, it frequently leads to incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading information about candidates. This can include overlooked or unverified information about past employment, past education, or even criminal background information (pending judgment on an arrest or charge, for instance). These issues could be a consequence of failing to utilize an important database, bypassing education or employment verifications, or over-relying on automation/machine learning to interpret data that should actually be manually verified.
Legal & Reputational Harm
Adopting a background screening strategy that prioritizes speed can cause employers to miss key information in a candidate’s history or provided credentials – ranging from a past criminal offense to employment history discrepancies or even a fabricated/fraudulent degree. This could easily lead to incompetence that causes a workplace accident, a criminal act on the job (or while serving your clients), or even discriminatory hiring due to inaccurate information about a candidate. Any of these incidents could attract lawsuits for negligence, negligent hiring, negligent retention, or discrimination, or other justifiable legal claims that damage the reputation of your organization, decrease employee retention, and lead to noncompliance penalties.
Common or Similar Names: False and Misleading Results
When a candidate with a common name undergoes a background screening, they are occasionally mistaken for another person based on their first or last name. This can lead (for example), to a candidate named James P. Andrews having arrests, convictions, or other adverse findings linked to their name, though the actual records or findings are associated with James M. Andrews.
Background screening providers that prioritize offering the fastest possible results are unlikely to catch these inaccuracies, or to carefully review and verify court or state records that may require an investigation of missing or inaccurate information. Additional information like a candidate’s full middle name, date of birth (DOB), and other identifying information may be required to follow up on an apparent match. Ultimately, a candidate should never be disqualified from a job opportunity due to mistaken connection with another individual’s record(s). Of course, when this occurs and a candidate is denied employment, they may subsequently file a lawsuit that damages the reputation and well-being of the organization that denied them employment due to a flawed screening process.
Discrimination in the Hiring Process
As we just explored, screening mistakes related to common names, missing information, or other data that has not been properly verified can unfairly disqualify a promising candidate from an open position with an employer. When this occurs, it not only harms the employer, but discriminates against a qualified candidate, and could lead to a lawsuit for unfair bias, negligent hiring, or simply cause the loss of a potentially excellent employee joining the workforce.
Employment Screening Solutions and Best Practices
An ideal background screening provider offers a complementary balance of accuracy, comprehensiveness, and reasonable turnaround time on screening results. This turnaround time should never be expedited at the expense of employee, client, and candidate safety. To achieve a balance that supports timely hiring, organizational protection, and workforce well-being, employers should take the following steps:
- Choose a background screening provider that uses a combination of advanced technology and attentive manual verification processes. Human expertise should be a major factor in the screening process when manual verification or deeper inquiries are necessary. This complementary approach ensures that results are returned quickly through fully or partially automated searches then reviewed by professionals who emphasize accuracy.
- Utilize criminal background checks as well as verification services like education verification and employment verification. Although most employers understandably emphasize criminal background checks, candidates are periodically dishonest about their work history or educational credentials, which could majorly increase an organization’s liability in the event of a workplace incident or lead to serious issues with productivity and/or employee retention.
- Conduct involved interviews in conjunction with background screening and verification processes. Especially for key positions, any background check or verification process should be complemented with involved interviews that help you gain a deeper understanding of a candidate’s work ethic, values and other characteristics that impact their suitability for an open position. Interviews are also an opportunity to conduct a truly individualized assessment of a candidate in the event that a criminal record (arrest or conviction) appears during the background screening process.
- Review and remain compliant with shifting local, county, state, and federal regulations that apply to the jurisdiction(s) where your organization operates. As just one example, some states and localities have adopted “ban the box” laws that uniformly forbid the consideration of arrest records during the hiring process. Remaining cognizant of these and other regulations keeps your organization protected and helps you develop internal hiring and screening policies that align with company values and regulatory requirements.
Accurate, Comprehensive, and Timely Background Screening with The Orsus Group
A background screening is only as valuable as the accuracy of the information it provides, especially when incomplete, missing, or inaccurate information leads to unfair disqualifications, future workplace incidents, or lawsuits resulting from negligent hiring. The Orsus Group prioritizes comprehensive and accurate background screening and verification services that help employers hire with confidence: with a full picture of a candidate’s qualifications and suitability for a given position.
Ready to enjoy peace of mind about background screening compliance and informed hiring? Start the process today with The Orsus Group.