Finding the right person for the job can be a challenging undertaking and often the first step in assessing a candidate’s suitability for the role is their CV. But the truth is, not everyone is as truthful as they could be when it comes to listing their qualifications and past experiences. They might lie outright to avoid revealing some past mistake or lack or tweak the details a bit to place themselves in a better light.
What to do? First off, work with a reputable recruitment agency, like us! At Lee Botti and Associates, we take the time to carefully screen and select candidates who are trustworthy, suitable and a good fit for your business. Second, take advantage of our range of recruitment and screening tools, including conducting pre-employment checks.
Pre-employment checks are an important part of the recruitment process, an essential step in making sure you don’t hire someone who could cause damage to your business. Checking and confirming references is a major part of this process but checking that a candidate is who they say there are (and has done what they say they have) now goes beyond calling up previous employers and collecting reviews of the candidate’s performance or behaviour. Pre-employment checks can include confirming education and qualification history, identity and financial verification, as well as vetting a candidate’s social media presence (one that can look very different to what is represented on their CV). Legal checks such as criminal and work permit checks are also a must when it comes to proper screening practice.
Three reasons for conducting pre-employment checks:Assess future performance. Depending on the position, past performance and financial / credit reviews can have an impact on your assessment of a candidate’s ability to do the job going into the future. For example, if the candidate was often involved in disciplinary hearings for an unwillingness to follow company procedures or if they are flagged for financial mismanagement, such as bad credit, you might think twice before employing them to handle money within your business.
Uncover criminal activity. For obvious reasons, candidates are unlikely to reveal past criminal activity but it’s essential to have this information before making a decision whether to make a job offer or not. Criminal activity can range from the dangerous and harmful, excluding certain candidates from ever applying for a position, or no longer relevant, such as in the case of youthful misdemeanours. Either way, to make an educated hiring decision, potential employers need to have all the facts.
Complete due diligence. To stay within the bounds of the law, all employers must ensure that certain employment standards are met. For example, if you hire someone as a driver who doesn’t have a driver’s license or has been charged for driving under the influence and they are involved in an accident, you might end up liable for damages.
Completing pre-employment checks can go a long way to providing a complete picture of your top candidates, over and above screening their CV. Not only will they help you to confirm their previous employment history, qualifications and claims for future job performance, they will give you peace of mind that this is a person you want to hire – that they are able to do the job and are the right cultural fit. And, if you don’t pre-screen, you run the costly risk of hiring (and then trying to fire) the wrong person as well as having to start the recruitment process all over again.
Screening and hiring the right candidates for your business takes time and energy and can cost more than it needs to if you try to do it by yourself. Rather, hire the experts! At Lee Botti and Associates, we can conduct all necessary pre-employment checks as part of our full recruitment and selection process or as a separate service – if you’re not already working with us, send us your shortlisted candidates for thorough reference, credit and criminal checks. We are also registered and trained to take electronic fingerprints and have direct access to qualified labour lawyers.
For all your screening and recruitment needs, contact us today – with over 40 years’ experience across the country, our professional consultants have been trained to help you find the best employees for the advertised position and your business.
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