Free Background Check – Potential Consequences of Not Checking Out New Staff

When hiring new staff for your business it is absolutely vital that you perform a background check on them, regardless of the position that you are hiring for. This is something which many companies fail to do and given the severity of the consequences that this can have, it is surprising that more companies don’t do it. This isn’t even a check which you’d have to carry out yourself and there are many companies who will be able to do this on your behalf and many offer a free background check when you sign up. If you think that this is something that isn’t necessary, here are just some of the potential consequences which failing to perform a background check can have.

History Repeating

One of the most important aspects of a background check is the criminal history check, something which you absolutely need to  know about before hiring anyone. If you hire someone with a history of violence and they attack someone, or a history of theft and they steal from you, and you didn’t carry out a background check, this could land you in a lot of hot water. It is your responsibly to look after your staff and your business and whilst there is nothing wrong in hiring someone with a criminal history, you should be fully aware of this before hiring someone.

Corporate Manslaughter

One of the most extreme examples that we have seen of someone failing to carry out a background check has been that they were found guilty of corporate manslaughter. This charge relates to someone in effect causing a death owing to being irresponsible. Let’s assume that you hire someone to drive for you and they have a terrible driving record with traffic violations and multiple accidents. If that person is hired without you realizing their history and then causes an accident which results in a loss of life, you could be charged with cooperate manslaughter. This may be something which is improbable but given the severity of the consequence it makes sense to avoid the possibility of it happening altogether. A simple background check could remove any chance of this happening.

Wasted Time

On the less extreme end of the scale you could also find that failure to perform a background check could result in wasted time, energy and resources of the business. If someone lies on their application form or resume and tells you that they have skills and qualifications that they in fact do not, you could find yourself training someone who will never be able to perform the job to the standard that is required. Once you have hired someone it can be difficult to get rid of them and you may be stuck with a useless member of staff. This will not only cost you on training and resources but as a result of this you will then have to go through the recruitment process all over again. Had you checked the background out you could have saved all of this time and effort, all of which costs the company money.

A background check is quick and easy and there is no excuse for not carrying one out for someone that you are considering to hire.