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Why Employment Screening for Small Businesses Is Getting More And More Challenging?

Why Employment Screening for Small Businesses Is Getting More And More Challenging?

For a business to succeed, it needs to have faithful and reliable employees to ensure the company’s safety, suitability, and profitability. To find out what kind of person a prospective employee is, most potential employers will run a background check on the applicants to see whether they are suitable.

Background checks usually show a candidate’s debt, criminal, employment, and court histories so that an employer can make an informed decision about the person being hired by the company. Employment screening for small businesses is essential because since the number of people on hand is limited, everyone needs to be trustworthy, especially if dealing with sensitive information or finances. The problem, however, is that employment screening is becoming increasingly challenging, more so for small businesses, and here is why.

Here are some employee goal-setting tips for HR professionals in the small business domain.

The Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) exists to advance excellence in the screening profession. Not all CRA’s are accredited by the PBSA.

Learn more here. 

Why Employment Screening for Small Businesses Is Getting More And More Challenging?

 

State Checks

Sometimes, background checks aren’t as comprehensive as we would hope they would be. In some cases, background checks only cover information available within the confines of the state or even a smaller jurisdiction such as a county or municipal area. This is an issue because the potential employer doesn’t have a comprehensive image of the applicant since details of their life in other states or jurisdictions may be inaccessible. Before purchasing a background check, you must know the check’s scope definitively, whether it has nationwide coverage or covers the state and local jurisdictions.

Unfair Judgment

Another significant challenge caused by employment screening for small businesses is the fact that information provided by the background checks may cause you to judge an individual wrongfully. Since background reports lack context, it’s easy for an employer to pass up fantastic employees based on what they see on the report. In most cases, even when a charge was dismissed, those details will still show up on the background report. This may prejudice an employer against a prospective employee since they will question the employee’s character. As such, many people lose valuable opportunities, and employers also miss out on the excellent staff.

Incomplete Reports

When it comes to background reports, it’s estimated that about 30% of them are usually incomplete. Potential employers should know that there is always a chance that the information is not comprehensive. It’s impossible to know whether all the relevant companies and government agencies have complete information on an individual. In cases like this, an employer cannot make an informed decision because they don’t know for sure what kind of information is missing. Therefore, in a bid to stay safe, they will choose another candidate deeming the other one as a high risk.

 

Delays in County-Level Criminal Search

One of the most trusted criminal background checks is the county-level criminal search. This one in particular highlights all felonies and misdemeanor charges in the counties a person has lived in going back seven years. This search is done via court researchers who use an individual’s full name and date of birth and can perform a search and send the results. Over time, court documents have been digitized, making the process a lot faster. In some counties, however, this is not the case. The researchers have to do things the old way through the county clerk, which takes significantly more time and may cause the background check to delay.

Although the process of employment screening for small businesses is not perfect, it’s still essential. This way, you have full confidence and trust in your employees that they are good people and can be trusted to work in your business.

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