Background Check News

Recently many companies have been reevaluating their current employees and decided to conduct wider background checks on these individuals.

In one case the California Board of Registered Nursing decided to conduct a more strict background check on employees hired over ten years ago to coincide with current background regulations. What they found as a result shocked many people, to say the least. Some of the nurses currently employed in California were found to have an arrest record which included many misdemeanor offenses. The most shocking of all came when at least 65 major crimes were located including convictions of murder, sex offenses, assault and robbery.

While new searches and advances come out every day, making background checks more comprehensive, large felonious crimes should have not be missed even ten years ago. Based on these studies we have found that not only is it important to screen new candidates but perhaps those who were hired when background screening was not used or as far advanced as it is now.

If you are one of the fortunate companies who are hiring new employees at this time, now is better then ever to make sure your applicants are who they say they are.  As most people are aware, the recession has had an impact on many different areas of employment.  Congruent to this, we have noticed an inherent increase with the number of applicants who stretch their qualifications or mislead their criminal history in order to bridge the gap between their actual qualifications, and those who are educated and trained correctly for the position.

As you may have heard or witnessed before a common saying amongst those applying for a job is, “Don’t worry about it, everyone lies on their application.�  After doing pre-employment screening for many years we have found that although few, applicants do in fact embrace this negative habit.

Prior to the recession positions in virtually every field were available but now that this has changed, we find that applicants are venturing out to positions that do not fit their education or prior work experience.  Since there are most likely individuals who are more than qualified with the field applying for the same position, the lesser are padding their resumes to the point of providing false information.  With the job market becoming more and more competitive, due to the limited number of positions available, individuals tend to make false education claims or leave out criminal history in order to seem more marketable.

Even through the initial hiring process simple screening of criminal history and education can save time in interviewing applicants that are not qualified or have an extensive criminal record.  Additional screening on applicants that pass the initial process can always be conducted when a narrower applicant pool has been created.  Saving time is on top of any Corporation, Limited Liability Company and Small Business’s cost cutting list and with the ability to outsource employment screening it is a great opportunity to reduce the time wasted on false applicants.