It’s simple: The cost of a bad hire far outweighs the cost of a good background check.
Many employers unfamiliar with employment screening mistakenly think they will have to pay $100 or more on screening an applicant. In reality, a good background check is typically less than $50 and should not cost any more than the applicant’s first day of pay. This is a small price to pay to ensure the peace of mind that comes with having done the due diligence necessary to protect your company from negligent hiring lawsuits, theft and workplace violence. Negligent hiring lawsuits, theft and workplace violence results in thousands if not millions of dollars worth of damage to companies who don’t have an employment screening program in place. All too often, the cost of a bad hire can cause a company to go into bankruptcy or even out of business altogether. Sadly, the vast majority of these devastated companies could have prevented any trouble by simply ordering a $25-50 background check on their applicants. Again, it’s a small price to pay to protect your company.
If you’re organization is not currently doing background checks you are very much at risk. Call us today at 877-360-4636 to see how we can protect your company and its employees and customers without breaking your budget.
The following is a good source of information from the NAPBS's publication titled "Pre-employment Screening Guidelines" which goes into more detail regarding the importance of employment screening:
There are a number of reasons why an employer should perform preemployment
background screening. The most compelling reasons are:
Making the Best Hiring Decision
- Gaining a competitive advantage
- Reducing turnover
- Increasing productivity
- Increasing morale
- Reducing risk of business disruptions
- Complying with mandates created by state or federal law for certain
industries (health care, child care, etc.)
- Fulfilling other legal or contractual obligations
Providing a Safe Work Environment
- Protecting organization’s assets
- Fostering peace of mind
- Reducing risk of legal liabilities, including failure to perform due
diligence, negligent hiring, and equitable treatment of applicant pool.
Making the Best Hiring Decision
It has been said that some applicants will only tell you what you want to hear. A good
writer and storyteller can invent a good resume. The Society for Human Resource
Management (SHRM) conducted two separate online surveys on resume inaccuracies. In
August 2004, SHRM reported that sixty-one percent of the human resource (HR)
professionals surveyed said they find inaccuracies in resumes after carrying out background checks. An April 2006 article in the New York Times reports that a study
conducted by ResumeDoctor.com, a resume-writing service based in Burlington, Vt.,
found that 43 percent of the more than 1,100 resumes examined had one or more"significant inaccuracies," while 13 percent had two or more. Michael Worthington, the
co-founder of ResumeDoctor, said the most common transgressions could be found in
three areas: education, job titles, and dates of employment.
By thoroughly verifying information given during the employment process, a company
can improve the chances they are hiring an individual who has portrayed his or her
background, experience, and skills honestly and accurately. Using preemployment
background screening to verify an applicant’s history helps employers make decisions
based upon facts.
Providing a Safe Work Environment
An employer's obligation to maintain a safe place to work also arises from the legal
principles that exist in most states under common law (the body of law derived primarily
from judicial decisions based on custom and precedent, rather than from statutes, codes,
or constitutions). These legal principles include:
- Premises liability (the duty of a property owner to take responsible steps to
guard against reasonably foreseeable violence)
- Respondent superior (an employer’s indirect liability for the wrongful acts of an
employee committed within the course and scope of employment);
- Sexual and other forms of harassment prohibited under discrimination laws
(when threats or violence are motivated by a victim’s protected status); and
- A collection of negligence theories, including negligent hiring (the failure to
properly screen job applicants, particularly for sensitive positions involving a
high degree of interaction with the public); negligent supervision (the failure to
supervise employees and to discipline violators of anti-violence rules), and
negligent retention (the failure to terminate employees who have engaged in
behavior in violation of company policies).
In the April, 2002 edition of Occupational Health and Safety magazine, attorney-at-law
and author of The Safe Hiring Manual, Lester S. Rosen points out that the statistics on the
consequences of even one bad hire are significant. Industry statistics suggest the cost of
even one bad hiring decision can exceed $100,000, taking into account the time spent
recruiting, hiring, and training, and the amount of time the job is left undone or done
badly by an unqualified applicant. In addition, the financial cost from theft, violence, etc.
can be enormous. Additionally, there are other costs that are hard to measure, such as the
harm to employee morale or the entity’s reputation.
Legal Risks and Liabilities
The value of an objective, fair, and competent preemployment background screening is
that it will permit determination of facts not otherwise verifiable or known.2 As such,
employers should pay particular attention to the legal implications associated with the
employment screening process. While employers do not have the duty to provide an
impenetrable island of safety, every employer has the obligation and duty to take
reasonable precautions against preventable harm to employees, customers, and anyone
else visiting the workplace. Under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act and
corresponding state statutes, employers have a “general duty” to protect employees
against “recognized hazards” that are likely to cause serious injury or death. Specifically,
Section 5. Duties
(a) Each employer:
(1) Shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of
employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or
likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees;
(2) Shall comply with occupational safety and health standards promulgated
under this Act.2
Appropriate due diligence is necessary to ensure that the applicant hired does not pose a
foreseeable risk to others with whom he or she might interact while on the job. The
failure to properly screen out dangerous applicants may give rise to a negligent hiring
claim, if the individual intentionally harms someone in the course of his or her
employment.
Another legal risk arises from the inequitable treatment of individuals in the applicant
pool. A properly crafted preemployment background screening program gives all
applicants of equal qualifications equal consideration and does not impose disparate
treatment on anyone or any group. Employers are encouraged to objectively evaluate
each applicant. To the extent it is possible, objective methods should be used to
determine each applicant’s qualifications and suitability for the job. Such fairness not
only provides the employer a legal defense if faced with a claim, but also helps ensure
that the best applicants are consistently selected.
This article is cited from NAPBS publication - "Preemployment Background Screening Guideline" - ASIS. |
