You might already know how background checks are a rudimentary part of the employee selection process. How well do you know what comprises them?
Nowadays, HR professionals can scrutinize several character issues and résumé claims, spanning everything from references and educational attainments to driving records and social media posts. Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect to find on a typical pre-employment background check.
Different Components of a Background Check Screening
- Verifying Educational Achievements & Job History - Unfortunately, this is something every employer has to do because research shows that a majority of job applicants either lie or embellish their résumés. This is both a fact-checking exercise and a chance to briefly interview their professional references. While you might not disqualify someone for only possessing lukewarm recommenders, it’s often possible to discover a high-performer whose previous boss offered generous praise.
- Drug Tests - Drug screening costs money to conduct, but it makes a tremendous difference, particularly for businesses with several employees or any work involving heavy-duty machinery. This has, however, become more complicated, given the legalization of marijuana in various states. We recommend working with a dedicated HR professional on how to handle positive drug results.
- Driving History - You can obtain a lot from driving background checks as well. This covers license status, when it expires, restrictions, class levels, violations, accidents, crimes, unpaid tickets, and more. Obviously, this criterion is most important if you intend to hire someone who would drive a company vehicle for any reason.
- Criminal History - There are several ways to conduct a criminal background check. For this brief summary, it would be enough to know that these usually go back seven to 10 years and rely on various criminal history databases. Here’s where you’ll find out about their previous addresses, employment history, educational history, sex offender status, arrest records, relatives, and more.
- Social Media Accounts - It’s useful to check an applicant's social media history to gauge how they would behave around other coworkers. This often involves identifying problematic online posts, including illegal behavior, sexual impropriety, violence, and bigotry. A comprehensive search effort will combine human analysts with software programs to comb through a myriad of social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, LinkedIn, etc.
Those are some of the most common items to check during pre-employment screening. Some of this is subjective, but much of it simply involves verifying whether the prospective employee was truthful about what they put on their résumé.
Florida Resources Management offers the most professional consulting and support for all complex HR issues, including background checks, workers’ compensation fraud, and accounting. Since people are your top resource as an employer, it’s essential to find the right ones and treat them well once you hire them. You can contact us anytime at 941-343-6160 to learn more about effective HR management and all our services.