As a business owner or manager, hiring proactive, honest, and visionary staff is essential to drive your company to success. Executives and people in senior positions in your company can be a gem that helps your business shine, or mud that spoils your organization’s image and value. It all depends on who you are promoting or recruiting. That’s precisely why you need to implement screening solutions in your recruitment system to ensure that they are exactly who they claim to be. 

While background checks may seem tedious, this sure-fire method can actually confirm the information on your candidates’ resumes by verifying their backgrounds, leadership, management experience, and technical skills – from education to work experience to certifications and awards – as well as checking the person’s criminal record. This check will reveal any red flags that could potentially affect your business’ trust, security, and bottom line.

Unfortunately, many recruiters make hiring mistakes by waiving background checks. Many do so to minimize integration costs or speed up their hiring process, especially if there is an urgent need to fill a gap left by an outgoing executive or manager. If you don’t confirm how a person represents themselves and consequently make an ill-informed hiring decision, it could be incredibly costly to your company – in more ways than you can imagine. Below are the potential risks associated with not conducting a thorough screening of a person’s background.

Can Break Your Company’s Bank

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Skipping pre-employment screening for executives, especially if your company is struggling with backlogs and a mounting sense of urgency to fill a strategic post, can be tempting. Another executive or a board member may have even referred the candidate, but don’t fall into this trap. No matter the pressures and stress of looking for an immediate replacement, you must remember how important this screening is. This could save you valuable time, money, and many costly and unwanted problems later on.

Sometimes the costs of conducting executive background checks, especially if you outsource the job to a specialized company, may seem high. However, it’s good to remember that there are towering costs associated with not conducting this vital process.

As a business owner or manager, you understand that recruiting and finally hiring an executive is expensive and may be time-consuming. If, after six months, you realize that the manager you hired isn’t able to deliver on your expectations, you would have already spent over $300,000 on the person’s wages, training, and subsequent firing and replacement costs. If you compare this amount to the cost of conducting background checks, the screening cost will no longer seem prohibitive.

Lies and Embellishments in the Resume or CV

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Another hiring loophole that you can avoid with pre-employment screening is false declarations on resumes. A study conducted by a leading recruitment agency in the United States found that 85% of employers discovered false statements on job applicants’ resumes. If you are one of these, you may be employing people who are not exactly who they say they are in their application or resume documents.

You must avoid hiring people who write falsehoods on their resumes. If they can lie to you at this stage, they’ll probably do it again when they get employed, and the results could be far worse. As much as possible, it would be best if you ascertained your candidates’ identity and qualifications by implementing a proven pre-employment screening solution in your hiring process.

Negligent hiring

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“Negligent hiring” is a legal term that describes an employer’s liability for an incident caused by an employee when the employer knew (or should have known) that the employee posed a risk. For example, let’s say a company hires a delivery driver who gets into an accident that causes an injury, which leads to a lawsuit. 

The average cost of a negligent hiring lawsuit is estimated to be $1 million. And, when such cases are brought to court, employers lose about 70% of the time. Given the cost and bad publicity a negligence lawsuit can create, it’s in your best interest to thoroughly vet candidates with a thorough background check. It’s worth every minute—and penny!

Workplace Violence

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Screening backgrounds before hiring is an essential step toward reducing the risk of workplace violence. Convictions for violent crimes are a visible red flag. And drug screening can play a role when it comes to reducing on-the-job injuries, too. Implementing new hire drug screenings at companies across numerous industries reduced worker’s compensation claims by about 50%.

As you can see, it’s time to seriously consider implementing background checks as part of your hiring process. Avoid wasting your valuable time and efforts on toxic hires. You have enough to do in your day without worrying about your business or people being in jeopardy due to untrustworthy new hires. Make your hiring more efficient, cost-effective, and compliant. Work with Brevard Background Check for seamless and accredited professional pre-employment screening services. They’ll help you hire the most qualified applicants, reduce your hiring risks, and ensure your brand’s integrity with the right business leaders.