Talent acquisition and management both need a significant investment of resources and time. A few companies invest resources and hire professional teams to carry out such tasks, while others outsource it to employee background verification companies.
There are overarching benefits of hiring a trustworthy and competent employee, which help employers achieve their business objectives and ensure operational efficiency.
Besides, the employees of a company service make up the work environment at the workplace. Tweaking such an environment can destabilize the entire dynamics.
The outlined consequences may sound abstract, but a lot can go wrong if you hire the wrong people, even if they are proficient workers. The following are concrete examples of the consequences of avoiding background check verification.
False Credentials
A company entrusts its employees to do their jobs well, represent the brand, and improve customer experience. Considering the impact of falsified details, onboarding a candidate without carrying out proper due diligence is not a wise thing to do.
Some cases may involve minor inaccuracies like date discrepancies. Thus, such cases probably will not have such a major negative impact on a company’s image or work performance, but they cannot find such discrepancies without conducting background checks.
However, there can be dire consequences of avoiding verification checks. The prime example of this remains the case of Scott Thompson. The former Yahoo CEO was in the headlines for misrepresenting his college degree, which put Yahoo in a critical position.
Moreover, hiring people with false credentials also impacts the present employees of a company. For instance, if an onboarded employee lacks the education or experience they claim, they might be unfit to do the work. It can affect the performance of the entire team and the bottom line.
The Perils of Cybercrime, Hacking, and Fraud
Gone are the days where you would only associate fraud with instances of inventory theft. In reality, cases of theft and fraud are even higher for a digitally-versed business and financial institution.
For instance, if an employer fails to take into account a candidate’s former history involving cybercrime, it can pose a massive risk to the organization. Employees also have access to sensitive data and information from the financial records and client information.
Hence, businesses must be aware of such issues and carry out a comprehensive screening of new employees. Finding out the details of past work experiences, scrutinizing career gaps, criminal records, etc., can help a company make an informed decision about onboarding people.
The Highly Common Incidents of Negligent Hiring
Avoiding carrying out background checks and not liaising with education or address verification services leads to something known as ‘negligent hiring.’ It is a legal term describing an employer’s liability for an incident that an employee caused when the employer knew the former posed a risk.
For example, a company might hire a delivery driver who gets into such an accident, leading to severe injury and a lawsuit. The plaintiff’s attorney will lead with the question of whether the employer ran a background screening before hiring the person. The employer will be in a better position if they can show they had run due diligence and the records came clean.
An instance of negligent hiring can have dire consequences for a company. Employers can avoid this by simply carrying out background screening beforehand.
Creating Unsafe Conditions for Employees and Customers
It is a legal obligation for employers to create a safe workplace for their employees. Of course, doing so is also in the best interest of the employers. Not carrying out background screening can negatively affect the employees and client relationships. It can also impact a company’s reputation and pose financial risks.
Background screening before hiring employees is a crucial step toward mitigating the risk of avoiding such disturbances and financial fraud. A verification check can highlight instances of any criminal or fraudulent activities. On a side note, background screening has a significant role to play even in reducing on-job injuries.
Final words
As outlined earlier, business owners must prioritize the implementation of background screening in the hiring process. Employee verification checks can help a company minimize AML activities, fulfill compliance requirements, enhance customer experience, maintain workplace productivity, achieve business objectives, etc.
Moreover, it can be a daunting task to build an in-house infrastructure and hire professionals to carry out background checks. But you can save time and resources by partnering with a reliable and experienced service provider like AuthBridge for employee screening.
