Telling prospective employees they need to undergo background checks is sometimes awkward, especially when dealing with people with high-qualifications and impeccable-sounding resumes. Sometimes even the best recruiting agent is won over by a candidate with a huge smile and earnest demeanor. In other cases, people running their own business just act on a hunch and decide to skip the background check and save a bit of money in the process. However, such a strategy can quickly backfire and do a lot of damage to the company’s reputation and generate serious financial loss.
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Putting your employees at risk
When you don’t run a police check on a new employee you risk bringing people with a criminal record into your organisation. Yes, some people do change and turn around their lives after a brush with the law, but others don’t.
Let’s say you hire a charming guy with a history of sexual harassment you know nothing about. Imagine the consequences if this new employee starts harassing his female co-workers. It’s bad, it can generate conflicts in the workplace that in turn cause a loss of productivity, and you’re looking at lawsuits. It’s your job as an employer to create and maintain a safe environment in the workplace and if it is discovered the HR didn’t do its job, the company risks paying a lot of money to settle the claim, not to mention the damage to the firm’s reputation if the charges become public. And in sexual harassment cases they usually do.
Even worse, if the new employee interacts with your clients and business partners on a regular basis, the company’s reputation will be ruined.
Do you know how much fraud costs a business?
Hiring a person who has some convictions for fraud and theft on his record means endangering your company’s finances. With a skilled crook, it might take a long time until someone realizes what’s going on.
Such cases are more frequent than you might think. According to a 2018 global study, fraud accounts for about 5% of companies’ revenue loss. In most cases, recuperating your money is a long and complicated process and you might never get your money back.
Why would you skip a background check?
Sometimes a recruiting agent is under a time constraint and needs to hire somebody fast. When hiring several people at once, some think it costs too much, which is not true at all.
Running a national police check or a state based police check like a victoria police check that is commonly used in the Australian state of Victoria (VIC) on prospective employees is both quick and affordable if you know your job and use the services of a reputable agency. For instance, most government accredited agencies work strictly online. It’s absolutely hassle-free. You simply upload your job applicant’s ID and basic information and you can get a full national police check within 1-3 business days. You come in for work and a full report is right there in your email. And it’s not just a local job, as the agency is fully accredited and has access to databases all over the country. If there’s something fishy in your candidate’s past you’ll know about it and you will avoid making a costly mistake.
