Arleen Bradley Career Coaching

Beware of background checks your job offer is depending on it.

You know that employers will check your social network profiles to learn about the real you.  They will perform a Google search to see what is on the web about you. And that your former employer will be contacted for your work history.  It’s pretty common place, and most job searchers are aware of it.  But do you know that employers have other reasons and ways of checking on you?

Yes, they are.  Hiring today is a complicated task for many reasons.  One reason is an overwhelming amount of applications for each opening.  Some are qualified; others are either over or under qualified.  Many are desperate for a job and are willing to do anything to get a foot in the door.  And the human resource people are well aware of this.  They know the lengths people will go to land the job.   You may think you are clever, but they have seem all the tricks.  They, also, have access to information that can either support your claims or prove you wrong.

Their task of hiring the best candidate for the job includes doing background checks on people who are on the very short list.  The organization wants to be extremely careful about the final choice.  The cost of hiring new people is high, and they want to get it right the first time.  So they do background checks on applicants.

Not all organizations do background checks, and if they do, some checks need your written permission.  These are only a few types of checks they can do and the reasons why:

•  Credit—anyone working in a financial industry, has access to cash, and even senior level executive are checked for poor credit and bankruptcy.  In addition to the opportunity for embezzlement, the organization is worried about extra work for staff for wage garnishing and other issues that can arise from having poor credit.  Poor credit can show drug use or gambling.
• Criminal—most states require anyone working with children, the elderly or the disabled  have criminal checks including sex offender registries.  Other crimes, misdemeanors and felonies, are searched.  The company is liable for providing a safe work environment and tries to prevent crime related activity from taking place.
• Driving—to ensure employees driving company vehicles or transporting people are safe drivers and qualified to drive specific vehicles.  Insurance is high, questionable drivers with histories of accidents are likely to increase the insurance and repairs to vehicles.
• Education—lying about or embellishing education credentials is increasingly becoming more common.  As people struggle to find jobs, they are falsifying their grade point averages, courses taken, and even the intuition they attended to make their qualifications better than they are.  However, privacy laws allow only certain information to be given out to people other than the person in question.

This list is only a small sample of the types of checks that an organization can run on you.  The checks are done to protect their reputation, property and constituents.  They are providing a safe environment for employees, vendors and customers free from violence, theft and other crimes.  Checking the background of potential employees, organizations are protecting themselves from legal issues involving

negligence in hiring.

Personally, I appreciate the efforts of organizations to provide due diligence in not only finding the candidate best qualified for the position, but also providing a positive working environment.