5 Ways that Background Checks Can Save Your Business

Five Ways that Background Checks Can Save Your Business

Mandy Skinner, The Wedge Group, Inc.

The practice of Pre-Employment Screening has quickly evolved as a standard protocol in recruiting and hiring.  Once a practice of only large-scale and well known companies, it is now being utilized by organizations of all sizes and backgrounds.  And with good reason.  Organizations can easily see and measure the value of conducting background checks on their staff.  A little more work on the front end saves the organization a tremendous amount of work, money, and headache shortly down the road.  There are five important ways that screening new hires can save your business.

1. Safety From Criminal Acts.  Most directly, screening employees can save the organization from acts of crime, particularly theft.  The statistics are staggering.  

• 30% of business failures are due to employee theft.
• 75% of employees have stole from their employer at least once.
• In 2008 employers lost 15.8 billion dollars in theft from their employees.
• 13% of workers comp cases are fraudulent- minor injuries exaggerated, fake injuries, or old injury claimed as a new one.

It has become clear that a traditional reference check simply is not enough for an employer to be fully educated about the people that they are bringing onto their staff and into the heart of the organization.  

2. Safety from Litigation.  Negligent Hiring holds the company responsible for damages caused by its employees on the grounds that the employer either knew or should have known of information from the employee’s background that should have disqualified them from working in their position.  The statistics in these cases do not look promising; over 70% of these lawsuits are lost by the employer.  This can be extremely costly to in fines, court and lawyer fees, repayment, and damage in the organization’s reputation. 

3. Safety of Your Employees.  The media is full of images portraying disgruntled employees lashing out at coworkers and employers in violence.  We can debate if workplace crime is really on the rise or if it is simply gaining attention.  Either way, the fact is that workplace violence is real.  

• 5% of workplaces have one violent act per year.
• Workplace violence accounted for 18% of all violent crime between 1993 to 1999. 
• More than 1 in 5 acts of violence are committed by an employee.
• According to the Justice Department, while working or on duty, U.S. residents were victims of 1.7 million violent acts annually including: 
• 1.3 million simple assaults
• 325,000 aggravated assaults
• 36,500 rapes and sexual assaults
• 70,000 robberies
• 900 homicides

Are you and your staff safe?

4. Safety of Your Reputation.  In order to be the best, you must attract and retain the best talent.  Employees are looking to work for the best employer, which is most often judged by the way in which they are treated and cared for.  When employees perceive that they are protected and taken care of, they exhibit greater loyalty, productivity, and morale at work.  This reputation of being reliable, trustworthy, and proactive stretches beyond employees into the opinions of clients and customers.

5. Save Money.  This is, perhaps, the most important reason for many employers.  The trust is, everything costs time and money.  However, investing in the screening of potential employees saves significantly more.  The average cost of replacing and employee can be as much as $40,000.  In addition, employers without a screening process in place incur an average of $3,111 of liability; this is reduced to $300 per hire with a structured background check program.  The return on investment for background screening programs is in excess of 900%. 

How? 

The Wedge Group, Inc. has worked with organizations and employees for over 30 years, in countless facets to breed success in all aspects of organizational development.  Our pre-employment screening program is one way to proactively set the stage for success from the very beginning.  We check:

• Previous Employers
• Education
• Local and national criminal records 
• SSN trace
• Address history
• Sex offender registry
• Public social media profiles
• Drug testing

We can also tailor our services to meet the individual needs of your organization.

For more information, please visit us at:  www.TheWedgeGroup.com

You can also contact us at JIhnotic@TheWedgeGroup.com or (607)772-9359 for further questions and inquiries.

About the author:

Mandy Skinner is the Head of Client Services at The Wedge Group, Inc., where she has worked with organizations such as Cornell University and Prudential Securities.  Her service and support are individualized to meet the changing and diverse needs of all The Wedge Group’s clients.

Sources:

• http://www.victimsofcrime.org/library/crime-information-and-statistics/workplace-violence
• infotrack.com.statistics, COLD FACTS: PREVENTING LOSS AND MITIGATING RISK
• streetdirectory.com, Shelly Cruz,  “How Important Are Employment Background Checks?”
• employeeprofile.net
• HRPlus, Bill Tate, President hrplus.com
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-employment_screening
• Hrscreening.com, “Background Checks Facts and Statistics: 5 great reasons to do a pre-employment background check!”