Why Background Checks Are Important For Business When Hiring

Whether you’re planning to start a new business in Australia or streamline your existing company, you need to look up ways to improve the efficiency of your HR department and background checks. Your HR employees have a lot of responsibilities on their shoulders. Hiring new personnel to process payrolls and conducting disciplinary actions.

In this article we’ll explain how introducing mandatory background checks can ease the burden on the HR department while also improving productivity and, ultimately, profits.

The Importance of Background Checks for Pre- Employment Screenings

When HR has a position to fill they have to look for an individual with a specific degree or training. That’s the primary criteria. The IT department needs to add an employee so you’ll hire an IT background, but is that enough? How do you know the selected candidate will fit right into your organization? If he will be a valuable asset and not a liability.

Simple crime record checks can establish if the candidate is an expert in his field and a reliable person. If you don’t ask for a police check as part of your pre-employment screening you’ll never know if that person has a criminal record that includes offenses like fraud, violent behavior, sexual harassment, and other kinds of criminal activity. When you hire someone like this, completely ignoring their past, you put the whole organization at risk.

And, no, adding a background check to your pre-employment screening doesn’t mean more work and more paperwork. Today, most Australian businesses use online character check agencies. They are fully accredited with the federal government of Australia and provide a 100% valid police check. All the information is transmitted online. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes to upload the identity info on a candidate. You can get the results back in a couple of business days straight to your email.

The Risk Of Not Conducting Criminal Record Checks

When you hire someone with a checkered past there’s a high risk they will create trouble from provoking disruptions in the workplace to committing theft or fraud. That will require the same HR to waste their time with disciplinary actions and the police might need to be involved. Productivity will suffer during this time of internal workplace turmoil and there won’t be any other solution than to let that person go and start looking for another one.

If you start looking for another employee with the required qualifications without conducting a police check, again, there’s no guarantee you won’t hire someone just as dangerous.

Anyone working in HR knows how costly and time-consuming the process of hiring someone is. Also, the time wasted on searching for a new employee could be put to better use. Your existing workforce could vastly benefit from ongoing educational programs and career growth opportunities. If you ignore the needs of your current employees they might look for a position in another company. This leads you back to square one – the need to fill a vacant position. It never ends.