| With more and more companies taking extra care | | | | you'll find that the number of applications with |
| to ensure that they take on the right people on | | | | (purposeful) misinformation increases to between |
| board, pre employment background checks have | | | | 35 and 40 percent. |
| become the norm and no company wants to | | | | Some companies engage such agencies to even |
| ignore it. Earlier, they were not so particular about | | | | check on misdemeanours of the employee to |
| it and to be fair, instances of fraud, security | | | | ensure that the person they are taking on board |
| violations, falsification of records were also not | | | | would not end up spoiling the work environment. |
| high. However, the last few years has seen an | | | | Similarly, they also check previous references and |
| increase in falsification of records, criminal | | | | call up past bosses to ascertain how the |
| backgrounds and fraudulent activities by many | | | | employee was in terms of his character and |
| employees. This has caused problems to many | | | | behaviour at work. If they get a negative remark, |
| companies who have had to then take corrective | | | | they do not proceed with the selection and that is |
| action spending money on public relations, lawsuits | | | | even communicated to the employee. In fact, the |
| and so on. It is thus very important to ensure | | | | consent of the employee is taken before these |
| that new employees taken on board have been | | | | checks are carried out and every new employee |
| verified properly to avoid any kind of problems in | | | | is aware of this hurdle they have to cross before |
| future. | | | | they get selected. |
| It has been noticed by pre employment | | | | It must be mentioned here that there is no such |
| background check agencies that the incidence of | | | | thing as a standard pre employment background |
| criminal history is very much prevalent and the | | | | check. It varies with the profile of the job, the |
| figure of one in eight is quite worrisome. In fact, | | | | seniority of the person and the number of checks |
| people putting wrong information on their resume | | | | that are specified and the budget the company |
| are also quite many and the percentage of 40 | | | | wants to spend on the candidate. |
| per cent as far as this is concerned is again quite | | | | As an employee, you should be aware about |
| high and this necessitates a thorough check of | | | | certain things such as criminal records and if |
| every new prospective employee. | | | | something to that effect is asked from you then |
| The fact is, one out of eight people have a | | | | it is not necessary for you to report any arrests |
| criminal history. If you take into consideration all | | | | that finally did not lead to any convictions. You |
| aspects of a background check such as past | | | | must mention to the point and there is no need |
| employment, education and professional licensing, | | | | for any extra disclosures. |