Don’t Let a Background Check Scare Off a Candidate 22 Nov 2017

An employee screening can safeguard you against hiring a dangerous or unqualified person, it gives you insight on that candidate’s employment history, and can prevent you from making a costly hiring decision. For all these reasons and more, a background check should be part of the hiring process for every position.

However, we know the screening process can scare off some qualified candidates.

In fact, according to one survey, 38 percent of employers — nearly two out of five — have lost a candidate because of a bad experience with the screening process.

That’s an alarmingly high number of candidates to scare off. Granted, some may have fled due to something on their record or because they played with facts on their resume. However, many of these may have been qualified candidates.

What can you do to prevent the employee screening process from scaring off potential employees?

Where Screenings Go Wrong

They say that first impressions make all the difference. Most of the time, the hiring and screening process is the first experience a new candidate has with your company. Therefore, a negative or slow screening experience can reflect poorly on your company and make otherwise qualified candidates think twice about working for you.

To avoid making a bad first impression, these are some of the practices you should employ to ensure your background checks go smoothly and reflect well on your organization.

• Make sure checks are done in a timely manner. Ideally, you should receive the results from a background check within 24 to 72 hours. If it takes longer than five business days, the candidate might get impatient, leading them to look for work elsewhere.
• Be diligent in who you work with. Though you want the process to move along in a timely manner, you also want to be sure that the company you partner with does a thorough and accurate job. Avoid mistakes by partnering with a member of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS).
• Ask the candidate about their experience with the background check. Whether you hire them or not, it’s worth making an effort to reach out to candidates about their experience. If you start to see a certain pattern emerge in their responses, such as the process being too complicated or time-consuming, you will know where to make changes.

At Trusted Employees we know how important it is to screen employees. We also know that a slow, complicated background check can cause problems for your company. Aware of the benefits and pitfalls of the process, we put over 20 years of experience to work with each of our clients, ensuring that they receive an accurate and thorough report in a timely manner.