Accurate Background Check for Employment? Follow These Best Practices

A background check for pre-employment is a standard procedure. Before you take anybody into your company, do a screening first. Because background checks may prevent costly mistakes. Besides, this also counts as a form of risk management. Remember that prevention is far less expensive than having to remedy a wrong hiring choice.  

Furthermore, untimely termination not only costs the company money; it is a waste of time and resources as well. Re-starting the hiring process, finding a replacement, and training the recruit have cost implications.

A simple background check can help prevent this. Plus it will give you peace of mind. Therefore, if a candidate is on your shortlist, then go ahead and begin the investigation.  

Below, we share helpful tips for you on how to make an effective background query. But before we take a deep dive into the hows of a personal investigation. Let us first find out what we can unravel when we do the security check. 

Verify the following in the background query:

• Identity

• Past and Current Employment

• Educational Background

• Police Records

If candidates make it past your initial screening based on their resumes, then you can proceed to schedule an interview.

One tool for a background investigation is the candidate interview. To help you with this, here are some of our suggested questions.

Employment History Ask the candidate about the start and end dates of past jobs. Because this may be indicative of the employee’s patience or even decisiveness. But again an interview will best reveal the reason for this behavior.

Reasons for leaving/plan to leave the company First, find out the reason for an employee's change of heart which will reveal the values of the candidate. And based on these values, will he/she be a fit? Will he/she be able to adapt to your workplace culture? Does her/his ethics sit well with you? 

Also read: Managing employee exits: checklists, timelines, and procedures

Promotions and Achievements Promotions are given to workers who go above and beyond their key performance indicators. If your potential hire has leveled up in the past, then he/she may be the best fit for the job. Furthermore, ask the candidate about achievements. As you do this, provide her/his space to make an honest run-down of her achievements.  

Areas of improvement In what areas of work do you think the candidate needs to improve? Does he/she acknowledge this? Furthermore, is he/she willing to develop this skill to enhance work performance? And is there an honest desire for self-improvement? 

Team player or solo flight Check if the candidate can work well with a team. Or will he/she be better off working with minimal interaction? 

Job responsibility Being trusted with an important task is indicative of an employee’s capability. So whatever responsibilities are given to her/him can be weighed in and used as the basis for hiring. 

Work performance and style Can the candidate deliver quality work on time? Will he/she be at par with the other employees of your company? Can his/her work style fit your company’s work environment? Hiring is not just finding someone who is good in a certain field. What is more important, is the synergy that he/she will have with the rest of the employees.

Salary Expectation The candidate may be well qualified but does her/his salary expectation fall within your range? If the candidate is fit for the job, then maybe you can consider a rate adjustment.

Potential for Rehire Based on the interview, if a candidate worked for you in the past and resigned at some point, would you take her/him back?

Information from Candidate And finally, give your candidate the platform to talk freely. He/she may offer more information about past work. In addition, there may be personal stuff he/she wants to share. Also, allow the candidate to ask questions about the company and the job itself.

Non-Verbal Communication Non-verbal cues are as equally important as verbal communication. Based on research, 7% of communication is verbal. While the rest of the 93% is conveyed through unspoken communications; voice tone, and body language respectively.  

The change of business processes due to the pandemic has severely affected the background check process. If you chose to proceed with hiring a candidate before the results are released here are some tips to safeguard you from possible problems in the future. 

Communicate this clearly in your offer letter. The final hiring of the employees will depend on the background check. 

Create a safe space for communication between you and your candidate. Openly ask for full disclosure of all records while reassuring the candidate of confidentiality. If he/she reveals sensitive issues, it is up to your discretion to hire or not. As additional information on data privacy, here are some tips to ensure that the information you acquire during the job application process and employment period is not misused.

It is vital to understand the Philippine’s Data Privacy Act. This act sets forth the following:

• Organizations that acquire personal details are required to respect data privacy rights.

• If personal data has been misused, maliciously shared, or improperly disposed of, or if any of the rights discussed here have been violated, the employees have the right to file a complaint

If you need more guidance from a specialized expert, consider consulting a legal adviser. This may be an additional expense on your part but again another form of risk mitigation. And in addition, getting legal advice is an assurance of fair business practice.

Have HR forms for new disclosure and additional authorizations ready. These forms will allow you to get updated information about your employees and verify them if needed. Moreover, do a background check on your old employees as well.

Your company's resources and guidelines can dictate the manner of investigation. You may choose whether to do it internally or to hire a third party for the process.

The company’s Human Resources Department may conduct the investigation. And to help them out, there are numerous digital tools available in the market like Certn and VCheck Global that work on a global scale. They are simple and efficient with the following advantages: 

• Reduce the manual process

• Use blockchain technology for integrity and efficiency

• Faster processing of results

But these tools may not fully operate in the Philippine setting. Because these platforms may not be able to access government and other institutions’ databases.

Instead, the HR team may do the process manually. They contact the companies and schools listed on the candidate’s resume. This not only solves your problem in school and past employment verification but also saves time. The HR team may also require a candidate to submit relevant documents before the interview. 

In addition, the HR team may request 3 character references. These people have to know the candidate professionally. They may be a former boss, the HR Head of a past company, or a colleague. 

A phone call, and not via email, is the best way to interview the character reference. Because through a call, you can detect the interviewee's sincerity.

If your company has resources, it is also worth working with a third party to conduct the background check. These companies have efficient online digital tools for investigation. So you can get an unbiased and thorough investigation by experts in the field. Here are some locally available companies for background screening:

• Philippine PI company

• Infocube

Build your perfect workforce now! Hire well by conducting a thorough background check. Update your company profile in JobStreet. You can find candidates by accessing the Talent Search page. Finally, visit Insights for more expert advice on creating the right team.