BOO! Scary Background Screening Scenarios for Halloween 2015

Boo!
Data Facts has seen our background screening tools unearth many scary surprises hiding deeply in applicants’ histories. Job candidates who look perfect and sound great can still harbor dangerous skeletons in their closets, and those can be detrimental to the safety of your workplace. In honor of Halloween 2015, let’s talk about a few scary situations that, if undetected, may leave businesses open to a risky and dangerous hire.

Scary scenario: The promising applicant turns into a pumpkin after he is hired.

Maybe he dressed in a nice suit, and had perfect answers. But once you hired him, he is unproductive and has a bad attitude, and poor attendance.
Fight it by: obtain reference checks. Check the references thoroughly, verify dates worked, the specific tasks the applicant performed and the overall attitude towards work.

Scary scenario: Some of the black cat’s 9 lives were extremely unsavory.
Job candidates may be hiding a criminal history that would be detrimental to a company’s well-being.
Fight it by: implement a solid plan for checking out potential employees' criminal histories. This includes, at a minimum, a county criminal search, as well as a national criminal database search. (NOTE: make sure the type of job warrants a criminal search,and that it is relevant to the job position).

Scary scenario: The job candidate was a murdering zombie out in Texas.
During the interview process, an applicant may omit entire places of residence. This may be because of a criminal history, bad driving record, a job that ended badly, or other secrets the applicant would rather you not uncover.
Fight it by: be sure to order a social security search. This search shows every address associated with a person’s social security number. So, if there has been an omission, this search may uncover the grim truth.

(Check out our infographic "Cost of a Bad Hire")

Don’t be haunted by a bad hire. By doing your due diligence up front with thorough background screening, you can avoid falling prey to these scary situations. Make sure you are hiring the best person for the job by utilizing background screening to thoroughly verify the applicant’s claims. This will help you to maintain a safe, productive, zombie-free workplace.