Smart business owners are always looking for unique ways to make themselves more efficient. They're typically looking for value-added propositions. Many of these can be found in the hiring world. If you're able to get the right people the first time and avoid major pitfalls, you can have more success over the long run. With this in mind, here are four unique ways a cheap background check can help your company.
Helping you in loss prevention
If you own a business in an industry where cash is exchanged, you need to be able to trust your employees not to skim off the top. In the restaurant industry, one of the most common reasons for failure has to do with employee theft. When you conduct a cheap background check, you can better combat these problems by knowing whether a potential hire has a history of robbing his employer blind.
Eliminating costly employee turnover
Firing and re-hiring employees is expensive. You'll have to re-train the new hire while also dealing with the loss in productivity that comes from letting someone go. It's not particularly pleasant, either, so you might lose some sleep over the situation. When you conduct a good background check, you'll find better employees who will be able to live up to your standards. This can help you avoid having to fire and re-hire a new person over and over. Your productivity will shoot up and your company will have a chance to get in a good groove.
Streamlining your recruiting process
Most companies are looking for ways to not only encourage the right people to apply, but also discourage the wrong people from applying. Reviewing applications, even if your intent is to turn a person down, can be expensive and cost your company the opportunity to spend its resources elsewhere. By conducting a cheap background check on every person who applies, you can dissuade some undesirable people from applying for the position. People who have ugly rap sheets will often apply only to those positions where no background check will take place. If you're smart, you'll turn that application into someone else's inefficiency rather than your own.
Deflecting some potential liability in the future
If one of your employees happens to harm someone, either through an intentional act or negligence, one of the questions in litigation will center on how well you screened the employee. Good companies are always looking to cut down on liability by making their due diligence as solid as possible. If you can show that you conducted a background check on every employee, your argument that the employee's actions were outside of your control will carry more weight with a jury.
Companies today know that using background check services is a great way to build value. You'll become more efficient, you'll hire the right people, and you'll see a small decrease in liability on the back end, too. Just how important is building a valuable and efficient company to you?
