In a perfect world, you’d be able to hire people simply for what they say they can do. In an ethical culture, you’d be able to read a resume and trust that people will offer what they say they do. However, while there are plenty of potential candidates with integrity, there are those who may have some white lies (or worse) hidden on their resumes. Here are a few reasons to screen potential employees:
Background checks protect your team and assets
Something to realize when considering background checks is that employment screening isn’t only for you. Beyond issues with your money or fraud taking place in your company, you want to keep your team safe as well.
A potential candidate may have sex offenses in their background or violent behavior that shows up on a background check. Besides keeping your money safe, you want to keep your team of startup employees and customers safe as well.
You’ll be sure to protect your reputation
The people you hire can be the face of your company, so as you can imagine, it’s imperative to hire people with integrity and who are simply good people. Your reputation matters a lot when building a business, and the last thing you want is for team members to turn current or potential customers away.
Of course, there will always be disgruntled customers who get upset for no reason, but when you’re confident you have great people on your team, you can be sure their dissatisfaction has nothing to do with your employees. The last thing you need is to hire a corporate lawyer due to a lawsuit resulting from a terrible employee.
You can get a glimpse at their skill level
You can include an aptitude test to feel the potential employee’s talent with an in-depth screening process. This can help when you need someone for a skill-focused job, but it’s also beneficial to be sure that the person uses common sense in different scenarios with customers.
Whether you use screening software designed for this kind of thing or you develop a screening test within your company, it’s something that can help ensure you’re hiring the right people.
You can avoid fraud
Some people are experts at committing fraud. While you may not always find out before hiring them, at least a screening process can help you weed out anyone who may have fraud convictions in their past.
As mentioned above, white lies can be expected, but it may be hard to spot them if you don’t know anything about the candidate in front of you. If they say they have skills in an area but don’t, it could be a waste of your time and money to hire them.
You can protect your company from serious issues
While some issues may arise from hiring someone without screening them, they could be minor problems most of the time. For example, someone may boast of speaking fluent Spanish (which is something you can benefit from), but their Spanish is rudimentary at best when it comes down to it.
However, some candidates may have sexual harassment accusations in their past or people who have committed severe crimes, which can be detrimental to your team and your company’s reputation.
In Conclusion
Protecting your team and the success of your startup is significant for the future of your brand. Hiring the right people may be a time-consuming process, especially when incorporating screening of each person, but the peace of mind will be more than worth it.
You want people you can rely on who, while they may be imperfect, bring honesty and integrity to your team, making a difference in your company’s success.
