Cheezhead

Okay, so you’ve conducted a background check on a prospective employee and decide that they meet your standards. You extend an offer and that person accepts the job and becomes a valuable member of your team. Now that the person has been hired, most companies would not be inclined to consider further background checks. Well the times, they are a-changing.

While the concept of follow up background checks has been around for a long time and employed by security conscious organizations, you are seeing this emerging trend creep into the consciousness of your average business. It even has a shiny new name that many are using: “Inifinity Screening”. I’m a big advocate of this practice because it allows you to evaluate your current employees for adverse information throughout their employment. An easy example is conducting annual Motor Vehicle Record check on those that drive company cars.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know that your employee still has an active driver’s license and hasn’t been convicted of a DUI since the time of their hiring? How about a criminal records search in the current county of residence once a year? Confirming a lack of criminal convictions since the last check can give you the peace of mind you are looking for and help your organization mitigate potential risk. What if the individual was convicted of a crime that would call their employment into question? By checking their record and evaluating the information, you now have the facts necessary to protect your organization.

We have been performing such searches for our clients for years now and it is amazing how an inexpensive annual search can provide tremendous insight. I know that is easy for me to say inexpensive, but I’ll explain. Since you’ve (hopefully) already conducted a comprehensive criminal background check at the time you hired the applicant, it isn’t necessary to go back and check all counties again. You can just look in the current county of residence. You don’t even need to conduct an address history search.

If you are interested in establishing such a program for your organization, here are couple helpful tips to get you started.

1. Review your company’s Applicant Release and make sure that it allows you to conduct a search throughout your employees’ tenure. If it does, no further authorization is needed. If not, a new release should be drafted and signed by your employee before you can conduct the check.

2. Establish a consistent program for post employment screening. For instance, decide what type of searches you intend to conduct and how often. BE CONSISTENT!

3. Consult your Employee Handbook to see if you have communicated your right to conduct background checks throughout the course of employment. If it does not specifically address this topic, you might consider amending the material.

4. Treat adverse information as you would during pre-employment screening. Consider the offense on its own merits. If it doesn’t reflect on their ability to perform their job or cause you to question their judgement, then don’t assume that you need to terminate. Perhaps, the information just necessitates a sit down with that employee.