Any time your team has an open role, it’s critical to complete each step of the hiring process. A key step is interviews to gauge each candidate’s fit for the open role. But no matter how well a candidate does throughout the interview process, it’s also important to complete thorough background and employment reference checks. Without these steps, you risk hiring employees would could be a liability to the business, or not fit from a skills standpoint.
In the first installment of this two-part series, we walked through the benefits and best practices for two testing and verification hiring steps: prescreen surveys and skills tests. In this second part, we’ll share an overview of reference and background checks for employment – two hiring steps your team should always complete before formally extending a job offer.
Background checks
Your business needs to hire trustworthy employees who can offer top-notch customer service and drive revenue, so background checks are a critical final step in the hiring practice. Background checks should come back clean, instilling confidence in your decision to hire.
If any red flags show up on a background check – such as a suspended driver’s license for a candidate applying to a role that requires driving – this will be a clear sign you should move forward with another candidate who has a clean record. An accurate background check report will provide peace of mind that each prospective employee has a history free from negligence or other activities that may put your customers — and business — at risk.
Background checks can be automated with the right hiring process in place, and this can be made possible by partnering with an applicant tracking system with built-in background check software. To automate the process, candidates can submit the required personal information and the rest of the process is taken care of automatically. Hireology’s platform helps you select the required background checks and obtains candidate authorization. It also emails candidates if they need to take any action, and you’ll be notified as well to simplify the entire process. This leads to timely turnaround of applicant screening results, eliminates errors, and ensures each new hire can be fully vetted before you extend an offer.
Want to see how your verification and screening practices stack up against your competitors? Check out Hireology’s Future of Hiring Report today to get insight into the hiring practices of your peers.
Employment reference checks
Up to 85 percent of job applicants lie on their resumes. This is why your team needs to complete reference checks to verify each candidate’s previous work experience. Many employers make the mistake of skipping this step because it can be frustrating and time consuming — hiring or HR managers often end up playing phone tag with references, which takes time on their end and causing the hiring process to drag on for too long. And given today’s competitive hiring market, some employers might think they’ll lose candidates to other opportunities while waiting to hear back from reference.
By partnering with an all-in-one recruiting and hiring platform, your team can automate reference checks, making both your job and the candidate experience more streamlined. Candidates simply provide their reference contact information and surveys are automatically sent to each contact, saving time that would have otherwise been spent scheduling and completing calls. And once you hear back from references, you can rest assured knowing candidates have the experience they’ve outlined in their resumes or during the interview process.
Automating candidate screening steps like hiring and background checks can help your team cut down time to hire significantly and secure top talent before the competition.
Are you interested in learning more about how reference and background checks can help you build the best team at a time of historically-low unemployment? Hireology can help — take a virtual tour of our platform to see for yourself today. And for more information on candidate testing and verification, read the first part of this series, focused on prescreen surveys and skills tests.
