When doing business, you must work with people whom you trust. Whether you’re hiring an employee or wanting to partner with another company, you want to do it with people you can entrust your business with. That’s why every business needs to run a background check on the people they’re letting into their business operations.

Without a background check, you might let a person destroy the productivity and integrity of your business. Here are some reasons why a background check is vital when running a business:

  1. Identifies People With Criminal History

A background check can establish whether a person you plan to bring into your company has a criminal record. In this aspect, a background check should be conducted so you can assess whether the person poses a risk to your business. Once you have the criminal background check results, you can quickly identify if you can trust the person to carry on his responsibility with integrity.

How long does a background check take? Running a criminal background check doesn’t take too long. You can usually get the result within one to three days, depending on the details you want to check and verify. Being aware of its duration or length will help you set a proper time frame usually for the hiring process without the rush to fill in vacancies or positions.

Although most states impose that employers should not limit opportunities for people with criminal background history, it’s still up to you as a business owner to do business with someone who has such a history. For instance, if you’re hiring someone to do the financial accounting of your business accounts, you might need to consider someone who doesn’t have theft or fraud cases filed against them. Since your business finances contain critical data, you need someone who won’t compromise them.

  1. Ensures A Safe And Healthy Working Environment

Fostering a safe workplace helps your employees work comfortably and worry-free. Aside from keeping your workplace free from anything that may harm your employees, you should also include keeping them safe from their colleagues. You can do so with a pre-employment background check.

For instance, a background check on a person’s previous employment will give you an idea if he/she is fit to work whether in the field or in the office, with colleagues or not. Their previous employers would not recommend or give them a moral certificate if they didn’t have a good record with them. No matter how skillful a person is, they can negatively impact the working environment if they have bad work ethics.

As for annual or post-employment background checks, this process will help you decide whether the person should be warned, terminated, or promoted. There are cases in several workplaces where a company needed to terminate an employee’s contract because of poor character and ethics towards work and colleagues. A background check will enable you to easily evaluate your employees, whether they’re contributing to a safe and healthy working environment or not.

On the other hand, by doing so, you can encourage your employees to do better since they know you give credit to whom it is due via promotions or other rewarding incentives.

  1. Prevents Hiring Incompetent Employees

Most importantly, a background check will help you avoid recruiting employees who can’t help your business grow. Since a background check includes looking into educational records and previous employment history, you can assess if the person has the skills or abilities to carry on the role you’re intending to fill.

If there are many applicants, you can select the best by using their background as a reference. Although all of them may have a degree related to the position, you may want to hire someone who has relevant work experience. If their previous employers endorse them, you can use a background check to ensure that you’re hiring an asset to your business.

Conclusion

The mentioned reasons why your business should do serious background checks are just some of the essential ones. With a criminal background check, you can decide whether to hire or do business with someone who has a criminal history. A background check will also ensure that your company has a healthy working environment since you have confidence that the people you hire have good work ethics. Moreover, hiring competent employees is vital for your business to grow, which you can achieve by conducting background checks.