Human Resource Blog

Legal Background Check Methods

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When it comes to investigating an employee’s background before we hire him for our Indiana firm, what methods can we use to determine if the employee is right for us. Specifically, we know that we can interview the employee and look at samples of work when appropriate, but aren’t there other background things we should look into?

It’s important that you complete as many checks into a potential employee’s background as possible before taking him or her on in your company. If you are able to complete a thorough background check, you can have a level of assuredness that your employee will live up to the standards that he or she has said they have for themselves in the interviews.

There are a variety of ways that are recommended when you go about conducting a background check. Of course, you will want to do the standard application, resume check, reference check, skills test, and so forth. In addition, there are a few more checks that you need to perform that involve third party organizations that will need to assist you in the checks. Those checks are outlined below:

Driving records – make sure that you are aware of any driving-related offenses that your potential employee has had. While your employee may not need a driver’s license to work for you, a history of repeated offenses could be telling about the person’s character.

Criminal records – of course, you want to ensure that you are not hiring a known criminal or suspect. In doing so, you could expose your company and your employees to potential danger.

Credit records – it’s important that you check out a credit history if your employee will be handling money within the company. Keep in mind that the Fair Credit Reporting Agency will determine whether or not your company needs to perform a records check.

School records – make sure that you have checked the educational records in order to ensure that your employee has the training and skills required for the job.

Federal court records – these records will help to determine whether your potential employee has legal or financial issues that may be relevant to the person’s job performance.