Hiring a candidate is not just reviewing applications and conducting interviews. It involves several steps, such as discussing with the manager to find out everything they expect from a candidate, publishing the job description, sifting through the applications, conducting phone screenings, picking out qualified candidates and setting up in-person interviews.

While the interviews do help the employer find out a lot about the prospective employee, there is some information that the candidates may choose not to disclose. And this is where a background check helps. Below are all the reasons why your business needs to run a pre-employment background check:

1. It’s an easy way of making sure you are hiring the right candidate.

As all recruiters know, finding candidates takes a lot of time. From sourcing to reviewing applications and interviewing the candidates, the screening process can take a lot of time. Since this process is already quite time consuming, you should ensure you hire the right person the first time itself. This is the best way to avoid impacting the productivity of the company.

2. It flags past transgressions that might impact the performance of the employee.

Some background checks can help unearth some issues that may be relevant to the specific job for which you are hiring. For example, if you are looking for a driver, you wouldn’t want to hire a candidate with numerous license suspensions. If you are not hiring a driver, on the other hand, this will hold no bearing on the applicant’s ability to perform the job at hand.

 3. It helps recruiters perform due diligence and decreases liability for the business.

Let’s use the same example as above to illustrate this point. If you do not ask for a background check, you are more likely to hire the applicant who has gotten several DUIs. If the driver gets into an accident, you risk being held liable for the accident because you didn’t run a background check to make sure this person was a fit candidate.

4. It gives you a deeper insight into the potential fit.

Almost no job applicant will volunteer what could be considered damaging information in an interview. They will put on a performance and try their utmost to appear professional and friendly to charm their interviewer. They can even go as far as excluding previous jobs from their resume. Running a background check can help you cut through the façade and find out whether the individual was really upfront about their past.

5. It helps the employer keep their employees and customers safe.

There are probably two types of candidates no employer would want to hire: violent criminals and sex offenders. Just like the point mentioned above, you could be held liable for hiring a sexual predator if that individual assaults or harms someone from your team or one of your customers. So, to keep your employees and customers safe, it would be better to run a background check on all the candidates you are considering for a position.

 6. It helps you keep your company drug-free.

Not only do many employees seek a drug-free workplace, but several customers put a lot of stock in buying from drug-free environments. A background check can help you root out candidates who have been slapped with drug charges in the recent past. Some companies even choose to supplement the pre-employment background check with a drug test to establish a zero-tolerance anti-drug policy at work from the very beginning.

7. It flags dishonesty.

Every applicant who comes to an interview, intend to do everything they can to impress the employer. Some even lie on their resume: they can exclude work histories, makeup others or embellish job responsibilities. The best way to highlight these problems is to give a call to their former employees.

8. It verifies education and certifications.

In addition to verifying their employment history, a background check can also help you make sure that the applicants you are considering have the degrees and professional certifications they listed in their resume. While some jobs may not require the candidates to have specific qualifications, others do. Regardless, the background check will help you establish whether the candidate was honest or whether they are qualified.

9. It gives the business owner and the managers peace of mind.

To avoid having to worry about whether you can trust your employee, a background check can help you dodge those worries. It helps ensure that you did not hire a criminal, a fraud or a thief.

10. It highlights criminal history.

While some companies may hire someone if the criminal charges are minor or out of date, other companies may refuse to do so. In fact, certain companies outsource their business to other companies and their requirements include not hiring anyone who has a criminal history. Running a background check can help flag any criminal convictions in the candidate’s past.