If you own a small business, you are fully aware of how expensive employing new personnel can be. Most likely, you’ve encountered all the suggestions on how to cut your payroll costs.
What about employee verification, though?
All business businesses do not have deep pockets. In other words, your budget for background checks can be constrained. But why would you want to pay a premium on background checks as long as there are alternative DIY employee verification options available? This is one question that employers struggle to answer.
In reality, it’s not about the funds you have at your disposal or how much you’re willing to spend. Employers today, even with limited cash and resources, can carry out thorough worker verification checks.
Even with limited cash and resources, they carry out thorough worker verification checks. As the employer, you need to ensure that your team that handles employee verification has access to the appropriate tools and personnel who are knowledgeable about how to use them. You may go even further and provide instructions on how to combine such tools and tricks for optimum efficacy.
With that said, let’s explore the 5 employer screening options you have at your disposal.
- Make The Most of Personal Interviews
Personal interviews are to learn about a candidate’s past and temperament. But they might be costly, if you’re thinking about engaging an external vendor to handle the interviews on your behalf.
As a rule of thumb, only interview candidates (as much as possible) who have experience in domains that are comparable to those of your ideal candidates.
Additionally, you should seek out individuals that have 3-4 years’ worth of experience dealing with technology. Someone with tech knowhow will assist them in comprehending the changing needs of your business, as opposed to someone fresh who has never had the opportunity to work with technology.
Employ a recruiter or HR consultancy if you lack the necessary skills to conduct interviews on your own. But before hiring them, don’t forget to take into account their prior experience conducting interviews.
Ask your external interviewer if they have ever handled interviews, as well as about their procedures, outcomes, and other specifics, such as whether they have handled interviews for volume recruiting or have expertise conducting virtual interviews.
- Don’t Skip References
Before you recruit somebody, it is imperative to complete this stage in the employment background check process, which is likely to be the most crucial one.
You must obtain references from prior employers, managers, and long-term employees in addition to those who have worked alongside the new candidate at their last company.
You can directly email references if you can’t reach them right away on their phones. This approach should allow you enough time to acquire their contact data so that you can get in touch with them later, if required.
- CVs Can Reveal All
Don’t just rely on a candidate’s resume while researching their history. Examine the resume as well as additional paperwork for any discrepancies that might cause alarm.
For instance, a break between jobs. You should investigate more if it there is a significant career break and they cannot justify it. Such a scenario will flag problems with their work record.
Watch out for spelling and grammar mistakes on your prospects’ resumes as well. Unchecked errors are telltale signals that the applicant hasn’t properly prepared their CV.
Similar reasoning applies to typos on professional and social media platforms like LinkedIn where applicants share their thoughts. Any minor errors on such professional platforms reveal private information that potential employers ought to know from the get-go.
- A Simple Google Search Can Work Wonders
Simply type the person’s name into the search field of Google and hit Enter. If the search results don’t return anything on the candidate, perform an advanced search by providing additional details, such as the applicant’s phone number or email ID.
After you’ve discovered them on Google, browse through their social media profiles to uncover their history prior to working for your organisation.
You can also dig deeper into their Twitter or Linkedin profiles. If they don’t already have an account on the aforementioned platforms, but their images exist, try looking up the photograph to make sure that it’s them before conducting even more checks.
- Cover Everything, Even Social Media
As the employer, it’s your duty to leave no stone unturned when conducting employee verification. Investing social media activity of the applicant for offensive material like violent, profane, and sexually explicit posts can help you to find out whether the candidate is repeatedly says or posts objectional views/content.
But if the candidate isn’t active on social media at all, it’s usually preferable to proceed with other additional techniques (like the ones mentioned on this list) before making them an employment offer.
You should conduct further research into their actions if there are discrepancies between their social media activities and what they have listed on their CVs.
The most crucial thing to keep in mind while performing background checks is that, if you want to do it well, you don’t need to put in a lot of work or spend a lot of money.
You can ace employee screening as long as you are aware of the many forms of inquiry techniques and are aware of the resources that are available to you.
