Archive for December, 2009

Who Should Consider Government Background Checks?

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Government background check services provide anyone with the key to important information. They are fast, effective and affordable. But who will really benefit from knowing a person’s criminal history, credit rating or employment record? Below we’ve listed five groups of people who should always consider government background checks for their important personal and business transactions.

Employers and Business Owners

There are a number of different services available for employers and business owners who are looking for a smarter way to ensure they are hiring the right person. Employment screening services include social security verification, credit checks, criminal record checks and driving records to name a few. All of these can be useful for business owners who want to learn a little more about their potential employee.

Social security verification checks will give you access to your potential employee’s employment history so you can check his resume against the truth. It’s a good idea to know that your potential employee does really have 5 years of experience in journalism (like his resume suggests) before hiring him as one of your top reporters.  For those who run a transportation business or for those who need an employee to drive here, there and everywhere, a driving report can ensure that your potential employee is not a convicted felon charged with multiple DUI offenses.

Any employer and business owner can benefit from criminal background checks, especially when they discover that their potential financial analyst has been recently convicted of fraud. This is something you want to know before you put an employee on the payroll. After all, not knowing this information could end up costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars in insider corporate crimes down the road.

Landlords

Landlords have a responsibility not only to themselves, but also to their other tenants, to ensure that their choice in tenant is the right one. Tenant background checks provide landlords with the confidence that they are renting their apartments out to the right people. A criminal background check will confirm your potential tenant is free of any criminal behavior including sex crimes and terrorist crimes. This will provide your other tenants, especially those with small children, with an additonal level of comfort. A credit report can establish a level of trust that your tenant will be able to pay the rent on time, every time. Excessive debt and penalty fees for outstanding payments might suggest that your tenant will have trouble coming up with the rent each month.

Additonal government background check services that are useful to landlords include the eviction search, which allows you to see potential tenants’ previous renting histories. If they have been evicted on numerous occasions, then perhaps you should keep looking. Landlords can also benefit from employment background checks, as it will provide them with the assurance that their tenants are actively employed and thus able to make the rent each month.

There is nothing worse than discovering that your ‘perfect’ tenant is a party-loving, unemployed, rent-skipping deadbeat. Government background checks can help you avoid these tenants before they move in down the hall.

Parents with Small Children

When children are involved, it’s always a good idea to take advantage of government background check services. Parents will conduct background checks on babysitters, nannies or care givers as a way to ensure that their children are not being left in the hands of a convicted criminal. A criminal search is a great way to identify sex offenders in the area. Parents may also want to check up on neighbors, teachers, counselors, instructors and other adults that their children spend a lot of time with. After all, you just never know and, when it comes to your children, you can never be too safe.

Important Business Transactions and Personal Decisions

For those looking into buying a business, government background checks can provide you with the assurance that the person you are buying the business from, as well as the business itself, is up to par. A background check, such as a credit report, will be able to identify the various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that you could be facing down the road. If you are considering doing any type of business, it is always a good idea to look into a criminal background check or credit report for your own security.

Many people who are considering marriage will also look into government background check services before walking down the aisle. Why?  Because you have a right to know exactly who you are marrying. We’ve all heard horror stories about people discovering their spouses are not who they thought after the papers have been signed. It’s best to know that you are not committing to a life with a convicted murderer or promising to support someone with a mountain of overwhelming debt. You need to look out for your best interests and often a government background check will provide you with the added incentive to take the plunge and get down on one knee.

For Litigation Purposes

If you are currently involved in any type of legal filing, then government background checks often provide you with the ammunition you need to win your case. A background check can reveal the truth, and nothing but the truth, about people. Often when someone lies about their credit report, their driving history, or their employment history, they are also lying about other aspects of their life as well. Proving the truth with government documented background checks can be used to attack their credibility where it counts – in a court of law.

Government background checks can provide anyone with information about friends, family members, neighbors, teachers, lovers, employees, landlords and so forth. In the above five instances, knowing this information can help avoid any serious errors in judgment and provide you with the knowledge needed to make the right decision.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in government background checks | No Comments »

How to Avoid White Collar Crimes in your Business – Employment Background Services

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

White-collar crimes are crimes committed in the business environment. They usually involve an employee or a group of employees who are taking money from the company. Employee theft is one of the most common types of white-collar crimes but there are several other severe crimes that fall under this term, including the following:

  • Fraud
  • Identity theft
  • Embezzlement
  • Exhortation
  • Insider Trading
  • Racketeering
  • Larceny/Theft
  • Money Laundering
  • Bribery
  • Blackmail

Any business owner, regardless of the size of the business, should be aware that employee theft, white-collar crimes, fraud and other corporate crimes are constantly on the rise. Furthermore, business owners should be aware of the different methods involved in stopping white-collar criminal behavior in their business before it’s too late. This may include installing security measures, hiring additional security staff or completing employee background checks during the hiring process. These measures will help reduce your company’s chance of becoming just another statistic in a long line of white-collar crimes.

Statistics on Employee Theft and White Collar Crimes

The statistics surrounding corporate crimes are astonishing to say the least. Below are some of the facts and figures that make up the United States white-collar crime industry.

  • Nearly one third of all employees commit some degree of employee theft, according to the Department of Justice.
  • Employee theft costs businesses over $50 billion annually in losses, according to the US Chamber of Commerce.
  • Employee theft accounts for ten times the value of street crime losses annually in the USA.
  • The banking industry reports the highest loss due to employee theft and white-collar crimes with $1 billion annual losses.
  • Employee theft is increasing at a rate of 15% annually and, the FBI reports, is one of the fastest growing crimes in the USA.
  • Approximately 33% of all new businesses fail because of employee theft.
  • Approximately 2% of all business sales are lost because of employee theft.
  • The average organization loses more than $9 per day per employee due to fraud and other white-collar crimes, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
  • The average organization loses about 6% of its total revenue due to employee fraud and other white-collar crimes, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
  • The most costly abuses occur in organizations with less than 100 employees, according to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.
  • Each family will pay an additional $300 per year in order to subsidize business losses due to employee theft.
  • 75% of all employees steal from their employers at least once throughout their careers. In many instances, these are petty thefts, but, in other instances, these will be hefty corporate crimes.
  • Furthermore, at least half of these 75% will steal again from a different employer.

These statistics will make your jaw drop. But is there any way to prevent white-collar crimes and fraudulent behavior in the workforce?

Fighting Back Against White-Collar Crimes

One of the ways in which employers are fighting back against this criminal pandemic is by installing internal surveillance to monitor all employees. This can be an excellent way to cut down on employee theft and other white-collar crimes. Some larger corporations also have an internal security department that focuses only on employee surveillance. This may seem a little drastic but, when it comes to white-collar crimes, you can never be too careful.

Another way to reduce employee-related crimes is by doing an employee background check on all employees. Employment background checks services will range in specificity but can include the following:

  • Credit reports – allow you to see a potential employee’s credit history.
  • Social security verifications – allow you to see past employment history and to ensure that your employee is who he says he is.
  • Criminal background checks – allow you to see a potential employee’s criminal record. Criminal background checks include convictions and arrests for anything from DWI offences to drug crimes, and everything in between.
  • Driving Records – allow you to access a potential employee’s past driving record, which is always a smart move if your employee will have access to a company vehicle or if the position involves driving in any way.

Employment Background Screening

The reason why employment background checks are becoming more and more popular for business owners is because they provide a way to eliminate the risk of white-collar criminal activity before it happens. Employee background checks can be accessed through the Internet and performed in less than one minute. They can provide all business owners with an extra level of assurance that their employee does not come with a long line of previous white-collar criminal activities or fraudulent behavior.

In addition to employee background screening services, it is important that you always perform a stringent interview during the hiring process. This will help you assess the character of your potential employee and determine if he or she is a good fit with your company.

White-collar crimes may be on the rise but that does not mean that business owners should simply sit back and allow their companies to be corrupted. Employment background services provide you with a method of stopping insider corporate crimes before they happen. And this is the best protection of all.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in employment background services | No Comments »

Top Five Reasons to Perform an Employee Background Check

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Both small business owners and large corporation CEO’s have discovered the secret to success when it comes to hiring the right staff – employee background checks. Although an employee background check will not be able to ensure that your potential employee is the perfect match for your company, it can delve into the private life of your employee and reveal many things that you need to know.

Employee background check services are used to record the employment history of a person. Combined with additional government background checks, such as criminal record checks, credit reports and social security verification checks, you are reducing the risk of hiring the wrong person for the position and ensuring that your employee has the reputation and the experience he claims to have.  These services can reveal credit information and past criminal convictions so you are aware if your potential employee has been convicted of employee theft in the past or you know if your employee has a tendency to miss credit payments. These revelations are best uncovered before you add someone to your payroll. After all, no one wants to discover that his perfect new employee has a history of white-collar criminal behavior after he has left him in charge of the company’s financial reports.

So what are some of the reasons why smart business owners are using background services to check up on their potential employees? We’ve asked; they’ve answered with these five top responses:

  1. I Am Avoiding that Level of Risk that Comes with Just ‘Going with my Gut’

    Hiring any employee can be a huge risk to your company, especially if they turn out to be a criminal or to specialize in white-collar crimes. An employee background check cannot tell you if an employee will steal in the future but it can tell you about his/her past which will help you make a more informed and less risky decision. It is important to always follow your ‘gut’ instincts when it comes to hiring your employees but sometimes even your instincts can lead you astray.

  2. I Know, Without a Doubt, that my Employee is Qualified

    Many people will ‘beef up’ their resumes in order to get the job. Some will even lie about positions they have held in the past, schooling they have received and skills they have mastered. One way to separate fact from fiction is to hire them and see if they can perform up to their resumes. However, in many cases, you find out too late that they were lying about their skills and experience and you are stuck with under qualified employees. Employee background checks reduce this risk by letting you know the truth about past employment history. You can be confident knowing that your employees do, in fact, have years of experience working in a financial institution, like they said, rather than years of experience in fast food.

  3. I Can Get the Answers I Want… Now.

    The hiring process is tiring enough. By outsourcing to an employment background service you are reducing the time spent investigating the candidates. Employment screens take less than one minute to complete and can be accessed through the net 24/7. In the past it could take up to 4 months to get these results. You can leverage your time and make your hiring decision by the end of the work day.

  4. I Can Get to Know my Employee (without wasting time)

    The past can tell us a lot about what we need to know. When you simply do not have the time to hear one’s life story, an employee background check will fill in the blanks and let you know who you are hiring. It’s always a good idea to know your employee on and off paper. You can discover facts about credit, past jobs and criminal convictions without interrogating your employee and wasting your time. Often the truth about poor credit, past criminal convictions and other skeletons will come out… after a few months and a few cocktails, but, by then, it might be too late.

  5. I Can Reduce Employee Turnover

    There is nothing more frustrating than hiring someone only to discover he is not right for the job two months down the road. You have to go through the entire advertising, interviewing and decision-making process all over again which not only takes up your precious time, but also reduces productivity. Background checks allow you to be more confident in your choice of employees so the turnover rate is reduced.

An employee background check cannot guarantee that your employee won’t be an annoying brown noser, a water-cooler gossiper or a controversial snob – this is where the interview process comes in. However, what an employment background service can do is provide you with the assurance that your employee is exactly who he says he is. In the world of business, there are already enough surprises around every corner without having to worry about the actions of your employees. With employment background checks, you are eliminating the element of surprise and ensuring you are making the right hiring decision.


Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in employee background check | No Comments »