Anyone who offers employment may have felt the need to perform a background check on potential employees to determine which individuals they can trust at some point. Finding a professional to do it for you is not that hard nowadays. Whether you want to hire a Sydney private investigator or a PI from Melbourne, the importance of these professionals in pre-employment screening cannot be denied.
Some people do not see the need for getting a professional, but there are certain risks if you don’t. It is common for people to lie about academic qualifications and references. Others enlist acquaintances or family members to pretend to be former employees or contacts. According to Department of Commerce research, over 20% of workers steal or conceal information from their employers. The involvement of private investigators is necessary because of this.
The Need for a Private Investigator
It’s crucial to thoroughly dive into the backgrounds of the people you hire and scrutinize any troubled work histories or criminal experiences. Risking it and hiring anyone without these checks may result in harassment, money laundering, theft, losses, or other negative implications for your business. That said, here are a few ways your business or company benefits from hiring PIs.
Benefits
Some of the advantages of hiring a professional to do the job for you include the following:
1. Deep Focus
Pre-employment screenings include employee references, education, credit checks, criminal behavior, etc. However, you might need deeper checks. This is where a private investigator becomes useful. They look into the training credentials, remarks from previous employment, and whatever is available elsewhere aside from what is on the printed resume. This is essential to ensure they dig out anything the potential employee may want hidden or forgotten.
2. Get Quality Employees
Criminal records aren’t the only thing you should look into; employment history is also critical. You need confirmation that whatever the applicant states on their resume checks out. Calling up past employees and checking with them is one way of knowing the truth from deception in an applicant’s work history.
However, this can take a lot of time, and you may not always be sure that the person on the other end of the phone is the previous employer. A private investigator would be ideal because they are skilled at getting the necessary information and go beyond only making calls to the numbers on the CV.
It looks for the reason for termination in the previous job. Was it a result of indiscipline? This will help you know about any negative traits or odd behavior reports and assure you that all your new team members are reliable.
3. Legal Requirements
It may occasionally be a requirement to conduct background checks on your staff. Hiring a private investigator will help you stay secure and compliant with the law. The statutes and regulations may vary from state to state; thus, having someone with the whole experience of where you are will greatly help. Doing background checks saves you from hiring incompetent employees or people with serious issues like violent tendencies.
4. Lower Turnover Rate
You may have to deal with turnovers if you hire troublemakers or incompetent personnel. Sometimes, you might employ someone who thinks they are the right fit, but they end up being the opposite. People who are challenging to work with are the most frowned upon, as they tend to frustrate colleagues and even scare them away. Hiring someone with violent inclinations can be risky since other employees might not think it’s a safe place to work.
Additionally, if that coworker has pushed you beyond your boundaries, you might need to let go of them. Hiring someone who has provided false information in their resume likely ends in termination because of incompetency.
A PI will help you prevent all these issues before they even happen by giving you all the information you need about potential hires before you bring them on board.
5. Saves You Money
Most HR teams are less skilled in investigations than investigators and lack extensive professional experience in background checks. Furthermore, overloading them with digging might cost you much more money than you thought. There might be a need for overtime compensation, extra payroll, etc.
Remember that they are prone to making mistakes as they are not skilled at the job. In the long run, you will find that you are better off going for an investigator who covers that service you need in particular, making it more affordable and saving you money.
Takeaway
As a business person, success should be non-negotiable; you should not risk having employees who are likely to come in and cause trouble or appear incompetent. Background checks done by investigators will ensure that you surround yourself with people who want your business to succeed just as much as you do.
Also read: Things That a Private Investigator Can Do for You