Employer Background Checks

There are many different reasons why an employer performs a background check on potential employees before hiring. Perhaps the biggest reason is to make sure that they are not hiring someone that has an undesirable past. The fact of the matter is that it is an employer's discretion whether or not to hire people with a criminal past. This is why many employers will use background checks in order to decide between a few worthy candidates. If it is between you and someone else with the same credentials, the person with the better background check will usually be the victor.

Why do Employers Perform Background Checks?

Many people are unfamiliar with the process and the reasoning behind performing background checks. Below you will find some information on all of the different reasons that employers perform background checks.

• Negligent hiring- this is perhaps the main reason that an employer will perform a background check. The reason for this is simply due to the fact that they are responsible for an employee's actions in many cases. This means that if they are not careful when hiring an employee, they will be held responsible for any damage that the employee causes. However, if they do everything that they can do to ensure they are hiring qualified applicants they will not be held responsible.
• Another reason that employers perform background checks is due to the fact that many people have false information on their resumes. In fact, there are some statistics suggest that around thirty percent of all people will have some sort of falsified information of their resumes and applications when applying to jobs. Due to this fact, it is quite obvious why employers will perform background checks.
• In some cases, federal and state laws will require specific employers to perform these background checks. This is usually for particular occupations that one wouldn't want someone with a criminal past working. For these specific jobs the background checks are mandatory and a job can not be awarded without having completed and reviewed the background check of an applicant.
• Current events also quite often have an effect on the amount of employer's performing background check. If a particular event happens that sends a scare for any reason through an industry, that industry will most likely start to increase the amount of background checks performed for applicants.

Contact one of our experienced employment attorneys in your area today!