Keeping a business safe and secure requires more than just security measures; hiring the right people from the get-go is essential.

Pre-employment screenings not only help protect businesses in sensitive industries but also provide financial protection.  Hiring the wrong person is costly, and exposing sensitive company information to the wrong individual puts everyone's jobs at risk.

Here are some essential steps to keep your business safe with a correctly conducted pre-employment screening.

Run a Social Media Audit

Start by running a full social media audit.  Many hiring managers see a well-thought-out LinkedIn background image, profile picture, and list of previous employers and consider the job done. 

In addition to confirming the candidate's identity, social media is also a tool to identify behaviors that could be harmful to the brand's reputation.

When looking through a candidate's social media profile, the goal is to identify any red flags in their behavior.  Some common examples include:

• Hate speech
• Extremism
• Violence (acted or threatened)
• Negative comments about previous employers
• Negative attacks on other people

Using CI’s Cyber Investigation Eagle View gives you the ability to quickly scan applicant social media profiles and obtain insights you wouldn’t normally during the interview process.

Talk to References

Many employers make the mistake of skipping the reference-checking process.  The logic makes sense: candidates tend to provide only the most positive people on their reference list. 

However, a candidate may not have insight into their previous employer's true feelings and might not ask them for a reference before listing their name and number.

In addition to calling the references listed, consider reaching out to other employers on the resume.  This approach is an effective strategy for getting unbiased information about your candidates' backgrounds.

Use Aptitude Tests

Everyone has heard horror stories of candidates successfully navigating the interview process, only to discover that they don't actually know how to do the job.

Incorporating aptitude tests into the vetting process will help confirm the potential employee's knowledge of a subject or task. 

Creating a test assignment will provide more insight into an employee's work style and output.

Run Appropriate Background Investigations

Running full background investigations isn't common practice in many organizations.  While there's reason to run every available background investigation, it's wise to choose some that pertain to your business activities. Different organizational roles should have different checks performed.

For example, if your company does work internationally or the role deals with sensitive information, running a criminal record check is advisable.  

Similarly, if the role deals with company financials or transactions, it's worth running a credit check.  This check will highlight any risks for fraudulent activity and confirm that the person should be responsible for handling the company's finances.

If the person will be operating a company vehicle, you can run a background check on their driver's license to look for infractions and confirm their qualifications.

Verify Education and Licensing

Recently, the news and internet chat forums have identified a pervasive issue in the job market: the prevalence of fake degrees and diplomas.  Even if the person does their job well, this is a form of fraud and could cause long-term liability issues.  

It's integral for hiring managers to screen candidates to verify their education and any licensing requirements they have.  Reach out to the educational institution or licensing agency directly to confirm the validity of their qualifications.

Understand the Legalities

While running pre-employment checks is essential for the safety of the business, going about it the wrong way can cause more harm than good. 

As a potential employer, you're not allowed to request access to private social media pages or use personal information (race, religion, sexual orientation, pregnancy) discovered to reject the candidate.  Some states have additional regulations surrounding what type of checks you're allowed to run.

Determine what information you're allowed to collect and incorporate background checks into your candidate vetting process to protect your business.