“No Red Flags is a Big Red Flag” in background checks. Instead, expect 8–10 reports for every 100 background checks. Mike McCarty, C.E.O. of Safe Hiring Solutions has a column in Inside Indiana Business here. Here’s an important insight:
Whether you’re running a school, a daycare, a youth sports league, or a law firm, our experience tells us that you should see between eight to ten reports for every 100 background checks you run.
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The key message here is that thorough background checks are neither easy nor cheap. Settling for a low-cost service over the internet generally means settling for a check that only skims the surface. If you end up hiring a thief to work in your accounting department, or a coach for your youth soccer team who has a history of boundary issues with kids because their background checks came back without any warning signs, who’s really at fault? When you’re in court facing a negligent hiring lawsuit from someone they victimized, will your bargain background check make a convincing defense?
In other words, you need to scrutinize the company that provides your background screenings as carefully as you want them to scrutinize your potential employees. Find out what they examine and how they go about it. If they tell you they check public records, ask which records and how exactly they do it. A reputable firm will be proud to share that information; a low-cost data aggregator will likely be evasive.
And if you haven’t seen a plausible number of negative results, ask a different provider to run checks on some of the same people. You may be surprised…or a little bit terrified…at what they discover.