For any company worth its salt, due diligence is engrained into the hiring process to ensure hiring managers get a better picture of candidates beyond what their CVs simply at face value. However, the due diligence process can involve a lot of work and take up too much time hence why some companies prefer to cut to the chase once everything seems to be in order.
Doing so, however, puts businesses at grave risks. Without background checks or using an employee trust score platform of some sort, it’s possible for hiring managers to rue their decisions way into the new hire when the damage has already been dealt. So what exactly are the dangers of skipping background checks during hires? Let’s break it down.
1. Unqualified workers can lie their way to critical business functions
If you only go by your candidates’ resumes, then there’s a good chance that you may be relying on incorrect information or, worse yet, hiring candidates with faked credentials. Degree fraud has become a lot more sophisticated in recent times. It’s especially hard to distinguish the legitimate from the forged in an age where bogus duplicates & the real deal look might as well be two peas in a pod.
As things stand, candidates can obtain fraudulent degrees from over 370 educational websites, while an estimated 200,000 bogus degrees are dished out to “customers” worldwide each year.
Beyond outright degree fraud, it’s also commonplace for candidates to tweak information on their CVs to make themselves more appealing for a role. In particular, ResumeBuilder’s new survey unearthed that:
- 40% of candidates lie about their abilities or skills
- 43% of candidates aren’t honest about the length of a position held
- 46% of people lie about work experience
- 44% of candidates aren’t honest about their educational background
To pick apart the lie from the truth, you’ll need an employee trust score checker that can help your business instantly verify the authenticity of certificates. What’s more, you want a platform that can double-check previous work experience, and other important details, just to ensure everything adds up.
2. Your business could pay the price for negligent hiring
For the most part, ignorantia juris non excusat. In other words, ignorance of the law is no excuse. Employers remain completely liable for the harm or damage third parties (clients, other employees, etc.) incur, whether or not they were familiar with the worker’s potential to inflict harm.
Your business will therefore be held responsible for the harmful actions of your new hires, especially if the law deems that you could have discovered this potential for risk via a reasonable investigation.
Overall, the risks of negligent hiring and skimping on employee background screening services entail hiring workers who could:
- Assault co-workers and customers, with statistic Brain estimating 20,000,000 cases of workplace place violence annually.
- Attract costly legal claims from affected customers and co-workers. Not so fun fact: employers lose over 70% of such lawsuits
- Tarnish your brand image with their unethical actions & perpetuation of crime
As a result, it becomes important to rely on professional background check services that cover police verification and criminal background checks. This way, your business can be sure it’s hiring employees with a clean track record.
3. You may have to contend with a rise in staff attrition
There’s only so far a lie can go, especially when it comes to a critical job position. Once the rubber hits the road, candidates without the right expertise will struggle to play their part thereby getting in the way of productivity.
When other workers find themselves having to constantly pick up the slack due to the shortcomings of this newly hired employee, they may jump ship when the burden inevitably becomes too much to bear. Beyond workload concerns, bad hires can also increase attrition rates through:
- Creating a hostile workplace atmosphere
- Poor management skills, which can increase subordinate resignation by 400%
- Making other employees feel unsafe
- Lowered staff morale, which takes a hit due to the new hire working below capacity
In the long run, a high staff turnover may make good candidates think twice about your business, while the lack of pre-employment background check services could also swing the door ajar & attract the wrong type of candidates, thus further escalating staff attrition.