TABB INC. Explains What You Should Know About Pre-Employment Background Checks

Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Chester, New Jersey, TABB INC. is one of just 125 PBSA-accredited firms nationwide, delivering fully FCRA-compliant background-investigation programs to employers, colleges, and healthcare facilities. Its U.S.-based account managers coordinate criminal-record searches, drug testing, education and license verifications, and more through an automation-driven platform—CareerAndTalentHub.com—that cuts turnaround times and costs. From Fortune 500 enterprises to community nursing programs, thousands of organizations trust TABB INC. to provide transparent, cost-effective screening that safeguards workplaces, campuses, and clinical sites.

Today’s job market is quite competitive. Many companies are constantly looking for top talent in their respective fields. Often, companies only rely on candidates’ resumes to make hiring decisions. However, failing to conduct pre-employment background checks can lead to hiring individuals who may engage in fraud, theft, misconduct, and other criminal activities, which can significantly affect business operations. Employers have resorted to pre-employment background checks, also called pre-employment background screening, as a defense mechanism to mitigate these risks.

Screening ensures that companies thoroughly mitigate the risks of hiring people who may affect business operations by engaging in fraud, theft, misconduct, and other criminal activities. A company may conduct a pre-employment background check to verify a potential candidate’s identity and establish if the information the candidate provided is accurate, authentic, and complete.

This screening also helps determine a person’s eligibility for a specific role by verifying their educational credentials and whether they fit the organization’s culture well. Pre-employment background screening is integral in employee hiring and onboarding, promoting fairness in the hiring process. It is estimated that 95 percent of organizations in the US perform such screening. While it is not a legal requirement, companies should do these checks to mitigate risks.

If a company chooses to conduct such screening, it must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) regulations. Employers may search public records, databases, and credit bureaus and engage with law enforcement and previous employers to verify a job candidate’s information.

Others may check information like a person’s social media footprint. By conducting such screening, employers ensure that job candidates’ information is accurate and aligns with their policies. Some companies manually do pre-employment background screening, while others hire professional third-party background check providers. Manual screening happens in-house and may be time-consuming since it involves searching vast information from available public and non-public records. A company partnering with a background check provider benefits from a fast, more accurate screening process and compliance support.

Examples of common pre-employment background checks employers conduct include education verification, employment verification, identity verification, credit checks for financial occupations, criminal history, and reference checks. Education verification ascertains that a job candidate has the required educational training for a specific role. Employment verification confirms a person’s employment history, including their previous roles and responsibilities, engagement period, work ethics compliance, and reasons for leaving their previous workplaces. Identity verification checks databases for discrepancies such as impersonation and misleading personas.

An employer may examine a person’s records with credit checks to assess their financial responsibility. Criminal history checks help establish if a person is a threat and if they have convictions that could affect their work performance. Reference checks confirm a job candidate’s overall previous job performance. It also helps identify fake referees a person may have included in their resume. Aside from mitigating risks such as fraud and theft, pre-employment screening has other benefits. It is a cost-effective measure that protects organizations from future expenses, such as lawsuit settlements from hiring an unfit candidate.

Organizations can make informed decisions when choosing individuals for specific roles. Moreover, pre-employment background checks can help protect an organization’s reputation by ensuring that individuals who may taint their brand image are not hired. This is particularly important in today’s digital age, where news of employee misconduct can spread rapidly and damage a company’s standing in the market.