Background checks are an essential part of the hiring process

Any employer who elects to neither assess references nor conduct background checks may be exposing their business and their people to potential calamity.

This doesn’t just happen at smaller companies. One notable example (among too many), in early May 2012, the public learned that the CEO recruited to lead Yahoo! and its $18 billion enterprise was using a resume that misrepresented his education credentials.

After a mere 130-day tenure, he was replaced.

In our recruiting experiences, we’ve uncovered candidates:

• with repeated DUI issues who would be out on the road working on their new employer’s behalf.

• who proudly present resume credentials that are found to be illegitimate. (If they are less than forthcoming here, what else have they obscured? What might they hide in the future?)

• who don’t share past “for cause” terminations.

• who’ve been convicted of some legal transgression. And if they’re ever arrested after you’ve hired them, the law or the media may dredge up their history and identify them as now being employed by your company.

We’ve encountered these circumstances, in part, as we’ve commissioned comprehensive professional background checks to verify criminal records, driving history, education, work history, personal credit and more.

Let’s not be placated by “quick and easy” sources of background information. Engage a proven background-check organization that will tap firsthand sources of reliable information. The better organizations may even offer advice to deal with any issues that are uncovered.

In the extreme, we know there can be tragedies (e.g., employees “going postal”) often in workplaces that believe “that will never happen here.” Have there been indicators in an employee’s history that might have pointed to a potential problem?

In addition, do you ask prospective employees for references?

Do you contact these references? We make each of these contacts a conversation, not just a checklist, as a checklist will surface only limited information.

For any employer, the vulnerabilities are real. You may also have people already on board with problematic backgrounds or tendencies. We’ve seen these, too. In the hiring process you sink essential time and money into recruiting while a vital position has gone unfilled. Why not spend the brief time and short money for assurances when investing in a critical new business resource?

During a recruiting campaign, hiring managers often develop an interpersonal affinity for at least one special candidate. When all the facts emerge, however, a manager may find that there are candidates with previously unverified credentials with whom they may now need to fall out of love.

Should a potential lack of integrity be a concern when a new executive otherwise brings an impressive professional track record?

Absolutely!

Post-hiring discoveries will jeopardize or embarrass employers. They will also raise that awful question: “why didn’t you know?” For each executive search, Standish engages and pays for a third-party professional background check and completes a thorough reference check. They’re that important.

Stan Davis is founder of Standish Executive Search LLC. Standish is the organization change and development advisor to New England businesses. Contact Stan and his colleagues at www.standishsearch.com