IT’S TIME FOR EMPLOYERS TO CONSIDER
ANNUAL BACKGROUND CHECKS
The time has come for employers to consider doing annual criminal background checks on every employee. To help insure that workplace violence doesn’t take place and that all employees are safe on the job, doing an annual criminal background check on employees makes more and more sense.
Obviously, a thorough background check and reference checks are important prior to making a hiring decision; still, there’s no guarantee that an employee has not run afoul of law enforcement after he/she is on board. How inclusive should the criminal background check be among current employees? To help insure a safe workplace – and to avoid the possibility of being accused of negligence, employers should, at least, check the counties of residence of employees during the last calendar year.
The scope of the check will depend on the responsibilities associated with the job for which the person was hired. If the job involves having access to the company cash drawer, a credit check would seem to be appropriate. On the other hand, if a new employee is driving a company vehicle, it would make very good sense to do a driving record check annually.
While if may seem like a great deal of extra trouble to do annual checks on employees, the old adage – “it’s better to be safe than sorry” – makes a lot of sense!