In today’s world, businesses can not afford to skip background checks because candidates are using fake resumes, and profiles to get the job. A study says that 30 percent of candidates lie on their resumes. Also, as per a survey of ResumeLab, 93% of people know someone who lied on their resume and of those who lied, only 31% were caught. The most common lies were related to work experience, skills, and job duties.

Skipping background checks can increase the risk of harm to your employees and reputation. Not that, sometimes skipping the background checks can lead you to hire a candidate with a lack of necessary skills to do the job properly, and that can decrease your productivity which will further decrease the ROI.

Why are background checks are costly?

Background verification is not a simple process, as it involves past employer's verification, new candidate's verification, background check agencies, and more. The recruiters tend to skip this process as it is time-consuming and costly. Also, even if you take background services from a particular provider, you will see different prices for different services. It is because there are a lot of factors involved that determine the cost of background checks. Well, a typical background check involves a few factors that decide the cost of services. They are:

  • Search Type
  • Search Depth
  • Hiring Agencies
  • Results Reported

Now, let’s dive deep and learn about these factors in detail.

The Search Type:

There are different types of searches included in background check services. They include criminal record screenings, global watchlists, employment verification, education verification, and motor vehicle reports(MVR) and most verifications are done manually.

The different types of background searches require a different amount of effort, resources, labor, and many more, depending on the search type. If you are looking to hire a local vendor may cost less than a search that includes hiring a candidate for a huge business.

If the search type is limited to educational details, then it may cost less. But if your search type includes verification of criminal records, then it can be a costly process.

The Search Depth:

"The more you want the in-depth details of the candidate, the more it costs." 

Let us consider that you want the criminal background check of your new hire. But the question is, at what depth do you want the verification details?

The depth of background check verification details will determine the cost of search and labor.

If you don't want in-depth detail, then the search may limit to the current state or county's criminal records. But, if you are looking for in-depth details of the candidate's criminal background, it may require background check services to do a deep in-depth analysis of the candidate's background.

Now, the search will not be limited to the current state or county, but background check services will go deep into the details and will check every country, county, or state they have lived in till now.

Hiring Agencies:

Most companies hire reputed staffing agencies to do background checks on their candidates. Companies have to pay outsourcing fees to these agencies, and these agencies ensure that they take the steps that are involved in the recruitment process and will do a complete background check with the candidates previously. The background check fee depends on the type of search you want for that candidate and the level of position you are hiring for.

But the cost of different agencies may vary depending on their background check process, as sometimes the agency that you are hiring for the background check will further hire another agency to do further manual checking on the candidate.

The Results Reported:

The results that are disclosed during or after the background checks can also cost a lot, depending on the type of information that is received.

Let us consider that the hiring manager asks for the criminal verification of the candidate. Now, two types of situations can arise. Case one is where the candidate is innocent and has never been involved in any criminal or fraudulent activities. In such cases, the criminal verification will be stopped and the cost of background verification will be less.

Case two is where the candidate is guilty and is involved in criminal activities like assault, bullying, drug dealing, or much more. In such cases, the investigation will not stop there. Instead, the next step is to verify if the criminal records are conducted by that candidate or if someone is trying to frame that candidate. And will cost more than your budget.

Also Read: Hire With Confidence: Need Of Background Checks In 2022!

The other factor that can also be considered is the Time Taken.

The background checks encapsulate a wide range of details. It is not only costly but is time-consuming too. The background checks may take different time frames for different levels of hiring positions. For some positions, the background-checking process may take a week, while for some positions, the background-checking process can be done in 3 or 4 business days.

Let us consider that you want to hire a senior manager. Then the verification check can take up to ten days or sometimes more. Hiring for a senior level will need a depth look into the candidate's history but, if you are hiring for a fresher, it may take one or two days.

Are background check services trustworthy?

Background checks provide information on the candidate's criminal history, debts, employment, and criminal history, among others, that could give the employer an idea of his or her personality. Every business small and large considers background checks while hiring a new candidate.

But, can we fully trust background checks? Well, background checks come with their flaws, that can not be ignored. Background checks give us information, but it is not a wise idea to rely on them completely.

A few problems that businesses can face even after investing in background checks. Keep reading the blog to learn about them in detail.

Unfair Hiring:

The major problem with background checks is that companies believe in everything that is written in the report. The hiring team will judge the candidate based on the report. These reports can sometimes cause employers to drop the candidate because of the questionable information present in the report.

Even if the charge has been dismissed, the information still shows up on the report. And such reports will lead the employer to question the candidate's character.

Not that, sometimes candidates appear clean on the report even if they were involved in some criminal activity or fraudulent events.

Wrong Reports:

Another concern regarding background checks is whether the information contained in the report is incorrect. Sometimes, agencies may confuse one candidate's name with someone else. And can provide details of another candidate. Such mistakes are crucial, and the employer can simply drop the candidate from the hiring list, which in turn can impact the candidate's future. 

Such wrong reports can be harmful to the employer and the candidate too. 

Incomplete Reports:

Another shortcoming of background checks is that there is always the potential for incomplete information. Leaving the important details on the report like consumer credit reports, professional licenses, excluded party checks, and many more is not a wise idea.

State Checks:

A few background checks only to verify the candidate's current address and tend to skip all other states where he has lived. So if the candidate has been involved in any criminal offense or any fraudulent activity in any other state, it gets ignored. As a result of it, the information reports can come out to be clean. Sometimes such mistakes can hire the wrong candidate and that will increase the threat to the company, its data, and its employees as well. So it becomes important to know if the service that you are opting for provides national or only in-state background checks.  

Error-Prone:

Another major issue with background checks is that businesses can encounter a lot of human errors and machine errors. No matter how careful you are, there is always a chance of an error. These errors can be due to human mistakes, lack of software updates, or can be due to machine errors. 

Also, such errors can tear down the candidate's image and can make them look undeserving. Background check errors can cause some employers to pass up a wonderful candidate based solely on the wrong information. Such errors increase the probability of hiring the wrong candidate.

This is a world of uncertainty, and no one wants any error or discrepancy to affect their business. Now the question is that what can be done to avoid such scenarios?

The Solution: Automatic Background Checks

Automatic Background Checks are Artificial intelligence-based software that performs background verification checks considering a candidate's criminal, financial, and professional records and many more. Automatic background checks make it easy for an organization to hire potential candidates.

Automatic Background Checks use a technique called "Scrapping". Scrapping uses automated bots that collect candidates' data from court and law enforcement websites. These bots, like human researchers, recognize and collect important data and make reports according to the client's needs.

Also, Automated Background Checks are fast as compare to normal Backgrounds Checks. They gather and analyze information from public records, social media platforms, public databases, and many more and can help you hire the right talent for your organization. These AI-driven background checks can help you:

Reduce Liability Issues:

"A study says that Automated Background Screening has reduced the negligent hiring risks by 29%"

Hiring an employee with a malicious past can land the employer in trouble. If the hired employee engages in any harmful activities, then the employer will be held responsible for being ignorant. An AI-based background check can protect a company from any unnecessary liability issues and protects a company's reputation. AI-powered background checks help you in identifying the candidate's character and help you decide whether you can hire that employee or not.

Increase Workforce Safety:

An employer is responsible for protecting everyone working under their organization. AI-driven background checks act as a filter. It keeps your employees safe, by screening out candidates with questionable character or background automatically. AI-driven background checks, not only protect the company's employees but also gives them a message that the company cares about their employees and respects them, which in turn enhances the integrity of the employees.

Protect Organizational Data and Customers:

Data breaching is a criminal offense. Hiring a candidate with such questionable background can become a threat to an organization and can also, make you lose your customers. Also, such candidates can leak the organization's confidential data which can lead to a decrease in the return on Investment(ROI) of any organization.

An AI-driven background check looks into its data and tells you if the candidate is involved in such offenses or not,

Identify Fake Certificates and Affiliation: These days, it is very easy to get false certificates. A candidate can buy fake certificates, degrees, and many more to get the job. Also, a few candidates can show multiple false affiliations to get the hike or promotions. But with Automatic Background Checks, it is easy to identify fake certificates, affiliations, or degrees.

Increased Quality of Hire

Candidates can mention false skills, give wrong references, fake experiences, and many more in their resumes. Also, there is a high chance that such candidates will continue to lie during their employment. But with Automatic Background Checks, it has become easy to filter out fake resumes, and you only get the profiles of the right talent.
 

Summing-up!

To find the right talent you need to follow a complete recruitment process including Background Verification. So, if you are looking for the most trustworthy FREE background verification checks, EmployeePast is here for you.

Try here.