Don’t Let Pre-Employment Hiring Practices Lead to Negligent Hiring

Even if you don’t operate a business in Southern California, there is a great lesson to be learned from the recent outbreak of inappropriate sexual conduct from teachers and other school personnel. Poor pre-employment hiring practices can lead to claims of negligent hiring.

Regardless of your industry or location, examine your selection procedures to ensure you exercise reasonable care in determining an applicant’s fitness for employment. Consider the following practices to reduce potential liability:

• Identify potential liability factors related to each job, such as handling cash, driving company vehicles, and working with children;
• Identify potential risk factors related to each of these liabilities, such as poor credit, bad driving records, or criminal history;
• Ask each job applicant to explain the reason for gaps in employment;
• Obtain a release to protect you and the people you contact about references from invasion of privacy or defamation claims;
• Conduct thorough background checks – based on job as well as federal and state laws – on all job applicants before they begin employment;
• Consider how anything in the applicant’s background relates to the potential job before making a final hiring decision;
• Wherever possible, require applicants to provide copies of credentials, licenses, degrees, or other documents you require; and
• Ensure your employment application advises applicants that omissions, misrepresentations, or falsifications of information will result in their rejection or termination.If you want to get it right and put yourself in a better position to make the right pre-employment hiring decision, contact us. We can provide the fast, accurate, comprehensive background check, investigative screening, and verification service you need.