What Do You Need to Know About a Candidate Before Hiring Them?

When you do a background check on someone, you might feel like you are invading their privacy. But the fact is that most candidates who apply for a job would be happy to undergo a background check to reassure you that they are in fact who they say they are. If for some reason it seems like they don’t want to go through a background check, you should ask yourself why. Is it because they have anything to hide? There are a number of things that a background check can help you to clarify. Here’s what you need to know about a candidate before hiring them.

Legal Background Before Hiring

Has the candidate ever been incarcerated? If not, have they ever been arrested? Have they ever been on the wrong side of the law? Obviously, any employer would want to know this about someone they are thinking about hiring. You may still decide to hire someone who has been arrested and convicted, but it’s a good idea to find out this information before you go ahead and hire someone.

Work Experience/Education

Does the candidate have all the work experience and the education that they claim to have? Or did they actually never finish college like they claimed to do? Many people just go by their instincts and end up hiring people they like without actually checking to make sure they have the degrees and the work experience they claim to have.

Recommendations

What do the people who worked with the candidate think of him/her? Do they have mostly good things to say or are their recommendations sparing and fact-based? Just knowing that a candidate worked at a place for three years is one thing and knowing what people thought about the candidate there is another.

Credit History

Yet another thing that is covered in a person’s background check is their credit history. This gives the employer some idea about the person’s financial reliability before hiring them. Knowing a person’s credit history may not tell you whether that person is good at their job but does give you an idea of their overall stability as an individual.