Are Background Checks Part Of Your Candidate Onboarding Process?

What does your company do for onboarding?

And more importantly…why does it matter?

Statistics show that effective onboarding practices make a huge difference in the productivity, engagement and retention of employees. It also ensures you’ve hired the best possible candidates for the job, especially if background checks are one of the components of the process.

Why should you include background checks as part of a comprehensive candidate onboarding process? 

Here’s what you need to know.

What Is Onboarding?

To succeed in their role, new employees need so much more than just a guided tour of the office. They need to understand all the nuances of each task they are assigned, as well as the overall culture, goals and purpose of your company. Onboarding is the process which allows that to happen. Typically, supervisors and mentors within the organization conduct onboarding by providing extensive training to the new employee, as well as any information that they might need to know to carry out their responsibilities. The onboarding process starts the moment your company makes a job offer to a candidate and ends whenever the employee feels prepared and ready to embrace their work.

Why Is Onboarding Important?

Onboarding is critical to ensure the long-term success of your employees. It aligns a new team member with your organization’s culture and climate, so that they can contribute more meaningfully. It also boosts employee engagement and retention. As employees get familiar with the culture, as well as any resources available to them, they become more involved and more productive.

Effective onboarding helps employees care about the company and its goals. When employees care, they will work harder and perform better.

The Importance of Communication

To be effective, your onboarding process needs to be a positive experience for candidates. The moment a job seeker fills out an application to work for you, they have begun to form their opinion about your company. If they have a bad experience during onboarding, you risk losing them to another company before you even have the chance to train them. Communication is an essential piece of that positive experience, because it builds a sense of trust. Throughout the process, keep candidates informed about their next steps. Most importantly, let them know about any pre-employment screenings you conduct and why you need this information.

Why You Should Conduct Background Checks

The completion of background checks is an essential component of any successful onboarding program. It’s well-documented that conducting pre-employment background checks on candidates results in better hires and improved safety at the workplace. According to a survey, 78% of job applicants falsify information on their application forms. Such falsification can lead to serious problems down the road. For example, if a candidate lies about the amount of time they worked for a previous employer, that means he or she does not have as much previous experience as you think they do. The onus is on you, the employer, to perform the necessary verifications to ensure you have the right person for the job.

Here at Veriswift, we can make the background check process a simple and seamless part of your onboarding program. Contact us today to find out how we can help.