Did you know that 85% of employers caught job applicants lying on their CV in 2018? Its True.. In addition, most independent surveys reveal about one-third of participants admit to lying on their CV. Most of course are minor embellishments as opposed to outright fraud, but still, one third do this. Moreover, the US Department of Commerce found that 75% of workers have stolen from the workplace in some form or another and that an internal theft is 15 times more likely to occur than theft by an external party. They estimate that $4 billion is stolen or embezzled every year by employees. These statistics remain true across various industries, cultures, and countries, but despite this, very few firms invest in robust background checking processes or partners, but they really should.

Increase quality of hire

67% of businesses that engaged a background check partner, reported that they increased their quality of hire. This was primarily because, instead of someone just phoning up and taking a generic reference, or just looking at an education certificate to see if it looked fake, the new hire was robustly vetted. These firms consistently found that about 10% of their hires had some sort of discrepancy in the information that they provided. This ensures that the quality of hire joining the firm, is much higher. Independent research from SHRM also found that whilst everyone embellishes a little on their CV, it is overwhelmingly poorer applicants who outright falsify information. There is a big difference between claiming extra credit for a project you worked on, and never having worked for the company to begin with, or that they were fired from the company while working on that project for some serious reason like attacking a colleague or stealing from the project budget.

Better Compliance

It has also been shown that roughly 44% of businesses were able to improve their regulatory compliance by outsourcing their background checking to a third-party background check firm. This number is even higher for those in heavily regulated industries such as those within financial services. For example, in many countries if somebody is providing financial advice to others, they must be able to pass a financial background check. Even a small item missed when conducting this check could result in a huge fine or other penalty for an organisation. Likewise, in industries where employees are engaging with vulnerable groups, such as teachers who are in contact with children, ensuring that there are no criminal misdemeanours is incredibly important. It is incredibly hard for an individual HR professional to conduct all these checks in an efficient and robust way, so working with an accredited background check partner is worth the investment.

Ensure a safer workplace

Finally, robust background checks are vital to ensuring a workplace is safe for all who work there. 42% of employers who invested in partnering with a background check provider said it helped them improve workplace safety and security. 16% found it reduced workplace theft, 14% found it helped reduce workplace accidents and a further 11% found it reduced workplace violence. Workplace violence is surprisingly common. In fact an FBI study found that 355,000 workplaces in the US experience violence in the workplace on average per year.

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