Ethical Employment Screening

In this modern day and age it is essential to understand the importance of having the most update information on employees. The option of employment screening gives the management and human resources department an ability to set guidelines for their companies prospective employees. Within these guidelines, human resources is capable of "weeding out" potential financial, and possibly even physical, threats to the company and its current personnel.

Considering all aspects of a potential employee's ability to contribute to the growth and stability of the company should be the first priority. Followed closely by their qualifications is weather a particular individual is qualified based purely upon their education, or upon their experience in the work force. Ideally any prospective employee will have a combination of both. Finally, a prospective employee should be put through an employment screening. Employment screening varies from industry to industry, as it should.

For example, a potential Accounts Manager applies for an accounting job at local bank. She is a professional, with over five years experience in the banking/accounting industry. She has excellent references and according to her last employer, "was an asset to the company." Upon an employment screening of her criminal record, human resources discovers that she had a failure to appear in traffic court and was arrested for this. Human Resources has set their policy in such a fashion that a prospective employee must have no arrests what so ever in order to qualify for the position. In this situation, an employment screening can cause a company to lose a fantastic asset because of a trivial misdemeanor.

On the other hand, if upon the viewing of her criminal record human resources discovered she was convicted of “possession of a forged instrument” or stolen checks and financial documents, this is certainly a reason not to consider her for the position.

Another attribute of employment screening is voluntary drug screening. In most cases a prospective employee voluntarily submits themselves to a drug screening. This can occur either on a one time basis or as often as the company deems necessary. This screen is vital in some industries, especially industries that involve the operation heavy machinery or industries that primarily work with the care and maintenance of children or the elderly. This particular aspect of employee screening has the ability to save the company large sums money by preventing unnecessary accidents and, more importantly, it has the potential to save lives.

Finally, one of the last avenues used to screen potential employees when recruiting is to check their financial credentials. This within itself can be a double edge sword. By checking whether or not the potential employee has filed for bankruptcy, or is behind on there credit card payments, some companies hold the belief that this will eliminate irresponsible people from their workforce. However, in most cases checking someone’s financial credentials is a relatively costly and time consuming venture. Also, it may not give a company an accurate picture of the potential employee. There are a myriad of different reasons why individuals file for bankruptcy, or fall behind on credit card payments. Reasons range from divorce, to serious healthcare issues, or even a death in the family.

Employment screening gives companies valuable information on potential employees. It accomplishes this by checking potential employees' references and their criminal record. With this information in hand a company can gauge if a potential employee is reliable, trustworthy and safe. Then upon viewing a potential employee's financial credentials a company can evaluate if the potential employee is good with time and money management.

All in all, employment screening is an essential part of bringing qualified personnel into any company's workforce when filling jobs.