Background Checks of Temporary Help
Hiring an employee with a criminal background is a common mistake. The Department of Justice reports that one out of every 32 adults has a criminal background. Two of three criminals are rearrested within three years of being released, making a strong case for background screening.
Companies utilize staffing agencies for their accurate testing and screening methods. The importance of background checks is becoming more apparent during the screening process to weed out the potential bad employees and hire the potentially good ones.
Results of a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) indicated that 82% of corporate America is currently doing background checks, up from 50% in 1996.
Screening can just be a simple Social Security number trace, which discloses the applicant's addresses and possible aliases or more complicated multi-jurisdictional criminal searches.
"Staffing companies are doing more to establish standards. Criminal searches and drug testing are gaining popularity," said Donna Winder, national sales executive for First Advantage Corp., one of the largest background screening firms.
The most common checks requested are SSN traces, criminal searches for all past counties the applicant has lived in, education and employment verification and drug testing. Depending on the job function, credit and bankruptcy reports, driving records, and technical and professional licenses may also be requested.
The hit rate when doing background checks can vary widely from 7% to 25%, according to screening vendors. Most checks conducted on a company's staff often uncover felony convictions. Since 9/11 there is a greater awareness of the need to know employees, which has led to 50% growth rates.
MAU conducts drug testing on all job placements and enforces a no drug abuse policy for the safety of our employees. Criminal background checks and reference checks are performed on all of our applicants as well as credit reports and license verifications for certain candidates like accounting and medical professionals.
MAU utilizes several different screening and testing methods, including the application, personality tests and skill evaluations. MAU now utilizes the Prove It! system to administer over 800 tests covering a broad range of categories and can be accessed in several languages. The categories include such business functions as accounting, call center, finance, healthcare (both medical office and licensed patient care positions), industrial, legal, IT/technical, computer software and more.