How do you know the person you just hired does not have a long criminal history of theft charges? Are you positive the person you just hired is trustworthy? Are you sure the person you hired will not be a danger to other employees and to the workplace in general? Will the new employee leave you vulnerable to liability for negligent hiring? “Of course not,” you think. “Their application says they do not have a criminal history.” Sure, that is what they said, but how do you know the applicant is telling the truth about their criminal history? Unfortunately, you don’t. The only way you can know the truth about a potential hire is if you conduct a criminal history check.

A criminal history check is an essential step in hiring the right employee. It is an unfortunate reality of doing business that some people just are not honest. If someone has a criminal history, what is to stop him or her from lying about it on a job application? Nothing, that is unless you take the time to conduct a criminal history check prior to hiring the employee. A criminal history check is a simple and convenient method you can use to ensure you hire the right employee. You can conduct a criminal history check by going through a professional criminal history check company. A professional criminal history check company will allow you to search numerous criminal record databases, such as those maintained by various states, municipalities, the federal government, and even private corporations. By simply entering such information as the applicant’s name, address, date of birth and social security number, the criminal history check will survey all of these databases, pulling out any information pertaining to the applicant. From the information gathered by the criminal history check, you can know whether or not the applicant is being honest about the criminal history and, depending on the criminal history check results, whether or not the applicant is a good match for you employment needs.

There are numerous advantages to using a criminal history check, all of which add up to hiring the right employee. For instance, without doing a criminal history check of an employee prior to hiring them, you could hire someone with a criminal record of stealing. Without this knowledge, you would be placing a criminal in charge of your company’s finances. Likewise, conducting a criminal history check prior to making a hire may limit your vulnerability to being held liable for any harm the employee causes. If you fail to do a criminal history check of an employee and, later, after that employee has harmed other employees, it is discovered the employee has a history of causing harm to others, you may be held liable for the damages caused by the employee under the theory of negligent hiring. However, if you had taken the time to conduct a simple criminal history check before hiring the individual, this situation would have never occurred. Clearly, it makes good business sense to make using a criminal history check part of your employee hiring routine.