When Paranoia is Justified: Doing Background Checks on People

A full back ground check on people can be an important tool used by
employers to find and pull out people who may pose some risk to the company.
Governments have long been using background checks on people, and
this especially since the aftermath of the September 11 attack. Terrorist cell
worries aside, background checks on people have long been
essential for employers in hiring the right kind of people. Much money and a lot
of time are lost by people who refuse to do background checks on
people, until it is too late--as when an employee with sexual harassments raps
has done it again in the office, or when a new hire skips town unexpectedly
along with office equipment.



A background check on people is easy to do and won't take more
than a couple of minutes. It can be done with the use of online search engines,
through free or paid for background checking services, and through
on-foot searches of public databases and records. Employers want to know more
than whether a person is right or trained enough for a job; they also wish to
know if it is cost effective and safe to keep this person employed; if he is
worth an investment in training.



An employer does not wish to spend training for a new IT guy only to find out he
had skipped town for a better job, using his new training certificates to
bolster his job application. What the employer missed there was that that person
has a history of job hopping.



Performing background checks on people is also useful not just in
hiring en masse, but also in the domestic market. A parent does not want to hire
a babysitter with a history of violence against toddlers. A parent wishes only
the best for her children. So she performs a through background search on
the people that come to her wanting to become her children's babysitter.



Paranoia is most instances these days are justified. People, employers, and
parents want to be assured that the person who claims to be someone on paper is
actually that person, and not someone else, or that his history is accurately
told and not invented. Performing a background check on people is
a necessity these days