As a business owner or HR manager, you should already know that hiring good trustworthy people is important.  That starts with pre-employment background checks. 

Here is a story to help illuminate this need.

Bill owns a medium-sized plumbing business.  He has built his business up from the ground and now has become very successful.  Bill specialized in helping other businesses with their plumbing needs.  He has completed specialized training and has managed to get specialized licenses which bring in a large amount of revenue for the company.  

Bill hired an office person, Becky, who fields phone calls and manages the books.  She is responsible for both the accounts payable and receivable.  This includes making sure that all licenses and insurances are kept up to date.  Bill did not conduct a pre-employment background screening before hiring Becky, and in this case, it would not have helped.

Becky works for Bill for just over two years.  As Bill’s comfort with Becky’s abilities increases, he spends more time growing the business than running the day-to-day operations.  That he leaves to Becky.

Becky has issues in her personal life.  She started experimenting with illegal narcotics and is now addicted to stimulants.  She spends her paychecks chasing the next high.  She has hidden her addiction up to this point from everyone around her.  However, her weekly pay is no longer able to support her habit.  So, Becky starts to embezzle money from the business.  In the beginning, it was twenty dollars here, fifty dollars there.  Becky hates that she is stealing from Bill, but she sees no other option.  She devises a scheme where she makes it look like invoices are being paid, but she is pocketing the money for more drugs.  She tells herself that she will pay the money back but does not have a plan to do so.

Bill gets word that one of his specialized licenses has expired. The state notifies him that he is no longer able to provide that service to his customers.  Bill is now getting notes and phone calls from his suppliers, wondering when he is going to pay the accounts balances for the company.  Bill spends his weekend going over the books.  He sees where Becky has been stealing from him.  He files a police report, and Becky is arrested and charged.  She is tried and found guilty; it will take a forensic accountant to ultimately determine that Becky has stolen more than $320,000 from Bill.  Even worse is that she had not renewed his licenses.  Bill learns that he will have to repeat his prior education and testing to get his license back.

Would a pre-employment background check have helped Bill keep his license?  The answer is no.  Becky had not been arrested for theft, and by all accounts, had not started using drugs.  However, after Becky served her 45 days in jail, she will need a new job.  Would you want to hire Becky to run your office?  Would you want her to have access to the company cash?  Pre-employment background screening can highlight red flags before they become issues for your company.