The Human Resources (HR) department wears a lot of hats: they handle disputes between employees, keep track of incident reports, wrangle paid time off, enforce regular evaluations, and, most importantly, help find the best employees for your business! As an HR manager, you’re in charge of all of these items and play a crucial role in developing and maintaining best hiring practices, including pre-screening employees. In this quick guide, we will discuss the responsibilities of an HR manager regarding pre-screening. Responsibilities encompass resumes and applications, background checks, employment verification, the role of social media, and when it may be wise to pull credit history.
Even with this guide, it’s a massive undertaking with many nuances to navigate, so partnering with the right third-party screening company like CNet Technologies eliminates a lot of unnecessary stress! Read on to learn more.
Applications vs. Resumes
Across the working world, the most basic first step is to fill out an application. These applications are usually lengthy and require most or all of your employment history, dates of employment, and the names and contact information of your current or former supervisors. For hires, this can seem redundant when your resume is often attached to said application. As an HR Manager, you already understand that redundancy is done on purpose. HR Managers create forms that ask for extensive information that may not always be included on a resume so they can get the information they need to verify employment. They can also use what they’ve gathered to compare and contrast both documents. This comparison of information between the resume and application is the first step in the pre-employment screening.
Conducting Thorough and Legal Background Checks
The HR manager is additionally responsible for conducting background checks, including criminal history. These reports should be gained through legal channels and are the most significant expense of the screening process. For some small businesses, this can cut into your budget deeply. However, don’t be tempted to cut corners with online databases or free public records. Often, these sources are outdated and inaccurate, with no form of fact-checking. Outsourcing these background checks to a reliable company like CNet Technologies mitigates your risk of unverified sources, as well as valuable time in gathering these reports.
Employment Verification
Employment verification is the process of contacting your candidate’s previous employers to make sure they worked there in the capacity listed on the application and resume. Some states have strict laws on what you can ask, but not what the previous employer answers, so take those answers and how they’re given into consideration.
Tip: If any troubling information arises, you should be prepared to present these to the candidate so they can tell their side of the story. How and what is said by both previous employer and candidate can be revealing! Beware of becoming biased regarding one side or the other.
Even with simple answers, you can still start to establish patterns of work ethic and how they get along with others in the workplace.
About Social Media Screening
Social media screening may seem to give you a leg up, but it’s best if you run it through an appropriate vendor. By just visiting an applicant’s page or site, you run the risk of integrating your personal bias into the hiring process. Ultimately, you create the greatest chance for discrimination by looking through these on your own. If you do decide to pursue social media screening, CNet Technologies can provide legitimate reports that won’t include any legally inflammatory elements such as race or preference. It’s best to leave this category to the professionals!
Credit History
You don’t always need to pull an applicant’s credit history, but it makes sense if the candidate handles expenses, accounting, or works in the financial sector. However, before you pull a credit history, you’ll want to understand the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when it comes to utilizing these records for pre-screening. Because our focus at CNet Technologies is on screening, we understand the legalities of FCRA, so you don’t have to!
Put Your Trust in the Pros!
Gathering employment pre-screening data takes a lot of time and resources. Additionally, analyzing that information poorly can open your company up to expensive discrimination lawsuits! When you allow a professional team like CNet Technologies to handle your pre-screening, this limits your liability and ensures the information you receive is legally obtained. Contact us today to see how we can help your HR department with their pre-screening needs!