Everyone Has A Past!

The purpose of interviewing and going through a background check process with candidates is to make sure you really know a candidate and how they’ll perform. A person’s past is often an indicator of their future, so checking someone out thoroughly becomes very important.

A resume is a great place to start. Look at their experience, look at what they’ve accomplished, and decide if that person is worth an interview. Remember, a resume should be a snapshot of the person, the interview is where you learn about them. Make sure you ask the right questions to see if they know what they say they know. Are you looking for a .Net developer, but the person can’t answer simple coding questions? Maybe they have misrepresented themselves. Maybe they just get nervous during interviews, so keep digging. Red flags should be things like:

1.      A resume full of grammatical/spelling errors

2.      The candidate cannot answer basic questions

3.      When asked their biggest weakness, they say they can’t resist murdering interviewers that ask stupid questions… okay, I threw that one in to see if you’re really reading this.

4.      They don’t seem to be able to relate to anyone on the interview team

After the resume and screening interview, you need to check references and background. Why is this important? You want to know who you may potentially hire. OSHA has a “General Duty Clause”, which states that you must provide a safe work environment. This has been interpreted to mean doing background checks. If you hire someone with an adverse background, you can expose yourself to a lot of liability. For example, if the person has a violent criminal history and you hire them, and that person harms an employee or customer, you will be sued. You cannot have a blanket policy saying you won’t hire anyone with something on their background check, but things like a violent history will preclude you from hiring them

Reference checks can be a waste of time. If I give you a list of references, I’m probably going to give you those that I know will say great things about me. Most companies have a policy in place saying that no one should give out any information about a person without their express written permission. Most of the time, you’ll get the standard HR response of the dates they worked there and that’s about it. That’s why networking is helpful, you may know people that know the candidate who will give you off the record remarks. Is that legal? In no way, shape, or form is that legal. The same with checking their social media accounts. Not legal. Do we all do it? Of course we do. Why shouldn’t you be able to use social media? Because they may mention their religious beliefs, or their ethnic backgrounds, or other things that you cannot discriminate against.

Using all sources of information to get a clear picture of the candidate is the best way to make a proper decision. It shouldn’t take months for any decision! Once you find the right person, you have them go through the pre-employment checks, and then bring them onboard. If you did everything right, you should find the best candidate for the job.

Next, I’ll discuss how a candidate should check out a company.

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