What is a Background Check?

When someone applies to work for you or applies for a prominent position in your company, you don’t just jump ahead to hire them. You’d naturally want to conduct some research to vet their character before hiring. This process is known as Background Checks. It is the process you employ to confirm if the information provided by someone you’re working with or someone under your supervision checks out. 

The sort of information that a Background Check could encompass includes any criminal history (in most cases), educational qualifications, and physical training certifications, among others. The level of scrutiny that goes into this process will largely depend on the sensitivity of your involvement with the person. For instance, someone applying for the role of Chief Security Officer at a company will not be placed on the same judgment scale as someone applying for a Junior Research Analyst position in the same company.

Background Checks are usually conducted through various methods, including comprehensive database searches, social media checks, credit checks, and personal references.

Pre-Employment Background Checks

There are various classes of Background checks and multiple reasons why they can be conducted, ranging from checking and confirming the validity of someone’s criminal record, education, and employment history, to other activities from their past. However, the most prominent reason for conducting Background Checks is usually pre-employment screening.

Employment background checks take place usually because, as an employer, you have a significant obligation to ensure the safety and security of the employees in your organization, and this is why employment background checks typically take place when someone applies for a job, but it can also happen at any time the employer deems necessary.

Why are Background Checks necessary?

If you’re an experienced businessman or businesswoman, you know that our current world runs on facts, not faith. It’s irresponsible to place your life, to whatever extent, in the hands of another without being optimally sure of who it is you’re getting involved with. 

This is one of the several reasons companies now maintain their own background check policies, and it has become a top priority for recruiters to engage Background Check companies that conduct checks on potential employees. 

Conducting Background Checks helps you verify the truth of any information you’ve been given by a person you’re considering dealing with about themselves. People can tell you things about themselves, but how do you confirm the truth of it? You do that by investigating, which you get to do through Background Checks.

So essentially, Background Checks are necessary to put your mind at ease regarding dealing with a particular person or organization, especially if your engagement with them will be sensitive and capable of making or breaking your personal or corporate profile.

More importantly, having a reputation for conducting Background Checks on the people you have important dealings with helps you ward off moles, criminals, and people with bad intentions from your personal or corporate space. Prevention is always better than Cure, and with background checks, you’ll be able to prevent any avoidable risks from making their way into your operations by engaging with a person or organization.

Background Checks also help protect your or your company’s reputation. Failing to conduct Background Checks on the people you have important dealings with is the same as going into battle without armor every time and hoping you don’t get wounded. You need armor, you need to be protected from risks, and you’ll be able to get that required protection through Background Checks.

Suppose you have any further concerns as to why or if you or your company might need Background Check services, we’re more than happy to assist you with addressing those concerns. Kindly schedule a brief and free consultation with us, or contact us whenever you’re ready.

How to hire Background Check Services

Thanks to the internet, it’s become easier to access service providers for hire. You could quickly type ‘Background Check Service Provider’ on a search engine, and there you go, you have access to as many organizations and professionals in the field as you can choose from.

However, you don’t want to engage just anybody; you also can’t engage everybody. So the difficulty usually comes in establishing the who’s who amongst the bunch, what company will actually be proficient enough at handling your investigative needs and providing you with factual information on the person or organization you’d like to check out.

That’s where our value at Security Pro comes in. 

What we do is simple – we’re in the business of researching, identifying, and connecting you with the best professionals in the field of security, including Background Check services. We work with organizations and professionals that provide these services at a top-rated level based on long experience and their backgrounds in security services – physical and digital.

All you need to do is schedule a consultation with us or contact us; we’ll discuss your needs and if it warrants employing Background Check Services, and then we’ll handle the rest. Soon after, you’ll be connected with organizations and professionals within our network that we have researched, engaged with, and are sure can handle your investigative needs.

With us, you can rest assured that you’d be getting your money’s worth for reasonable prices and working with the best the industry has to offer.

What to expect from a Background Check

Conducting an adequate Background Check would most times involve having to outsource the task to a company with loads of experience in that venture – investigating and examining people’s physical and digital profiles so you have an idea who it is you’re dealing with, and you’re not walking into any arrangement blind to any skeletons they may have.

At Security pro, we work with such companies that provide Background Check services with the utmost professionalism and efficiency.

Before conducting a Background Check, the Background Check company will obtain basic information from you on the person you’d like to investigate, but if it’s an employment background check is the subject, the company will, as a matter of law, require the consent of the applicant before proceeding. In addition, for an employment background check, the company will guarantee the applicant that they will be as fair as possible and not employ discriminatory practices that may subject the applicant to unfair judgment.

When these milestones are taken care of, the background check will begin, and it will involve a close look at certain factors, including the following:

1. Criminal and Civil Violation Checks

This factor is standard procedure. The Background check company will run a civil violation and criminal history check on whomever you’re investigating to see if they have any recorded violations that may be indicative of potential security or reputational risks you’ll have to face if you work with them.

For an employment background check, possessing a criminal record will ideally constitute a disqualification ground for the applicant. However, the level of seriousness of the violation – criminal or civil – will be relevant too because some companies don’t pay much mind to misdemeanors. But where a felony is involved, your company will definitely appreciate being able to identify that, as many companies typically view criminal records as valid grounds for disqualifying applicants.

2. Educational Qualifications

This applies primarily to employment background checks. The Background Check company you hire will investigate the educational qualifications of the applicant to see if the information they’ve supplied to your company as part of their application is indeed accurate and if they are capable, to some extent, of handling the responsibilities associated with the job position they’re gunning for.

3. Health Assessment

This is a negotiable parameter the Background Check company will cover if you deem it necessary. In uncovering all the potential risks you may be facing with the person you plan on getting involved with in some capacity, the Background Check company will have a look at available information on their health status, including any illnesses or psychological difficulties they may have that you do not know about, but you’ll definitely have to contend with in your dealings with them.

4. General Information

The Background Check company will also examine the truthfulness of other information the person you want to be investigated would have supplied to you. This includes their name, place of work, job position, home address, age, and marital status, among others. This information will serve as the foundation for your association with the person you’re conducting a check on, so it will be essential to know whether you’ve been given the correct information or not so you can avoid any potential future risks.