Do You Really Need A Background Screening For Business And Why?

Margaret Williams
3 min readNov 12, 2020
Background Screening For Business

Is background checking really important for your business? It is one of the frequently asked questions when an employer starts their business or is planning to expand it. Before coming to any conclusion, let’s discuss some leverage of the background screening process.

Background screening like a Criminal Background Check is performed to screen if the person possesses any threat to the organisation or if he is fit to operate for that particular job role. Many a time, before taking the final decision on the prospective hire, the organisations ask for a check.

One may be asking which Background check is right for the organisation as there are several checks available. A recent survey shows that many candidates lie on their resume. So, to be sure, Previous Employment Check to know the employment history or Education Qualification Check can be performed.

The employer may ask for a National Police Check if that is required by the law, for example working in Aged Care, or that job position has many risks involved, for example, banking sectors.

Why can the employers ask for the background checks?

The following points will throw some lights on the benefits of the employment checks …

Helps to avoid the risks of wrong hiring: A person can be unqualified for a specific job role if he has any criminal history. The person causes some issues in the business. If proper background screening doesn’t happen, and the case moves to court, then the organisation cannot avoid the liability of negligent hiring. It can also affect the image of the brand.

Save times and money: Hiring is a long process and involves different steps. Sometimes you find a candidate is perfectly fit for the job position and hire them. But, if it goes wrong, then you have to start the process from scratch. So, it is always advisable to perform screening before employment is finalised to save time and money.

Ensure a safe workplace: One of the main objectives of Background Check for Employment is to make the workplace safe and maintain the wellbeing of the employees. No employer should take the risk to compromise the employee’s wellbeing, as the employer will be accountable for any unwanted situation.

Highlighting criminal history according to the Spent Convictions law: Knowing the criminal record of a prospective candidate will help influence HR teams and make a final judgement on the applicant suitability in the specific position they might be assigned.

For example, some businesses, such as Aged Care providers, require the use of police checks before staff can be put in places where vulnerable people’s (e.g. the elderly, disabled or children) access are unsupervised.

Criminal “Background Checks” Requirement to work as a Volunteer

Why can a strict Police Checking policy be significant?

Police Check NSW, Police Check VIC exists to stop the crimes and identify potential offenders. The organisation should also incorporate a rigorous Police Checking policy to give a clear message that ‘’your chances of getting employed will be less if you commit any crime’’.

Being said that, a candidate should not be discriminated because of any unrelated offences.

For example, if someone is denied the clerical job because he/she has a traffic-related offence, that may be termed as discrimination. However, for major offences like sexual assaults, employment can be rejected in any industry.

Conclusion

The National Police Check is the first line of protection when it comes to ensuring the safety and integrity of your workspace.

Again, it’s not that people who make mistakes don’t deserve jobs; it means that before recruiting, one is allowed to weigh the risks. In the course of history, the variables of human behaviour are plain as day.

So, it is very significant to perform background screening. It is as simple as that.

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Margaret Williams

Hi, I am Margaret from Australia. Writing blogs is my passion. Professionally, I am closely working with National Police Check - https://www.koncheck.com/npc