Employment is not a right but a privilege. Those who are hired to work for a company need to meet the qualifications that the company sets out for the role, and they likely need to pass a background check and drug screening. These are all processes that an employer is entitled to ask its employees. Therefore, anyone who would like to work for that employer must ensure that they are prepared to accept the requirements that a job may put on them to receive employment there. Failure to do so means that they will have no opportunity to work for that employer. There is a lot for an employer to gain from performing a background check, and we wanted to take a closer look at that process and why it is so vital in the first place.
Establishing A Fair Background Check Policy
First things first when it comes to setting up a background and drug screening policy, and that is that the policy should treat each applicant fairly. Everyone needs to be on a level playing field so that there are no claims of discrimination or worse. After the procedures have been set up, it is a lot harder to reverse them, which is a headache for everyone involved. Instead, HR departments and everyone else involved in creating background check policies for companies should try to make sure that they have set up fair policies that everyone can live with from the moment they are launched.
Identify Potential Risks To The Company
An important thing to understand about background checks is that they are not designed to get into the personal business of another person for no reason. Instead, they are meant to help the company identify potential risks that it may be taking on by accepting certain types of applicants. Those with a criminal history may not be the ideal choice for a given company, as an example. It may seem harsh to have to single people out like that, but it is for the company’s greater good that people with a questionable past be eliminated from contention. Zenbusiness.com also makes it clear that a criminal background check can also be used as a way of determining that someone’s criminal history is minor and thus may not be an issue:
One of the main reasons why companies decide for pre-employment background checks is to flag any previous criminal history of the applicant. Having the knowledge of applicant’s criminal history, the employer can make a final decision. Sometimes, criminal history suggests minor charges on the applicant. However, in order to ensure that whether the applicant is suitable for hiring or not, a criminal history check needs to take place.
We should make it abundantly clear at this point that there are plenty of great and qualified employees who may have had minor run-ins with the law in the past. They should not be eliminated from contention simply because of a small error in judgment in their history.
When Should Criminal Background Check And Drug Screenings Be Conducted?
Technically speaking, employers have the legal right to conduct a criminal background check and drug screenings at any time. When SHRM conducted a survey of business owners about when they tend to perform these measures, they came back with the following results:
- Before the applicant is hired: 60%
- At other times, per legal mandates: 14%
- At other times, for cause: 10%
The “cause” that many are referring to when they say this is if an employee is suspected of partaking in illegal drugs or if other information has turned up that they may have a criminal history that was previously unknown. The legal mandates may refer to the necessity of a truck driver to be drug tested following an auto accident, for example. Most screenings are performed before the employee is hired so that as much as possible is known about them before they start working for you.
If you have wondered about your rights to perform background checks or drug screenings as an employer, please contact us for more information about how you can exercise these rights and what the best practices are for doing so.
