There are many investments a business can make to improve its financial health. Some investments deliver tangible results, while others are more subliminal. In the case of human capital, pre-employment background screening is an investment into the business and its returns are evident when employees perform optimally.

Rudi Kruger, General Manager of Data Services at LexisNexis discussed the benefits of background checks and their importance in rooting out inappropriate candidates.

“Employees are the organisation’s most important assets. To ensure that they do not pose any risk or become a liability to the business, it is important to screen all potential employees, prior to offering them a job,” he said.

“In essence, screening candidates with thorough background checks helps improve transparency and disclosure while investigating an applicant’s claims in order to verify them.”

While background screening using a third-party provider may be treated as an added cost to the recruitment process, there is no more effective and efficient way to red flag criminal behaviour, uncover unverified qualifications, root out fabricated experience or verify other relevant information.

The investment goes further by helping the employer ensure that the brand is protected from harm. “By using background screening to investigate candidates, employers are able to identify candidates who could potentially damage the brand and eliminate the costs associated with damage control.”

Additionally, when employees fail to perform, it’s likely that they are ill-equipped for the job. This can prove extremely costly to the company as a weak employee may contribute towards a decline in revenue, time wasting and futile expenditure in the form of salaries and benefits.

“Employees who fail to perform could have either lied on their CV about their qualifications or fabricated their experience,” said Kruger. “This is why the time and resources taken to verify the authenticity of the qualification and experience are such positive investments into the business.”

Background screening is made easier with technology-based solutions like Lexis® RefCheck - one of South Africa’s leading pre-employment and background screening solutions that helps to automate the hiring process while ensuring a candidate meets a company’s employment standards.

Lexis® RefCheck’s services include verification of tertiary and secondary academic qualifications held by the individual from registered local and international institutions; identity and South African citizenship validation; fraud history checks via the South African Fraud Prevention Services; credit history checks through detailed TransUnion and Experian credit bureau reports; criminal history check via AFISwitch (electronic fingerprint collection and processing); verification of local and international employment history and professional association membership; verification of drivers’ licence status; and matching of bank account information against an identity number or registration number.

For more information on how it can be of benefit to your business, visit www.refcheck.co.za