Over the past few years, the claims of negligent hiring have seemed to skyrocket. What is negligent hiring exactly? It is where an employer is charged with hiring someone who has a potential risk to the company or its employees, even if they are not aware of it. As an employer, it is essential that you do anything and everything that you can to avoid these charges and the best thing to do is to utilize employee background checks.
Negligent hiring claims are becoming more prominent. Because negligent hiring claims are becoming more prominent, it is imperative that you start performing background checks in your company. In fact, more companies these days are performing background checks as a defense for negligent hiring than for the traditional reasons of checking on criminal records and reducing embezzlement and theft.
The courts are taking negligent hiring seriously. You should also know that the courts are starting to take negligent hiring very seriously and juries are giving victims of negligent hiring more and more money, which will come directly from the company. One of the landmark cases of negligent hiring was against a home healthcare company that had hired an employee who had six felonies on his record. This employee, in turn, treated a patient with questionable behavior. The patient and family sued the home healthcare company with negligent hiring and walked away with almost $27 million. All of this could have been avoided if the company had done a background check.
Screening the correct way. When doing a background check to stop negligent hiring, it is important that you do it the right way. For instance, you should make sure that the screening is specific. The trick is to not only align the screenings with EEOC guidelines, but to also make sure that they are aligned with the needs of your organization. One of the best ways to do this is to use the services of a background screening company.
Screening more than new hires. Background screening shouldn’t only be for new hires. Some companies will screen their employees every year or even when they are promoted within the company. You should, as a responsible employer, at least screen your employees at regular intervals as you can never tell what is going on behind the scenes that can lead to a charge of negligent hiring.
Defend your business with background screening. The best defense that you have against negligent hiring is a background screening company. As an employer, you are responsible for who you hire whether you know it or not. If someone you are hiring fails a background check or you don’t perform a background check, it is going to fall on you if you hire them and something bad happens.
As you can see, there are some really great reasons to get a background check thanks to the surge in negligent hiring claims. Don’t let this happen to you and your business. Get a relationship going with a high quality background screening company and protect yourself for the long run.
MORE: EEOC Guidance Complicates Background Check Process
[…] truth is, companies simply cannot afford not to do background checks, especially if they are a small business. Did you know that according to the U.S. Chamber of […]