Most companies and organizations perform pre-employment background checks. No one wants to introduce poor performance, bad behavior, criminal activity, or other risks into their workplace. That’s pretty standard these days. However, very few companies and organizations do background checks of employees after they’ve been hired. But there are good reasons why they should.
Lower Liability with Post-Employment Background Checks
Even if your new hires have spotless pre-employment reports, that doesn’t guarantee that they will not commit a crime, develop poor credit, lose their professional license, or run into other problems after employment has started. A post-employment background check can identify those risks before they cause problems, so you can avoid or minimize potential damage.
Some industries require post-employment checks by law:
- Financial services
- Healthcare
- Transportation
- Industries that serve vulnerable populations
Make sure you’re familiar with the particular requirements of your industry and that you set up a system to ensure that qualifications, such as licensing and education, are properly maintained and renewed in a timely manner.
When to Do a Post-Employment Background Check
Even if your industry isn’t legally required to do post-employment background checks, regularly scheduled post-employment screenings can reduce your liability and demonstrate that your company has a system in place to proactively review the behavior of its workforce.
One key opportunity to conduct a post-employment background check is any time an employee is promoted or has a significant change in responsibility. For example, if someone moves from a desk job to one that requires the operation of a motor vehicle, a DMV check may be in order.
Additionally, many companies use less thorough screening criteria for their entry-level employees, perhaps focusing on criminal checks. When these entry-level employees rise through the ranks to become executives, they may have access to, and control of, vast sums of money or highly confidential material. In those cases, it makes sense to check the employee’s credit report, where allowable, or verify education and professional licensing.
When an Employee Is Promoted: A Cautionary Tale
Take the real-life case of Marilee Jones, former dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Ms. Jones started in the MIT admissions department in an entry-level role in 1979. No one bothered to verify the college education listed on her resume because a college education was not required for that position.
In 1997, she was appointed Dean of Admissions. Because she had served in the MIT admissions department for so many years, it did not occur to anyone to review her credentials. In 2007, it was revealed that Ms. Jones did not have a college degree, as she had originally claimed. Ms. Jones resigned in disgrace after a 28-year career at the school. MIT had to admit that one of its senior employees displayed a lack of integrity over a long period of time, and that it had no system in place at the time that could have caught it. It was a huge public embarrassment for the school and the former employee—and a blow to the school’s credibility.
How to Set Up a Post-Employment Screening Program
This is critical: Make sure your post-hire background screening program is standardized across your workforce. Your policies should list pre-defined triggers for screenings, such as changes in job position or specified time periods. Employees should know in advance that they’ll be subject to a background check every two years, or whenever they’re promoted, or whatever policy you choose. If you do not take such steps, the process could be viewed as haphazard or discriminatory, and employees could accuse your company of unfairly targeting them. If an employee who is part of a protected class is subject to a background check while an identical employee outside that class is not, the liability can be significant.
When starting post-employment background screens, some employees may decide to leave out of fear that something about them will be revealed. Before beginning a program, clearly communicate how results will be used and what types of results are relevant to current employees’ continued employment.
