It’s true, I have a scrapbook filled with lies. I started this scrapbook years ago when I received quite a bit of resistance to background checks on applicants prior to making job offers.
Managers and VPs would say, I worked at such-and-such large company and we never did background checks there. Rather than fight over this, I merely starting sending them copies of articles I had collected. It’s pretty impressive… particularly when they saw who was doing the hiring and the hiring mistakes made.
Companies need to have a level of trust in their employees or we’d be working in prison environments where we’re watched every minute. However, the trust begins with a realistic and necessary step… background checks. A high percentage of resumes have an “error or omission” on them. Meanwhile, our California courts are holding employers more responsible than ever for who you allow into the work environment. So, if you’re not doing this basic due diligence, your company can and will be held accountable if problems arise.
I like to have every employee, at any level, complete an employment application simply because they must sign it attesting to its accuracy and truthfulness. And I hold them accountable to that. If a background check finds the information is incorrect or incomplete, we’ve got a problem. Bottom line… if they’ll lie to get the job, what might they do once they have the job?
So, for the unbelievers, I’m going to provide a few highlights from my scrapbook. I haven’t added much to it in the past few years. Mostly because most companies have since learned to avoid the problems and, yes, lawsuits, that can arise from NOT doing background checks.
- A college professor lied about having a college degree, which was discovered when the state did a background check in preparation to making him the state’s poet laureate.
- The CFO of a software corporation was found to have lied about his educational background (both his bachelor’s and MBA) and, once it got out, the company’s stock hit a 52-week low.
- A top executive scientist for a large medical device company was found to have been convicted of attempted murder of his wife and, in fact, he used the prison’s inmate post office box address on his resume and listed another company for his time in prison. The company had to hire an outside expert to review all the work and the FDA became involved.
- A football coach at a prestigious college lied about having a master’s degree in education and playing college football.
- A carpet cleaning company had to pay $11 million in damages because of two men they hired. These men cased the homes they cleaned and returned to steal from them. Unfortunately, a homeowner was unexpectedly home one time and they shot him. The courts determined the company was guilty of “negligent hiring.”
- A convenience store worker beat a customer with a bat. It turned out that the employee had done the same thing at his previous workplace.
No matter how much you like an applicant or believe in them, these days you really can’t afford to put your company and employees at risk when it’s so easy to check backgrounds. Yes, if they know you’ll do a background check the smart ones will walk away and find a company who isn’t doing checks. But wouldn’t you rather get a clean report than just rolling the dice?
