It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year . . . to Screen Employees

In today’s competitive hiring market, too many hiring managers decide to skip the normal hiring processes when it comes to taking on seasonal employees because they’re temporary. While this is understandable, it can be detrimental to your business. Even though an employee may not be staying with your business in the long-run, it only takes one moment for an incident to occur that could cost you a lot of time and money, as well as damage your reputation. 

With that in mind, here are four reasons why you should conduct employee screening during the holidays: 

Seasonal Employees Have Access to Internal Information and Finances

Seasonal employees are just as important during the holiday season as your full-time employees. This means that they also likely have access to all the same confidential company information as your regular staff. So, if you don’t do background checks, you could be hiring untrustworthy people to handle your business’s information and finances. 

The seriousness of this should not be undervalued. According to several studies in 2016, seasonal employees are often major contributors in company theft because many businesses don’t screen them the same way they do permanent employees. By skipping out on the employee screening process when hiring seasonal employees, you could be allowing potentially drastic hits to your seasonal profit to occur.

Company Culture is Critical All Year Round

Company culture has become a top priority for the modern business, and it is especially important during the holidays when maximum efficiency and productivity needs to be achieved. Even temporary employees can throw it off if they aren’t willing to be team players and adapt to your policies, procedures, and communication methods. Ultimately, this can lose your company valuable time and money as these outlier employees cause a disruption in your regular practices and therefore overall efficiency. 

By screening your employees, you not only have access to their criminal records; you can also contact previous employers and discuss work ethic, attitude, and overall job performance of candidates. Screening should also include interviewing each candidate in-person or on a video conference to evaluate whether they fit within your company culture and will be a good asset to your team. Overall, a comprehensive screening process is a quick and efficient way to easily determine whether a candidate really is fit for the job.

Applicants Are Not Always Truthful on Their Resumes

Background checks help you confirm that the candidate has all the necessary experience, qualifications, licenses, or certifications needed to complete the job. Many people lie on their resumes, especially when they know the position is temporary. This happens more regularly than a lot of people realize. According to HRDive and a survey from HireRight, 85 percent of employers have caught applicants telling lies on their applications or resumes. This can be a very worrying statistic. Save your company money and potential major errors by screening candidates to make sure they have the proper qualifications for the job.

If you do not carry out an employment background check, you run the risk of hiring someone who will ultimately be ineffective in the job. This can be especially damaging to your profit during the holiday period when you have more competition and more customers. Make sure you avoid this risk by hiring a reputable company such as USAFact to conduct accurate drug and health screenings on all your employees—whether temporary or permanent.

Now Is the Time to Screen Holiday Staff

If you are planning on hiring seasonal employees or even full-time employees during the holidays, keep in mind that now is the time to start screening potential candidates. The holidays can delay the results of background checks such, so if you get started early in the holiday season, you won’t have to worry about waiting for a background check in a time crunch. You’ll also want sufficient time to analyze the checks, determine which candidates to interview, and contact each applicant with your decision based on the check.

As you get ready for the most wonderful time of the year, don’t let employee screening fall by the wayside. Whether you’re hiring on several temporary employees to help with the seasonal workload or even just a few permanent employees for the coming New Year, conducting comprehensive screening and background checks early on is critical to avoid major mishaps during the holidays.