Don’t make these 5 costly hiring mistakes

by | Mar 10, 2015 | Hiring & Firing, Our Blog

2015 is said to be a big year for hiring. That’s great news for employers as well as our economy. However, some employers have costly issues in their hiring process. 

More than three-quarters (76%) of employers plan to grow their workforce this year, according to HireRight’s “2015 Employment Screening Benchmark Report.” That’s certainly encouraging. Not all of the findings were positive though. In producing the report, the background check provider HireRight polled more than 3,000 HR, recruiting, security, and management professionals to find out what their hiring practices look like.

A handful of the most common mistakes the survey found employers making:

  1. Failing to verify credentials. HireRight found that 50% of employers weren’t checking job candidates’ education backgrounds, and 32% weren’t checking previous employment. This is particularly concerning when you consider that 86% admitted to having caught a candidate in a lie at one time or another.
  2. Not re-screening after the initial hire. Just because a person was squeaky clean when you hired him or her five years ago doesn’t mean their record’s still spotless. HireRight warns that failing to spot potentially dangerous additions to an existing employee’s record could leave you open to negligent retention claims down the road.
  3. Failing to drug test. Changing marijuana laws are making this a more complex area, but HireRight suggests that more employers consider conducting pre-hire and ongoing drug tests in the name of preserving workplace safety and productivity, and decreasing absenteeism. Currently, 34% of employers don’t conduct any type of drug testing, the poll found.
  4. Conducting risky social media screenings. HireRight says 36% of respondents use social media to screen applicants, a figure which is growing. This is an area where employers need to tread carefully to make sure they’re not screening out applicants for discriminatory reasons or digging up protected information.
  5. Not going over the border. HireRight says 15% of respondents conduct global screening — a figure it deems too low. The firm says it’s important for companies to take their screenings global and not bypass verifying candidate’s non-U.S. work history and qualification claims.