If you have a smaller company or if you are a mid sized company who hasn’t seen the benefits of putting together a great employee screening process, you may be wondering about how to start the whole process. There are a lot of questions to be answered that you may be feeling uncomfortable with. For example, what is legal to check for? What should I be checking for? So here are ten steps to putting together an employee screening process:

1. Layout specific goals - It is important to come to the table with some idea of what you are expecting to accomplish. Do you really want to go all out or are you looking for a simple solution that you can expand later?
2. Pick a vendor - This is who you will be working with on a day to day basis so make sure you can establish a good working relationship with them. Pick someone who can offer many different services and who has worked in your sector and state before.
3. Where do you start? - A good item to discuss with your vendor is how they will help you implement a system. Getting all of the paperwork in place can make it much more smooth for transitioning.
4. Basics first - The first step for most companies is reference checks and a basic criminal background check. Many times, you can do reference checks yourself (and this can be helpful if done right) but you can also use an outside service. A basic criminal background check is inexpensive and worth doing as a good start.
5. Past the basics - There are also more comprehensive criminal background checks that can search all levels of courts for the past however many years as well as check for sex offenders in all 50 states.
6. SSN verification - Many services are adding this on for free but it is worth asking about. This can verify that the SSN isn’t from a guy who died in 1983 before you hire.
7. Education verification - If you’ve ever had to try to verify education information, you know it can be difficult. Many background check vendors will already have existing connections in order to check records.
8. Drug testing - Many employers are considering drug testing laws now in order to protect themselves. Drug users statistically have higher incidence of attendance and behavioral problems. There is also a safety risk as well as federal regulations for certain positions.
9. To check credit or to not - One of the more controversial measures (especially in this economic environment) is doing credit checks. While I would personally try to limit credit checks to necessary personnel, your vendor can give you some guidance on common sense practices for your industry.
10. Enforce it - When you have everything set up, you must now make sure that everyone goes through the process and is treated equally. It can help to advertise that you do a background/credit/drug checks and to create understanding in your organization that everyone goes through the process.

In the end, an effective screening system can help prevent loss and pay for itself very quickly. Just from a personal experience standpoint as well, I’ve found that most people that fill out a background check form will come back with a satisfactory record. Why? Because people that have questionable records often remove themselves from the process as soon as they find out that you are doing background checks.