More than one in four employers don’t conduct background checks before they hire a candidate, according to a new survey by CareerBuilder. Considering a bad hire costs about $17,000, the relatively large number of employers who choose not to perform background checks is a bit surprising.
“If an employee isn’t well-suited for the job or has a bad attitude, the time they spend not working could significantly impact your bottom line,” Ben Goldberg, CEO of Aurico, a provider of background checks and drug testing, said. “It’s a hard cost to quantify, but it adds up when you consider the loss of employee morale, the additional supervision that employee needs, productivity loss for the organization, revenue that’s not being generated and client relationships that could be turning sour as a result of bad impressions.”
Because of these issues, most employers (72 percent) conduct background checks. For those who do, here’s what they are checking:
- Criminal background: 82 percent
- Confirm employment: 62 percent
- Confirm identity: 60 percent
- Confirm education: 50 percent
- Check for illegal drug use: 44 percent
- Check licensing: 38 percent
- Credit check: 29 percent
Though many employers are performing background checks, 75 percent said they have hired the wrong person for the job. These employers say a bad hire has resulted in:
- Less productivity: 36 percent
- Compromised quality of work: 33 percent
- Lower employee morale: 31 percent
- Lost time to recruit and train another worker: 30 percent
- Cost to recruit and train another worker: 30 percent
- Employee’s managers or coworkers had to spend excessive time assisting bad hire: 29 percent
How do you avoid bad hires?
Work with Morgan Hunter Healthcare. We take the time to thoroughly vet all of our Healthcare IT Consultants to ensure we are only providing our clients with the best help available. Our Healthcare IT Consultants can also work on a contract basis, mitigating your risk of a bad hire. To learn more about how we can help you avoid bad hires, contact us today.