Studies show that 96% of employers conduct some form of a background check before hiring a new candidate. This comes hardly a surprise when you consider what’s at stake. According to former Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, the cost of a bad hire could go well past $100 million.
Needless to say, recruiters are keen to confirm what candidates disclose and, more importantly, uncover what they don’t. Some companies want to determine whether a candidate is a good fit in terms of values, beliefs, and interests. Others may want to check for any incompatibility to prevent reputational damage to their businesses. A background check for employment can help clear out many of these areas and has, therefore, become an essential prerequisite for hiring decisions.
What information can an employer check?
There is certain information that an employer is not legally allowed to access without a candidate’s content. But today, there’s a remarkable level of data accessibility, mostly thanks to the dramatic shifts in digital connectivity and online data curation. This has made it easier for hiring managers to access an enormous amount of personal information at a click of a button.
As a result, a background check is no longer just about speaking to your previous employer, reviewing your references, verifying your social security number, or confirming there are no sex offender details under your name. Thanks to technological tools, employers can now check for criminal records, arrest warrants, bankruptcies, lien records, debt, mortgages, and medical records, too. Of course, whether it’s legal or ethical to check this amount of information remains a question. But nothing can prevent hiring managers from accessing these data when they are readily available online.
Now, this could be immensely intrusive and not to mention damaging to your career and personal life. A single harmful piece of information might be all that’s standing between you and your dream job. But should you allow it to sabotage your career? Absolutely not.
Get prepared for an employment background check
Many people spend days getting ready for job interviews so they could make a great first impression. But preparation should start weeks, perhaps even months, before you apply for a new job.
Remember, the internet has made information much more accessible, widening the scope for pre-employment screenings. So, understanding what turns up in a background check and ensuring it creates a positive impression is increasingly essential to winning your dream job.
#1 Remove damaging data trails
It’s first important to minimize the negative data that could surface in an employment background check. To do this, you need to review what it could potentially contain and eliminate the information that might lead to negative representations.
Here’s exactly what you should do.
- Contact data aggregators. Many employers reach out to data aggregators such as people search sites to screen candidates. And these sites could provide incredibly comprehensive reports covering wide-ranging information, from employment history to financial details and criminal records. So, getting your profile removed from these data aggregators is essential to minimize the amount of information available to employers.
- Review your social media activities. A staggering 90% of employers go through the social media activities of candidates during the hiring process. So, consider your social media profile from an employer’s perspective and remove anything that doesn’t impress you. It’s also worthwhile to change your settings to private mode. This will help prevent anyone outside your social network from accessing your details.
- Remove content from online publishers. Review and delete potentially damaging content from publications such as personal blogs that are within your purview. For platforms owned by third parties, you will need to submit separate removal requests.
- Address inaccurate information. Now, inaccurate or false information might also turn up in background checks. Sometimes, it could be a simple error, such as a news report that has mistakingly used your name in place of another. But some errors could also be grave in nature, like a criminal record that appears under your name due to an identity scam. Whatever the scale of the inaccuracy, it’s important to get them rectified to avoid misunderstandings and reputational damage.
#2 Curate your online presence
While you get distasteful or damaging information removed, you will also need to focus on curating your digital presence and online image.
Here’s what we suggest:
- Become an online thought leader in a specific topic related to your area of work. You can publish content on a personal blog, third-party website, or even on social media.
- Select a few social causes you feel strongly about and champion them with valuable content and action. Avoid engaging in sensitive topics such as politics and religion.
- If you don’t already have a presence on LinkedIn, set up a profile before you go job hunting. Keep all details up-to-date and build your online professional network. Request a few recommendations from previous employers and colleagues. You can also boost your LinkedIn presence by posting and sharing valuable content.
In a nutshell
Employee background screenings have become an essential step in the hiring process for many businesses. And often, a simple piece of information that turns up in a background check could become a deciding factor. It could be a controversial social media post or even a bad credit report resulting from an identity breach. But most of these situations are avoidable and shouldn’t keep you from your dream job.
For many professionals, there’s a fine line between their personal and work lives. And if you’re serious about building a career, you’ll need to view all your online activities from a professional lens. If your digital data trail is less than impressive, get started on sprucing it up. Curating your online presence will be equally critical to creating a positive impression during a background check.
