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Conducting thorough and accurate background checks are crucial to the hiring process. They help to weed out incompetent applicants or applicants that can become a serious liability for their employer in the future.
Thanks to the fact that national police checks, social media checks, and many other screening checks can be done online, the pre-employment screening process typically takes about a week. However, it sometimes takes longer than that for a variety of reasons. This post explores some of the common reasons pre-employment background checks get delayed.
- Incomplete Background Check Request Forms
The most common cause of delay is when staffing agencies submit inaccurate or incomplete background check request forms. Furthermore, before employers can carry out background checks on candidates, they are mandated to receive signed authorizations from the candidates. If this permission is delayed for whatever reason, it can delay the pre-employment background check process.
- Incorrect Applicant Information
If the wrong information about an applicant is supplied, then the result for another person is going to be delivered. Common mistakes might be a candidate filling their first name as “Dan” instead of “Daniel”. For a police certificate being conducted in Australia, for instance, the database might return information for another person. The screening company then has to contact the employer or candidate to get further clarification. All this takes time and can slow down the process.
- Number of Information Required
Depending on the type of information an employer needs, background checks can be ready in a few minutes, or it can take up to five business days. It can take considerably longer if it requires manual searches or cooperation from other organizations like universities, previous employers, professional license certifications. Moreover, if many checks like criminal history check, credit history check, driving record are needed, it can add to the required time.
- Establishing Contact with Employers and/or Educational Institution
Pre-employment screening checks typically include employment or previous employment verification. To validate the necessary information, background screening companies reach out to former employers and institutions. There are times where the process of obtaining the necessary information may be lengthy and time-consuming. Moreover, there may be low staff handling these requests, or no formal process of verification in place. This means that screening companies might have to wait for quite some time.
- International Background Checks
For candidates who got educated in a foreign country or those who worked in another country, the employer must also do their due diligence of finding out potential adverse information, irrespective of the country, especially for a senior-level position.
International background checks take longer than domestic checks due to certain country requirements. For instance, education verification in India requires a formal notice to be dropped up at the school and picked up at a later time, typically 12 business days later. In the UK, government agencies take up to 15 days to return international criminal records.
- Result Confirmation
If the result of a criminal history check of a candidate uncovers negative information, good screening companies usually go the extra mile to guarantee that the results are accurate. This may mean re-running the checks. This process may extend the background check duration.
- Unforeseen Circumstances
Weather disruptions, power outages, and other anticipated events can slow down the process. If a former employer or institution fails to pick up the phone or reply to their emails, it can also cause a delay in the background screening process.
At the end of the day, many other factors can cause a delay in the background checks, that’s why employers should start the process as soon as possible. Moreover, having a pre-employment background check policy in place will minimize errors and make the process seamless.
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This content is brought to you by Sean Wen.
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