Stressful Workplaces Can Be Improved When Employee Background Checks Are Used Part 2

Background Check Company-3                                                                                                     WC Blog 349
Pre-employment screening-3
Stressful Workplaces Can Be Improved When Employee Background Checks Are Used Part 2
     Job stress will always exist be it through deadlines, the type of work that has to be complete, the random day when Murphy’s Law seems to take over and everything goes wrong and so on. In part 1 of this series I discussed job stresses that are related to bad employees. Most of us have had to work with them before. These are the people that always seem to argue over everything. You come in to work and say a cheerful good morning and Mr. Grumpy Pants wants to know what’s so good about it? You bring in the box of donuts to share with the office and this is the person who gripes because you didn’t include chocolate glazed. I mentioned how some of these people can be avoided simply by conducting pre-employment screenings and finding out they have a checkered work history. You can identify patterns and possible lies in the application process that give you reason to question if this is the person you want to include on your team.  However managers share some responsibility too. How many managers out there don’t want to address performance issues? I see it a lot. There are some managers who don’t have the skills or the nerve to confront poor performers. They excuse bad behavior or poor performance, sometimes hiding behind the excuse that the store is short staffed and can’t afford to lose the employee right now. Are you KIDDING ME?! Think about it folks, if the person is a poor performer, they are either making everyone else on the team work harder OR the team sees that nothing happens to the employee, they get disgruntled and slow down. I’ve seen it happen far too often. I hold the managers responsible who are unwilling to sit down with the employee when poor performance is first identified. Yes, a background check company can help weed the bad apples out, but there still has to be accountability and that starts at the top.
     Just to be clear, a background check company can be hired to look into all sorts of information that can be important in your hiring decisions for new staff. Maybe you want to make sure the people you are hiring are legally allowed to work in the U.S. A pre-employment screening can be used to verify social security information. Perhaps you want to look out for the safety of your employees so a sex offender registry and criminal history check is completed. Employment history can also be verified, has the applicant worked where and when they said they worked at other locations? There is a wealth of information a background check company can provide that is just not possible for most businesses to obtain on their own. 
     The information provided can help in making hiring decisions but from time to time a poor employee can slip through the cracks and you have to have managers that are equipped to manage performance or manage someone out the door if behavior doesn’t change. As a Loss Prevention Manager I recall at least two different employees on two different occasions who worked in other departments that I brought on my L.P. team. In both instances the supervisors regularly complained about the performance of these employees but they never seemed to take steps to fix the problem and it was impacting their team’s performance. I took both employees onto my team and let them know that I expected improved performance and attendance or they would be let go. One did really well and eventually took an L.P. job with another company. The second employee continued with his poor attendance and I let him go. I followed our policy on corrective actions and addressed the issue. There was never a surprise when someone’s job was terminated we had already had performance discussions. It wasn’t personal but there was a business to run.
 Managers need to understand that corrective action should not be a personal conflict it is a matter of enforcing policies in a fair and equitable manner. Employees know who is and who is not performing or is regularly calling out and they get angry when they feel they have to pick up the slack. It is the manager’s job to manage team performance even when it is uncomfortable.
     Use pre-employment screening to make the best possible hiring decisions. For those employees who slip through the process make sure performance issues are addressed in a timely manner. When managers do that, they keep the rest of the team happy and productive.
Pre-employment screening is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.
     

Job stress will always exist be it through deadlines, the type of work that has to be complete, the random day when Murphy’s Law seems to take over and everything goes wrong and so on. In part 1 of this series I discussed job stresses that are related to bad employees. Most of us have had to work with them before. These are the people that always seem to argue over everything. You come in to work and say a cheerful good morning and Mr. Grumpy Pants wants to know what’s so good about it? You bring in the box of donuts to share with the office and this is the person who gripes because you didn’t include chocolate glazed. I mentioned how some of these people can be avoided simply by conducting pre-employment screenings and finding out they have a checkered work history. You can identify patterns and possible lies in the application process that give you reason to question if this is the person you want to include on your team.  However managers share some responsibility too. How many managers out there don’t want to address performance issues? I see it a lot. There are some managers who don’t have the skills or the nerve to confront poor performers. They excuse bad behavior or poor performance, sometimes hiding behind the excuse that the store is short staffed and can’t afford to lose the employee right now. Are you KIDDING ME?! Think about it folks, if the person is a poor performer, they are either making everyone else on the team work harder OR the team sees that nothing happens to the employee, they get disgruntled and slow down. I’ve seen it happen far too often. I hold the managers responsible who are unwilling to sit down with the employee when poor performance is first identified. Yes, a background check company can help weed the bad apples out, but there still has to be accountability and that starts at the top.
     

Just to be clear, a background check company can be hired to look into all sorts of information that can be important in your hiring decisions for new staff. Maybe you want to make sure the people you are hiring are legally allowed to work in the U.S. A pre-employment screening can be used to verify social security information. Perhaps you want to look out for the safety of your employees so a sex offender registry and criminal history check is completed. Employment history can also be verified, has the applicant worked where and when they said they worked at other locations? There is a wealth of information a background check company can provide that is just not possible for most businesses to obtain on their own. 
     

The information provided can help in making hiring decisions but from time to time a poor employee can slip through the cracks and you have to have managers that are equipped to manage performance or manage someone out the door if behavior doesn’t change. As a Loss Prevention Manager I recall at least two different employees on two different occasions who worked in other departments that I brought on my L.P. team. In both instances the supervisors regularly complained about the performance of these employees but they never seemed to take steps to fix the problem and it was impacting their team’s performance. I took both employees onto my team and let them know that I expected improved performance and attendance or they would be let go. One did really well and eventually took an L.P. job with another company. The second employee continued with his poor attendance and I let him go. I followed our policy on corrective actions and addressed the issue. There was never a surprise when someone’s job was terminated we had already had performance discussions. It wasn’t personal but there was a business to run.
 

Managers need to understand that corrective action should not be a personal conflict it is a matter of enforcing policies in a fair and equitable manner. Employees know who is and who is not performing or is regularly calling out and they get angry when they feel they have to pick up the slack. It is the manager’s job to manage team performance even when it is uncomfortable.
     

Use pre-employment screening to make the best possible hiring decisions. For those employees who slip through the process make sure performance issues are addressed in a timely manner. When managers do that, they keep the rest of the team happy and productive.

 

Pre-employment screening is important and we can help you with it. Call 1.770.426.0547 and let’s talk.