Hiring staff for your chiropractic practice can be time-consuming, challenging, and stressful as, ultimately, you lean on your employees to create a positive patient experience.
Background and criminal screening services conduct a deep-dive into an applicant’s history, helping practices make more-informed hiring decisions.
A variety of services are available and the relevance of each screen is predicated on the position or job responsibilities. These different screening services can delve into criminal history, drug testing, employment and educational verification, credit history, professional licenses, or driving records, and more.
And when it comes to background screening, one size does not fit all.
Basic background and criminal screening
One of the most common types of searches that employers conduct is a criminal background screen.
Looking into the criminal history of a job applicant can be confusing and complicated, and too many employers merely go through the motions with their background checks rather than taking the time to perform a strategically tailored and detailed screen and carefully analyzing the data.
A misunderstanding of criminal information can be detrimental to an organization, as vital information regarding an applicant’s background may be downplayed or entirely overlooked. The type of background screening a company performs should be tailored to the specific position and should take the potential risk of the job applicant into account.
Risk assessment
When assessing risk, it’s important to rank a position from low-risk to high-risk based on specific responsibilities such as working with vulnerable populations like children, elderly, frail, or sick individuals; accessing confidential information; or handling prescription medications. It’s important to consider the potential risk that associates within your particular chiropractic workplace may carry and deploy the appropriate search that the risk factors indicate is necessary.
You should organize your criminal background screening in ways that are cognizant of the level of risk your practice is or isn’t willing to absorb. Job-specific screening packages help promote hiring consistency by applying the same screening requirements to all applicants for that job.
A low-risk position may not call for the extensive checking required for a medium- or high-risk job category. With that in mind, you can still consider a more thorough back- ground screening process to ensure job applicants are both qualified and have an acceptable criminal history for the company.
Additionally, failing to perform the proper background check, or a background check at all, can lead to reputational harm to your organization, if not potential injury to your employees or patients.
A criminal history, however, should not necessarily suggest a barrier to hire. The EEOC guidelines issued in 2012 suggest that employers perform an individualized assessment of each applicant and take into consideration factors such as the age of the criminal history, job-relatedness, and the seriousness of the criminal offense.
Better hiring, improved ROI
Performing a background check not only provides a safeguard, but Aberdeen Group research results show that screenings lead to improved retention rate of new hires, better overall hires, and more secure and compliant business practices. In fact, the first-year retention rate of new hires who are screened is 89 percent compared to 58 percent of new hires who are not screened.
Additionally, 87 percent of screened candidates are considered “top-ranked candidates” by employers. Verification of a candidate’s educational back- ground and employment experience can be key to assuring that proper fit.
Lean on your legal advisors and background screening service provider to determine the potential cost and hiring impacts a screening process may have, as well as to estab- lish or implement a background check differentiation strategy and protocol.
Background screens, like criminal records checks, may seem straightforward, but the process is not one-size-fits-all. Your screening processes should be as unique as you are and reflect the qualifications you are looking for in candidates and the values you want them to bring to your practice.
Bret Jardine E, JD, is the executive vice president and general counsel at First Advantage, the world’s largest provider of background screening services and technology. He can be contacted at bret.jardine@fadv.com. To download First Advantage’s free white paper on background screening best practices, go to fadv.com/resources/wp- employment-screening-best-practices.aspx.
