Should You Run a Background Check on Remote Hires?

Remote work was once a unique thing, but now it’s the norm. Sometimes, a company might hire employees who never enter the office or work in a different city or state. With the change in hiring and working practices, it might feel like several standard operating practices could go away, including conducting background checks. Should you run a background check on remote hires? The answer is a definite and resounding yes. Even if your work structure has changed, you need to know you’ve hired the right people.

Are They Who They Say They Are?

One of the biggest reasons for conducting a background check is confirming your employees’ identities. It would be nice if we could take everyone at their word when they tell us who they are, but you need to ensure they aren’t misrepresenting themselves and their skills. Background checks verify their work history and that they did the work they claim to have done. These checks also explore a new hire’s education, training, and certification. And of course, a background check can verify they’re the person they claim to be. Even if they’re working at home, you need to know you can trust them.

Criminal Records

While everyone deserves a second chance, especially people who have paid for their crimes through incarceration or other punishments, certain jobs require people with spotless records. Someone who’s served time or faced charges for fraud, embezzlement, insider trading, identity theft, and other crimes won’t be handling large amounts of money or customers’ personal information, no matter where they work.

Checking Reliability

One of the bigger benefits of working remotely, of course, is the amount of freedom it affords them. It also benefits employers because employees who feel free to do their jobs without overbearing supervision are happier. Still, it’s worth checking into a potential hire’s past to see how well they did on their own, without direct and in-person supervision. If they have a string of remote jobs that all ended quickly, that could be a red flag. Confirming reliability and finding out how a worker handled being on their own is a definite plus.

Save Time and Money

Should you run a background check on remote hires? Once again, the answer is yes. One of the bigger reasons to clear potential hires through background check services is that a bad employee can be hard to get rid of. When you do, it means wasting time and losing all the money you spent looking for and training them; you’ll have to do it all over again. Disgruntled employees can also bring lawsuits, threats, criminal activity, monkeywrenching, and worse to your company before and after you fire them.

If you need to know your potential hires are the best people for the job in all ways, contact us for a consultation about background checks and more.