Background checks on employees?

[Steve]

Do you think background checks of employees will become more and more important in the future?

Have you ever performed a background check before hiring an employee?

Getting Good Help These Days (http://www.conntact.com/article_page.lasso?id=40634) - Background checks are not industry standard in landscaping, but individual employers may opt to have such checks performed on their help.

"When I ran a landscaping business many years ago, I never ran a background check unless I had a strong inkling that something was wrong," says Tice. "They may be more prevalent today, though. The turnover in a landscaper's help is phenomenal.

"As soon as someone gets good at it, they go off to do it on their own," he adds. With so many people passing through a business, it can be costly to perform a background check on every person you hire. But that's not to say homeowners can't do it themselves.

[tiedeman]

I have never personally performed a background check. Most of the employees that I hired either I knew them or other friends knew them.

Sometimes I like the idea of background checks and sometimes I don't. For example the reason that I don't like them; What happens if a guy was a party animal and trouble maker when he was in his 20's. Got in trouble with the law for drunk driving, assault with a deadly weapon (the car), and other things. Now lets flash forward to when he is 40. He has been clean and out of trouble for the last twenty years. Yet, when they pull this up for a background check they find that he had problems in the past and they decide not to hire him. That is when I feel background checks are not good.

But yes, other times I do think they are good. What is someone has recently had numerous problems with domestic violence, assault, and has a warrant out for them. That is when I feel a background check would be wonderful

[Steve]

I wonder what the liability is of an employer is if a problem employee is hired and they do something on company time that causes a customer to file a lawsuit.

[PremierLand]

Better be careful if you dont. What if you hire a sex offender, who isnt allowed to contact or anything minors, etc. and you also decide to have you buddies kid who is 16 come help you guys out for a week in the summer. It could cause a huge delima.