You Better Watch Out, You Better Not Cry…
Stay alert and prevent problems with background checks this holiday season.
Trees are going up, colored lights are shining, and businesses are beginning the holiday season hiring rush. If your business needs to bring on extra elves to handle holiday demand, it’s important to remember the importance of pre-employment background checks. It’s tempting to skip background checks when onboarding seasonal employees. After all, these employees will only be around a little while and you’ve got to act quickly to snatch up the most qualified hires; screening them seems hardly worth the effort. Plus, background checks cost money and time, both of which can seem in short supply this time of year.
But nothing could be farther from the truth.
Seasonal employees have lots of temptations to be naughty rather than nice:
- Temporary seasonal employees are often working to get extra cash to tide them over through the holidays. It’s not unusual for them to help themselves to other company resources as well.
- Temps have the same access to your company resources as permanent employees.
- Your seasonal crew has no loyalty to your business. Just as you view them as temporary, they view you as temporary as well. A lack of loyalty sometimes translates into dishonest behavior on the job.
- The frantic pace of the holiday season offers cover for stealing and other behaviors. Your temps know you probably won’t have time to keep track of everything, and some will take advantage of that.
All other things being equal, seasonal temps are actually a bigger risk to your organization than long-term permanent employees, making background checks even more critical than ever. Small, large, and mid-size business background checks for seasonal workers provide the following benefits:
- Protection against theft and fraud. Again, temps get full, or nearly full, access to your organization’s cash, assets, and data. Background screenings help cut losses considerably.
- Customer safety. Holiday employees also have access to your customer’s personal information, including credit and debit card numbers. You can’t afford to have your reputation harmed by identity theft; background checks can prevent that.
- Temp-to-perm ease. Many seasonal workers earn permanent employment through stellar performance during the holiday rush. If you’ve already run a background check, you can smoothly transition temps to full-time without encountering any surprises that might derail the process.
‘Tis the Season for Background Checks
Make it a policy to screen all temporary workers this holiday and make this your most successful season yet.
