A Close Look at Background Investigations Term Paper - 1

A Close Look at Background Investigations - Term Paper Example It goes on to look at the legal position of background information and checks and then examines the limitations and sensitive issues relating to background investigations. Keywords: background, checks, investigations, recruitment, selection, employers, prospective Background The recruitment process seeks to attract the largest pool of potential employees as possible to apply for a given position. Typically, this involves the communication of the job vacancy far and wide to ensure that a lot of people get to know about the vacancy. After recruitment, there is the selection process which entails the choice of the best candidate amongst the group that applied or showed interest in a job that is on offer by an organization. The selection process therefore emphasizes on choosing the best individual(s) to fill a particular vacancy. This is because there is a vast pool of talented individuals who have the propensity so the management can make the choice of the best option available and offe r an employment to such a person. Additionally, in the selection stage, a prospective employer has the right to identify the best candidate and take vital human resource management decisions that can be positive for the organization in the future. Prospective employers therefore use the best and most scientifically efficient tools to ensure that the best employees are selected. As a rule of thumb, most organizations therefore seek to acquire sufficient information about the applicants so that they make a decision about the best applicant and employ him/her. Due to the fact that there is no way of predicting what would happen in the future, it is imperative on employers to understand the history of a prospective employee in order to assess the possible behavior of a person when s/he is employed in the future. It can be pointed out that the normal organizational selection process is not rigorous enough for businesses to assess and understand the true nature of their prospective employ ees. This is because a business cannot really get the true picture of a person's character through the conventional interviewing process. It is therefore necessary for employers to make an extra effort to identify the true nature of a given candidate for a position before offering him or her a job. It must be pointed out that the need to understand the nature and character of a prospective employee varies, depending on the nature of the job at hand. One of the best ways of doing this is to undertake a background investigation of the prospective employee. The need for background information varies with the sensitivity of the role of an organization and it is often varied in respect to the sensitivity of the role a prospective employee is expected to play when employed. Clearly, hiring an operative who plays a minor role in the organization does not require to much background investigations. On the other hand, hiring a person for an important employee like an airport staff or CEO requ ires a lot of scrutiny to identify the background of the individual. The findings from a background information can aid in the decision making process of whether to hire an applicant or not. This is because it determines the kind of person the individual is and enables employers to identify how such people managed things in their past and how it is likely to benefit the business in the future. Additionally, background investigations of prospective applicants enables an employer to be released from the issue of negligent hiring. This is because most employers are ultimately responsible for the actions of their employees so they have an obligation to check the backgrounds of an applicant before