Background Screening: The Three People You Need To Know More About
Background checks are all but commonplace in corporate America today. It is not unusual for job applicants to have their driving records, court reports and financial information pulled. The question is, what about in everyday life? Everyone has people they accept into their homes and entrust with their safety and their money. These individuals are only taken at their word about their past, their honesty and their reliability. It is expected that people believe in others until given a reason not to, but it is also human nature to have some wariness of strangers. No one wants to feel like a stalker but everyone does have the right and the responsibility to protect their own interests at least as much as corporations protect their investments. This is why so many people now turn to online background screening. Here are the three people everyone should consider screening before they open up their lives to them.
Private Daycare Providers
What do most parents know about their daycare providers aside from their advertising and glowing references from names they have provided? The owners of licensed facilities do undergo federally-mandated background screening. However, many parents hire private providers to give their children one-on-one attention or use a babysitter as an alternative when the daycare is closed. Not all parents have the money to hire a nanny service that handles this type of screening for them. Care has to be taken when allowing someone to have access to an innocent child. A background check may reveal a clean driving and criminal record or it could expose a past OUI charge or shoplifting conviction. Both of these somewhat mild charges may be enough to give a parent pause before allowing this person into their home.
New Love Interests
Online dating has made it easy for people to become someone else. A lot of information is missed without the benefit of seeing others in their daily routine or meeting them through a shared acquaintance. It is very easy for people to lie about their past, their marital status or even their employment. There is no reason to feel guilty about taking this step. Personal safety does matter and many others are using customized screening services for the same reason.
Potential Business Partner
Imagine fulfilling a dream of starting a business only to come into work one day and discover a stack of unpaid bills and all bank accounts drained. Some people are much better at creating an illusion of competency and success than they actually are at living out those claims. Entrepreneurs are always vulnerable to loss from their employees but are even more at risk from the actions of their partners. Even people that know each other for years can hide dark secrets. Discovering a bankruptcy on a credit report, knowing about previous charges of theft or embezzlement or learning of their long history of addiction could be all that saves someone from handing their life savings to someone unpredictable.
Background screening may feel a little like stalking but those feelings always end when valuable information is discovered. Unfortunately, the world is not made up entirely of honest individuals just trying to do their best. It is sensible to self-protect and, chances are, those same people are also running checks of their own.