Today’s technical recruiting tip focuses on taking an investigative approach to interviewing. When doing a background check on a candidate for one of your open positions, I recommend undertaking at least four investigative checks:
1. Criminal records.
2. Civil records (e.g. bankruptcies).
3. Educational credentials.
4. At least three thorough reference checks.
As I shared in my recent article on the subject, having your executive recruiters undertaking more thorough background investigations can prevent hiring errors. Please go to http://a2zcareer.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/hiring-errors-prove-the-need-for-thorough-background-investigations/ for more details.
Also, many engineering recruiters, scientific recruiters, R&D recruiters and technical recruiters like to only focus on the sourcing of candidates. This is the part of the executive recruiting process where candidates are uncovered. Few executive recruiters wish to invest the time, effort and expense to really dig deep into a candidate’s past. However, past behavior is the best predicator of future job performance. Therefore, you should instruct both: a) your internal executive recruitment team and b) your retained, outside executive recruiting agencies to thoroughly investigate all job candidates before hiring them.
Past bad behavior such as DUI’s and bankruptcies, can be predictive of future missteps at your company. Often these problems are not an isolated instance. Unfortunately, they may be hidden amongst all the other information your management recruiters have to sort through on this candidate. Therefore, you may have to carefully piece together a puzzle on this candidate to see the full picture. That is why I spend a lot of time grooming my executive search recruiters in the nuances of background investigations that I learned from our on retainer private investigator who is an ex FBI agent. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/accucheck.php to learn more about our trademarked background investigation process at Strategic Search Corporation.
Remember to thoroughly investigate all of your job candidates before hiring them. Please go to http://www.strategicsearch.com/technical-recruiting-tips/technical-recruiting-tips.php and click on 9TH (below) for a short video I provided you to help you to remember these important four steps of candidate background checks.
What types of background checks does your company undertake?
