Should All Employment Establishments Require a Background Investigation?
Background checks are currently a norm within most organizations in order to provide safety in the workplace, prevent theft of company resources as well as keep the citizens in confidence. She is however, ethical, legal and practical issues which all employment establishments ought to require or not. According to Martocchio et al., 2019), it is the duty of the human resource professionals to maintain fair selection practices that protect the interest and the rights of the applicants in the organization.
Background investigations on every employment opportunity should be required to increase safety and decrease any danger of stealing, committing fraud, or providing violent actions at the job. It also makes informed hiring decisions and cultivating accountability particularly in the fields of work, which may involve vulnerable populations of individuals, or it may be financial or the fields which may be sensitive information. An example is that schools, hospitals and financial institutions have an implied responsibility of doing due diligence on their staff due to the damages that can emanate out of negligence.
However, it is not always the case that universal background checks have to be justifiable. It would be ethically considerate to give the same level of rigorous quality to every job, especially to the jobs, where the threats of a low level of security are few. A screening process that is too universal can also continue to discriminate or disqualify qualified applicants who have minor or outdated crimes which have no real relation to the job experience.
Martocchio and Mondy (2019) warn that all selection practices should not be governed by anything other than fairness and equal opportunity. Thus, an organization must focus on the fact that the investigation must be conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
A balanced approach is ideal. Background checks must be mandated where such information is job related, and legal, and is based upon an issue of direct concern to the position and responsibilities. This not only will make the organization safe but will also enable respect of the rights of the individuals. Employers keep ethical hiring and assist in making the labor market fairer, they can do this by making sure that investigations are conducted in order to ascertain that the requirements will be fulfilled in a job.
Reference
Martocchio, J. J., & Mondy, R. W. (2019). Human resource management (15th ed.). Pearson.