Decades ago, background checks were implemented with conviction. Business leaders understood that hiring the wrong person was a liability. They knew that a bad hire could ruin the company reputation, deal a hit to revenue, or change the culture of a winning team.
But for many organizations, that purpose has been forgotten. The background check has become just another box to tick in the onboarding software, a step we do because we’ve always done it.
Imagine your neighbor’s house gets broken into.
That night, you lock your front door. You check the deadbolt twice. You check the windows. There is a real threat outside, and you have things inside that you need to protect. You are very aware of the reason you are securing your home.
Then, five years go by without incident.
You still lock the door every night, but you’ve forgotten about that night. The action of locking your door has become muscle memory, mentally disconnected from the reason you started doing it in the first place.
This disconnect creates two dangers:
- Complacency: You might rush one night, forget to lock up, and think, “It’s fine, nothing ever happens.”
- Stagnation: Because you are just going through the motions, you never stop to ask if locking your door is the only thing you need to protect your home.
Like locking your door at night, running background checks is muscle memory, mentally disconnected from the reason companies started running them in the first place.
Muscle memory is a dangerous thing when it comes to trust.
So, let’s revisit the purpose of background checks. We might find that there are new, better ways of accomplishing that purpose.
The Risks Background Checks Reduce
We are going to say something that you have heard many times before, but try to let it hit you fresh again: Having bad actors in your company is a big risk.
It risks your revenue and your reputation. It risks your ability to retain good employees. And ultimately, it risks the company itself. Many companies have failed singularly because they saw that risk become reality.
To mitigate these dangers, the background check was designed to answer a fundamental question: “Can I trust this person based on their historical behavior?” By evaluating past actions, the background check gives companies more trust in a candidate’s future reliability.
Decades ago, business leaders made a calculation. The data made it clear that stopping potential bad actors at the point of hiring was better than dealing with the damage once they were inside.
Companies decided a bouncer at the door was the most effective way to deal with the risk. And the bouncer of choice was a background check.
Because every company made this same calculation, background checks became the standard across industries, company sizes, and geographies.
But things have changed a lot since then.
The Risks Have Changed
Think about the world as it was when leaders first made that calculation.
It was a decision made before the internet defined our lives. Before remote work was the norm. Before artificial intelligence was accessible to everyone.
If bad actors were a risk decades ago, they’re even more of a risk today.5
Technology has changed the scale of the threat. It has scaled how easily companies can be defrauded. It has scaled the amount of damage a single bad actor can do. And it has scaled the speed at which a reputation can be ruined.
All of the same risks exist. But they’ve evolved. And, by the way, so have bad actors. The most clever of them have figured out how to get past the bouncer you put at the door.
This reality forces us to ask: Are background checks still the best way to prevent the risk of a bad hire?
And if there is something new, what could it be?
New solutions to Old Problems
So, do we get rid of the background check? No. But the problem evolved. So the approach has to evolve too.
Here’s what that evolution looks like in practice.
1. Confirm identity before you screen
More applicants use false identities than most leaders realize, and running a background check on the wrong person is pointless. A quick identity verification stops early fraud and prevents you from paying for unnecessary background checks.
2. Look beyond a criminal background check
A criminal search is helpful, but it doesn’t show fake work history, fake licenses, concerning online behavior, or drug use that affects safety. Modern screening includes these signals when relevant so you’re not missing important information.
3. Build a program to match each role
Different roles carry different risks, so generic packages create risk and cost money unnecessarily. Companies now finely tune screening to the job so the results are meaningful.
4. Keep eyes on risk after the hire
Background checks are outdated the moment after they are run because people’s records can change with new infractions. Continuous monitoring or periodic rescreening gives you current information.
The original goal of background checks still stands: reduce the risk of bringing & keeping the wrong person into the company. But we can’t rely on muscle memory to protect us from modern threats.
If you want help mapping out what an updated system could look like, Yardstik can walk you through it.