Screening Early
By Ed. Filed in Business, Health, Life |
My neighbor confided in me the other day that his work contract is ending and that he will soon be joining the swelling ranks of unemployed. But since he was working as a contractor, he is not eligible to draw unemployment. So he needs to find a new job pretty quickly.
Just about every large company is now requiring background checks on the job candidates they are serious about hiring. I can’t blame them, with all the laws about discrimination and what you can and cannot ask during a job interview, a criminal history check is the right of any employer and well worth the money spent to make sure you don’t make a serious hiring mistake.
My neighbor told me that he was in a job interview the other day and that after he filled out all the paperwork, they had him sign another paper giving them permission to run a background check and drug test. Of course he signed it, and then they offered him the job without any further mention of the drug test. I guess they figure that some people will bail when presented with the drug test form and they use that to filter out some of the undesirables. That didn’t deter my neighbor, but after checking more closely into that company, he decided to not accept their job offer and to keep looking.
It’s a shame we have to go to such extremes for employee screening, but hiring someone with a drug abuse problem or history of criminal activity is just asking for trouble for the company and possibly endangers the rest of the employees.