When the pressure is on to hire top talent and build great teams, hiring managers may often worry if they're up to the task. It's a big challenge to adapt to a candidate's market and meet the needs of the organization. There's also the fear of missing out (FOMO) on a candidate who may be a perfect fit - especially when considering the wait and cost of a background check. 

Here are some tips for managing those fears. 

According to a 2018 study by the Society for Human Resource Management, 73% of human resources professionals say their organizations run background checks. While this is good news for mitigating risk to businesses,  that means that 27% of companies aren't screening before hiring.

While some employers may tout cost as a reason for skipping background checks, the cost of a bad hire can be even more expensive. Other organizations may hesitate due to the challenge and effort involved in finding a quality screening partner that can also help with compliance. VeriFirst can help offer easy background checks for employers, while being cost effective and compliant.

Employers have discovered that it's more important than ever to run background checks. Unfortunately, businesses of all sizes are still foregoing employment screening due to cost. Considering the cost of non-compliance lawsuits or negligent hiring claims, employers would be wise to investigate why their background screening costs are so expensive. Working with a trusted, professional background check partner can be helpful to saving time and money.

Here's how background check packages help reduce costs and increase compliance for HR.

So what do you do when your new hire fails their background check? Do you retract the job offer?

Technology is changing how we do most things, business or otherwise. Sales and marketing have new tools at the ready to help increase efficiency and attract a wider audience. Hiring and recruiting, however, still involve the use of traditional HR processes and is often inefficient. Venture capitalists are investing in HR tech and predict more emerging developments in the space in the coming years. If HR tech can streamline hiring and recruiting, employee retention may follow. 

What should employers expect in HR Tech and how will it change hiring and recruiting?

Employers rely on E-Verify to verify employment eligibility of new hires. Employment eligibility is important to confirm that those being hired are legally allowed to work within the United States and reduces the number of undocumented immigrants employed in states that use it.  With the recent government shutdown, access to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) database via E-Verify is also unavailable.

If employers are unable to verify new hire employment eligibility via E-Verify, what should they do?

It's vital for HR managers to understand the changes happening in hiring and employment so they can attract and retain the best talent and remain compliant with state and federal laws. 2018 and the few years prior have seen a push for reduced bias, equal pay and more demands from a younger workforce. These changes continue to affect not only how to hire, but how to retain current employees, as well as legislative response with new employment laws.

Here's what employers can expect in hiring trends and employment legislation in 2019.

Your views, comments and clicks help to guide the direction of the VeriFirst Background Check blog and inform how to better help our clients.  We hope to continue to provide guidance and education to keep employers and HR professionals informed. Our yearly top ten list may also reveal clues to hiring and background check trends in the new year.

Here is a list of the top background check blog posts for 2018.

Federal and state regulations are changing with practically every class action lawsuit and it can be a challenge to stay abreast of the latest information. In order to take the education even further, we've done some of the work for you, providing free sample templates and other forms that can be used to help with background screening practices. One more template is now available - a free sample background check policy.

Read more to learn why your business may need a background check policy.

When hiring a new employee, it may be tempting to run every background check available. This is a bad idea for two reasons - (1) running unneeded background checks will take longer and (2) they'll cost more too.

Instead of checking the box on every background check, consider certain background checks may only be needed for certain types of jobs. Understanding the types of background checks, and what information they reveal, can also be helpful to determine which background checks best fit the situation.

How to select a background check package for new hires