Background checks are important prerequisites to hiring new employees. They can help you feel confident in your choice of employees and show you any red flags, such as driving records, criminal records or consumer reports, that may tell you that a particular individual is not the right fit for your company. However, if you are just getting started with hiring or are new to human resources, you will need to know more about how to do background checks.

Start Online

By inputting the person’s name into your Internet browser, you may be able to come up with some useful information. You may be able to check out social media profiles, find pertinent news articles and check out professional profiles. This type of information is fast and free.

Check with Local Courts

To find criminal records, you may want to turn to your local court system, which may have public records available for a small fee along with a bit of time spent filling out paperwork. However, this may not be the best solution if the individual has resided in multiple counties.

Find Professional Help Online

Because there are so many places where you can find out information about a person, you will want to ensure that your background check is comprehensive. This is particularly important if you want to use international background check services. By hiring out your background checks and identity checks to a reputable and credentialed online service, you can be sure that you are receiving full information about your potential new employee or student.

When you hire people only after doing full background checks on them, you will feel as if you can trust them more because you know that they are who they say they are. You will know what, if any, criminal records your employees have and will get a good glimpse into how diligent, obedient and honest they are. While quick online searches can certainly yield interesting results, full, professional background checks are nearly always best.