If you own a small business and have been considering hiring a few extra hands to help you get things done, you may want to be sure and check out the people who apply thoroughly. This is especially true if you are going to be hiring someone who will be in a position to handle money. There are still a lot of trustworthy people in the world, however, when we are dealing with our money and assets, it’s better to be safe than sorry. You might consider having all employees who apply, fill out a FACR (Fair Act Credit Reporting) form and sign it as consent for you to pull their background information, as some states require that you get permission when looking into a person’s background. Another thing you may consider, besides doing a formal criminal background check through an agency or local police department, is to do a search online and see what sort of information you can find. There are hundreds of web sites that offer free criminal background checks, and some that offer a monthly service.
If you are an employer you may want to join one that gives you 24 hour access to their database so that you can use the site to check all prospective employees. The best way to obtain information is to type in your state and do a search for criminal background checks based on whatever your location is. If you are in Detroit, it might be wise to use Michigan criminal records search as your search criteria. If the applicant is living in one state but has stated that he/she comes from another state, you might want to search the home state as well. In addition to performing a criminal records search you should keep in mind that many prospective employees are not honest on their applications so you should always take a few minutes to check their references as well. It may seem unimportant but a person’s past performance at a job will almost always offer some sort of idea of what his/her performance will be for you as well.