Credit Checks & Your Employees
Virtually every employee will put their best foot forward on their resume whether they were a cashier or a botox cosmetic surgeon. Their efforts to impress go even further if they are selected for an interview. However, resumes and interviews only reveal so much. If you really want to analyze a person’s character, you have to consider doing deeper investigation. And for many companies, this means giving a credit check. If the prospect has decent credit, they’re deemed worthy enough to hire.
Yet, how accurate is this assumption? Is it fair to assume that because a person fell through hard times they can’t be trusted as an employee?
Well, there are two sides to this equation. The first involves what everyone is afraid of– the individuals who actually do fit the stereotype of irresponsible spenders. These people take no responsibility for their actions, and they view credit as a free giveaway. These are the people that will go on holiday, take out touring caravan insurance specifically so that at the end of it they can have an “accident” and claim the costs of their oliday back through the insurance company. It is these people that will run up the bills without even an intention of paying it back, let alone the ability to do so.
However, that doesn’t mean they take their jobs less seriously. In fact, they may even be stellar employees because they know the job is all they have to survive on. If something happens to their position, they won’t have any credit or savings to fall back on.
The second portion of the equation revolves around what tends to be more common– people who have bad credit due to circumstances. Maybe they lost their job, or perhaps someone became ill. Either way, with this group, there’s usually an understandable reason behind their credit history.
So, when it comes to job performance, you can assume they’re going to do the best they can. Sometimes they will even go the extra mile, because they know if they get a raise, they can pay off some of the debt that’s been burdening them.
Anyway, do you see the pattern here? In both situations, the people need their jobs. In fact, they need their jobs MORE than the people with good credit because they’re living on cash only.
In conclusion, the next time you consider hiring a new employee, don’t write them off because they don’t have a 700 credit score. If their background check is good, and everything else is in order, chances are they will probably be a good match.