What are background checks?
Background checks, also referred to as background screening or background investigation, are a method of finding out a prospective hire’s past history in relation to his/her character and working experience. Apart from these, a background check can also include authenticity or otherwise of an employee’s past employment, educational, criminal, financial, or professional records. A number of agencies specialize in providing this service for a fee.

The need for background checks for senior hires
A background check is necessary as it reduces the chances of an inappropriate hire. Although a background check is far from perfect as a way of knowing a person’s history, some knowledge about what kind of employee a company is going to recruit will go a long way in ensuring that someone who has had bad antecedents will not be hired.
In the case of senior employees, although most would have outgrown the need to lie to get a job; background checks are necessary mainly because of the number of possible employments she or he would have had in the past. If the employee has had a record of having worked in multiple geographical locations, carrying out background checks is all the more challenging for HR.
Everything seems fine. Why check?
Not even the most honest persons on earth are likely to admit to some gaps in their working lives. Even if they did, HR still needs to carry out investigations to find out the veracity of their admission.
Why? Because sometimes, it is possible that a person may want to strike a posture of being sincere. Giving out incomplete information or something that can be interpreted in a number of subjective ways is a means of doing this. There are many instances of senior employees having successfully camouflaged unpleasant aspects of their past by appearing to be completely clean. Whenever HR smells a rat, it can carry out investigations.

Background checks on senior employees and their challenges
While carrying these out on any kind of employee has its attendant pitfalls, doing the same for a senior employee is all the more challenging for a number of reasons.
First, it is likely that these employees would have worked in a number of organizations. It is not always possible to get thorough information about a person’s track record, at least the professional one, when his/her career has run for 2-3 decades.

It is somewhat of a delicate situation to impress upon previous employers to part with information about employees who may have worked with them many years ago. In many instances, it is possible that the duration or nature of work may have been such that this may not contribute to any meaningful assessment of that person.

Also, it is likely that many a time, a senior person may have had a blot in his or her record. Typically, a booking for late repayment of a credit card or rash driving may be the kind of offense one is expected to commit commonly during young age. Having been in the record books for minor offenses at some point of time in their lives, when they were much younger or were placed in a different situation may not fully mean that the person will be a misfit. Over time, such a person would have changed his or her attitude considerably. In such instances, HR has to be discreet and balanced.

Author's Bio: 

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