A dental practice requires educated, licensed, and skilled staff to work with both adults and children. It also requires trustworthy and skilled staff to process insurance claims and handle billing.

Yet too few dentists conduct background checks. But if they knew the following statistics they’d be in a hurry to do so.

• According to the National Association of Professional Background Screeners,
56 percent of applicant-supplied information contains one or more significant discrepancies.

• Another study found that more than 36 percent of employment verifications uncovered inconsistencies from what had been stated on the application.

• And 14 percent listed false or inconsistent information regarding education.

Your practice could suffer without a thorough background and reference check on employees, preferably done by a professional firm that knows the legal issues involved.

There Can Be Frightening Consequences without a Background Check

In one case, a front office employee who had been convicted of embezzling $85,000 was found—after hire—to have been discharged from another office for embezzlement. In another instance, the practice discovered two months after a hire that insurance forms were not being completed and processed as a result of an inept employee—which resulted in delayed payment to the practice.

Artificially enhanced resumes are common, with education, job experience, and licensing being enhanced or an outright falsehood. With a dental practice employing trained dentists and hygienists who work on patients, this data most certainly needs to be checked. Alcohol or substance abuse, violence, criminal record, and other pertinent information needs to be known about the potential employee BEFORE they are hired. For example, you may be fine hiring someone with a poor credit report as a receptionist, but you probably wouldn’t want them working with anything financial.

The Benefits

Checking an individual’s background before hiring has a number of benefits that include: confirming occupational licensing; preventing negligent hiring claims; and reducing the risk of wrongful discharge, discrimination, and other claims brought by persons who are not hired or are terminated when found to be unsuitable.

An employee background check should be done by an experienced, professional firm to make sure the check is thorough and also to make sure that you stay within the law. When permission is needed, the professional firm will let you know. Should you decide not to hire an applicant because of what is discovered in the background check, the firm will provide you with a full report, which you can give to the applicant.

Stay Away From Cheap Internet Checks

Cheap and quick background checks offered by websites often don’t complete the necessary checks to high standards, resulting in important areas being overlooked and the wrong candidate being hired.

What Is Included in an Employee Background Check?

Any or all of the following can be included in a background check.

• Reference check
• Previous/current employment verifications
• Social Security trace
• Criminal report
• Driving record search
• Credit history
• Bankruptcies, liens, judgments search
• Education verification
• Professional license verification
• Civil court search
• Workers’ compensation report

In addition, most medical/dental facilities will require a drug test before hiring.

Why Choose The Hire Authority for Your Background Screening?
Be safe, not sorry. At The Hire Authority we are thorough in our screening, which guarantees that you will receive information that is current and relevant. We care about your security and we will work to keep you safe from harm or unnecessary problems.

We’d be happy to answer any questions you may have and give you a quote. Call (508) 230-5901 or visit our website www.hireauth.com.

The foregoing should not be construed as legal advice. Employers should always consult their own legal counsel for advice on labor and employment matters.