Reference and background checks are valuable tools for evaluating and validating potential hires. Yet many companies and staffing agencies overlook them when taking on temporary, contract and flexible marketing staffing. This is a risky strategy that leads to bad hires and missed opportunities.
The best way to predict someone’s future is by taking a look at their past. Experience shapes and molds us into the people we are and influences how we react to situations in the present and future.
An Incomplete Picture
Hiring managers know the value of past experience; that’s why the resume is a standard in almost any hiring process. You want to see previous work, education, and accomplishments.
But resumes can’t tell the whole story. They can only provide a manicured snapshot of a person’s abilities. Sometimes they’re intentionally misleading—a candidate certainly isn’t going to advertise less savory parts of their past. You wouldn’t expect to find a criminal history, trouble with coworkers, personality issues and the like listed alongside their objectives.
Similarly, a resume can underrepresent a great potential hire. A candidate may have the perfect mindset and attitude to thrive in your organization—but you can’t tell that from a piece of paper. Even extremely talented and motivated individuals aren’t always master resumeists—you might overlook the perfect fit just because their resume wasn’t spotless.
A good interviewer can glean much more about a candidate’s personality, abilities and fit for role. But you still suffer from similar problems. Interviews provide important insight and impressions, but aren’t a great representation of the behavior you can expect at an average day on the job.
Why We Check Candidate History
A more holistic view of a person’s history is needed to get the complete picture. It’s the only way we can really understand their motivations and how they can fill your marketing staffing needs. That’s why we perform background and reference checks on candidates we present to our clients—including flexible marketing staffing hires. MarketPro is committed to providing reliable top talent for every position we fill, whether it’s a full time permanent position or a flexible contract job.
Marketing Staffing Background Checks
Nearly a third of organizations don’t do background checks on all candidates, according the Society for Human Resource Management. They’re missing out; doing so gives insight into aspects of a candidate they might not be totally upfront about.
A background check helps you avoid unnecessary liability. There are plenty of reasons you might want to carefully consider a candidate’s past:
- You are partially responsible for negative actions of a bad employee through negligent hiring. Damage to the persons and property of others by a bad hire is grounds for a lawsuit against you.
- You want your current employees to feel that they work in a safe work environment and aren’t under threat from each other.
- The reputation of your employees reflects on your company. When you hire someone, their baggage comes with them.
In many instances you’ll be morally or legally compelled to consider them regardless of a criminal history. After all, a mark on your record doesn’t necessarily make you a bad person or any less qualified for the job. Even so, it’s always helpful to know what you’re getting into ahead of time so you can take action to head off any problems.
Reference Checks
Most hiring processes require the applicant to include several professional and personal references to verify skills and character. Yet reference checks also go overlooked or underappreciated, especially bybusy hiring managers. Attempting to reach all the contacts on a long reference list can seem tedious and intimidating, particularly since it can be so difficult to start conversations these days.
But a little extra time spent here can provide an entirely new and fresh perspective to your vetting process. Former coworkers, supervisors and others offer insight and anecdotes you’ll never get from a resume or interview. Though not necessarily unbiased, you can cobble several reference conversations together to form a better idea of how a candidate thinks and has changed over time.
Social Media Reviews
When we’re not looking at silly cat videos, we’re using social media to check out potential candidates, too.  If someone is extremely abrasive or unprofessional on their social accounts, it’s likely that attitude will manifest itself in the workplace as well.
As a part of your company, their behavior and voice on social media will reflect on you. We want to make sure they represent themselves and your brand with respect.
Marketing Staffing with Due Diligence
Not all staffing firms evaluate the talent they present as fully as possible. We choose to take the extra step and look into a candidate’s history to remove any uncertainty you might have. A minimal additional investment of resources pays off tremendously and can greatly reduce your risk.
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