Doing your do diligence when hiring a marketing consultant for your company is very important. Credit reports are so vital to your background checks that you’ve got to know these 3 things before you begin.
Whether you’re trying to find a new employee or a new tenant for your empty house, you’ve got to pay close attention to credit reports. But before you start the background check process, there are 3 things you need to know about your applicant’s credit report:
1. You can get the information online
Thanks to the world wide web, you can find out a lot about a person’s background in just a few mouse clicks. In fact, when you work with the right company, you can get an online employee check done in a few seconds! That way, you can make a hiring decision immediately — instead of waiting days or weeks for the information.
2. You need the information, even if YOU’RE paying THEM
Speaking of an online employee check, you’re probably wondering why you need potential employees’ credit reports. After all, you’re paying them, not the other way around!
The truth is, credit reports give you a good look at how responsible someone is. If your potential employee has racked up a ton of debt, been evicted a few times, or has a bunch of gambling problems, do you really want to hire him? Or, would you rather hire the people whose credit reports show that the pay all their bills on time, have never had a debt problem, and only have a few credit cards and have never gotten into trouble with them?
On the surface, which person is going to represent your company better?
3. Credit reports are only half the battle
As important as the information in a credit report is, it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about a potential tenant or employee. If you want to know the full story, you also need to do a criminal record search. After all, even axe murderers may have stellar credit reports!
By doing a criminal background check, for example, you can see if your potential tenant has anything in his past that would make him an unsavory tenant. Remember, your property is going to be left unprotected with this person! You need to make sure you can trust him. His credit report will tell you if you can trust him to pay the rent, and a renter criminal check will tell you if you can trust him to take care of the property and the people around it.
Just remember — you may not be able to deny renter or job applications solely on the basis of a criminal record search. Read the laws in your state carefully before you make any final decisions.