Pre-Employment Screening: Same Methods, Different Marketplace

Those with experience in this highly-skilled job are unlikely to post resumes on Monster.com and other job sites. Instead, staffing firms are tasked to find these individuals and determine through pre-employment screening those factors that have prompted them to leave their current position, and which benefits will entice them to take a new position. In addition, client companies are investing a great deal of money in training and food safety education to develop existing staff in other positions into food safety personnel.

Making the Staffing Relationship Work for You

With such emphasis placed on finding the “right” employee, it is important that companies choose the right staffing partner that follows a proven disciplined process for pre-employment screening.

It is imperative that the staffing firm have experience specifically in the food and beverage industry and those recruiters have a scientific background. A scientific background is not only helpful in discussing the skill sets required of the new employee with the client company, but also when interviewing a candidate. This will ensure that the recruiter can ask complex questions pertaining to the candidate’s work history to check the validity of the resume.

Some staffing firms may even train recruiters in behavior analysis to ensure candidates are a good match for a company’s culture. If a lab’s atmosphere is social for example, where employees are friends outside the office, introducing an introverted person could change the whole dynamic of the lab and even prompt the resignation of senior permanent employees.

Unless requested by the client company, staffing firms are not allowed to perform background checks on new hires during pre-employment screening because it is viewed as discriminatory. Instead, social security and criminal checks with the county are performed. Staffing firms generally do not sponsor workers from other countries, only employing those foreign workers who already have work visas.

Although the events of September 11th have not necessitated a change in the methods or number of staffing firms using pre-employment screening, they have only enhanced their value to hiring managers.

Krista Ashbrook is market director for Kforce Scientific Staffing (Dallas, Texas), a division of Kforce Inc. Reach her at [email protected].