Inside the Club: Companies Transition to Pre-Hire Credit Checks

All of us at one point or another have most likely gone through a job interview. Unless you are one of the select few that have owned your own business since you were 16, you’ve probably sat in some sort of interview, whether it was in person or on the phone.

I once had an employer call for a phone interview. I set up a second phone interview for two days later, but he never called. I had to hound him for two weeks before I got the second interview, but I got the job.

Earlier this week, I read an article in Yahoo! Finance called “The Long Shadow of Bad Credit in a Job Search.” I’ve experienced background checks when I was younger, and I know that it’s common practice, but this article interviews a person that was denied a great job because he had bad credit and that company did a credit check.

Evidently, in order for this to happen, two things must occur. First, the company must receive permission to order to run the credit check, but then must notify the applicant of the findings and the decision to either terminate the process or move forward based on the findings.

In the article, the person found himself terminated of the process based on bad credit. Over the last decade, this has been a growing practice among reputable companies. However, due to the recession, many people are finding themselves at the short end of the stick due to having fallen on hard times.

The article stipulates that a lot of states are seeking legislature that will prevent companies from performing credit checks on potential employees. It’s been looked at as a no-win situation. A person loses a job, can’t pay bills, builds bad credit and then can’t get hired. There is no way for people out of this conundrum.

Digging deep for great employees can be extremely difficult. I once had a person tell me that they were wary of hiring anyone without a six-month stipulation. He claimed that he didn’t believe you could truly know someone’s value inside of six months. Good luck to him — many people will balk at taking a job that doesn’t necessarily have promise after six months.

However, the hiring process is sensitive. You don’t want to hire someone that has a bad track record, nor do you want someone that is an emotional wreck. What aspects in hiring have you implemented that you’ve found successful? If you’re struggling with some good hiring tips, look at this article from Gainesville Health & Fitness about how it handles its hiring. What I’ve always heard, and believe is, hire slow, fire fast.

Tyler Montgomery is the editor of Club Solutions Magazine. Contact him at tyler@clubsolutionsmagazine.com.