Employee Background Verification: The Cross-Referencing Effect

Abstract

Pre-employment screening has increased in recent years. This paper examines the effects of four pre-employment screening tools (reference interviews, criminal record checks, credit bureau investigations, and education verifications) in identifying negative indicators about job applicants. More specifically this investigation identifies, for a Canadian organization, the percentage of negative indicators that were uncovered by each screening tool as well as the percentage of negative indicators that were uncovered through the use of combinations of screening tools. The percentages have been found to be in line with the data already available for American organizations. The main contribution of this research however is to show that when various screening tools are used in conjunction they have a greater potential to uncover applicants’ negative histories through a synergistic process termed ‘cross-referencing’. The results indicate that cross-referencing increases the rate at which negative indicators are found in reference interviews by up to 10%.