Intern Background Screening

With summer just around the corner, many employers are ramping up their workforce with the addition of summer interns. Summer jobs are popular among students looking to network with professionals in their field, gain experience in the workplace, and in the case of paid internships, make some money while classes are not in session. Summer internships also provide a unique opportunity for employers. They gain access to a talent pool chock full of fresh, ambitious young minds looking to make a good impression. They can use temporary summer workers to alleviate backlogs in workflow without taking on the commitment of a full-time, salaried employee. Summer internships can also give employers an opportunity to try before they buy. Many internships lead to paid positions and full-time employment after college.

While the summer internships are often bound by different laws and separate internal policies than permanent workers, there is one thing that they should have in common: background checks. Intern Background Screening should be adopted but, many seem to abandon the process when on-boarding a seasonal employee or summer intern.  Summer interns often have the same privileges and access to company resources and technology infrastructure as permanent employees, so they should be held to the same screening standard. The contingent workforce, including summer interns, is one of the most common gaps in the background screening process.

Why Should You Conduct an Intern Background Screening?

• Longevity – For employers, internships are strategically utilized to interact with the new generation of leaders and most importantly molding the intern into a professional, networking, and taking advantage of this individual as a future employee. Intern Background Screening will provide you with more in-depth information regarding the intern, where it will evaluate the risk taken by hiring this individual.  Intern Background Screening is beneficial to a company who is bringing someone new to a work environment and unfamiliar people.
• Security – Intern Background Screening will shed light to an individual’s honestly and moral character, especially if they will be handling sensitive information, valuable company assets, cash or even working directly with a younger group of children. The screening process will not only confirm or deny information listed by an intern, but it will shed more light to an individual’s overall personality, as social media and web checks are imperative.  Dealing with younger interns can also be problematic, as some can exploit their position and abuse it, therefore an intern background screening would debar from this occurring.
• Minimize Risk – Following the FCRA requirements when attempting to deny an intern a position can only be done if the company has conducted an intern background screening, where the information and findings they have received on an intern are of negative. Hiring the right individuals can greatly minimize the risk to the workplace, reduce the change of litigation and most importantly preserve the company’s reputation.  Interns often have the same privileges and access to company resources and technology infrastructure as permanent employees do.  Therefore, screening interns should be held to the same standard by a company when hiring a permanent employee, as there is no difference since there is a possibility that this intern has a chance of turning into a full-time employee.
• Generation – Hiring an intern and conducting an intern background screening may provide a company with more information than just the normal checks of a credit report, criminal records, driving record and professional licenses. In this time and day, social media plays a big part in a lot of people’s daily lives, especially amongst the younger crowd.  Having professionals put forth the due diligence in conducting a web search and sifting through every social media platform available can be more beneficial to the employer.  Information found such as blogs, channels, social media accounts and even comments made on articles or news outlets can provide more information detailing the individual in question.  Intern Background Screening for many would say it is a waste but let us not overlook the possibility of a candidate abusing their position and power.
• Previous Internships – Welcoming a new candidate into an intern position would have many believe that this is their first internship, as they would still be enrolled in school working towards a degree. Conducting an Intern Background Screening will provide an employer with the proper information whether this is a compensated or a non-paid position, as this information would illustrate if the candidate was involved in any other internships and most importantly how their exit took place.  Whether this information is provided by the intern themselves or not, it can be located when undergoing the Intern Background Screening process and the background check, since several institutions would have the student report their internship.  Universities and colleges will more than likely need the student to document their internships, as these are also followed up with work ethic and progress referencing the individual.  This information can better assist a company who is looking to develop a symbiotic relationship between the intern and the company.

Although an intern is not always going to become a permanent hire, it provides a very lucrative opportunity that benefits both the intern and the company.  The workforce benefits from the extra staffing and the intern themselves will be exposed to a real-life work setting.  Conducting Intern Background Screening will help your company in knowing that the time and resources spent on a candidate will be protecting the company, your staff and your assets. 

As social media is a massive factor in determining one’s identity, this is also useful to recruiters and hiring managers who will have a genuine insight into the identity of the intern.  Whether conducting Intern Background Screening or any other type of screening, what is provided on a piece of paper may differ when considering an individual’s social media accounts or how they present themselves online, as social media use is becoming part of many individuals’ daily lives.

Contact Background Check Central in Clinton Township, MI for assistance in conducting an intern background screening for your piece of mind.