Hiring for the Gig Economy? Best to Screen Carefully
Hiring temporary contract workers is on the rise, and more small and midsize businesses are heading this direction. This gig trend will likely continue until at least the end of the decade. Isn’t that good news for staffing firms, whose utilization grew an average of 10 percent over the past year?
While hiring great temporary or gig workers is crucial for your clients, it also means staffing firms must tweak their processes to bring in the right talent. Being proactive both with digital contact and vetting approach becomes essential.
Alter interview questions to determine the candidate’s ambitions for specific opportunities, like the examples below:
- Why are you interested in this temporary opportunity?
- Do you hope to transition to full-time employment?
- What are your goals regarding this specific position and why?
- What characteristics are most important to you in any job?
- Describe your preferred work environment
Ask questions that reveal the candidate’s work style and personality, such as:
- Tell me about a time you went above and beyond the scope of your job.
- What do you value most in a company?
- Do you prefer working solo or with a team?
- Describe a time you had a conflict with a coworker and how you solved it.
- What skills do you have that would add value to this job?
- What would be your ideal job?
Remember to run a background screening on each candidate, too. Without an accurate screening by a professional firm, such as Data Screening.com, you may not get all the facts. There’s little worse than presenting a candidate who may have posted false claims on an application.
As a staffing firm, certainly you want to present your best-vetted talent to your client to fill any potential openings, and a proper data screening will check for fraud, any history of criminal activity and many other critical issues. Plus, all screening must be completed within the framework of federal and state employment laws, and a professional screening firm will operate with the knowledge of those boundaries.
About DataScreeening.com
Data Screening is a Certified Women’s Business Enterprise that has offered business-to-business employment and tenant screenings to human resource professionals and business owners, including staffing companies, for two decades. Among other organizations, they are members of the New Jersey Staffing Alliance, the Society for Human Resource Management and the National Association of Professional Background Screeners. How may we help you today?
3 Trends in Data Screening
Any employer expects employment laws and practices to change over time. It’s just part of doing business to keep up with the trends.
The Society for Human Resource Management keeps an eye on current topics, issues, and trends in the HR industry, including conducting pre-employment background checks. According to the SHRM, it is important to note some recent changes.
Ban the Box
These laws, which pertain to checking a candidate’s background for a criminal history, are becoming the norm. A firm must delay asking about potential criminal background until either an interview has taken place or a provisional job offer has been made. To date, nearly half of the states in the USA have enacted such laws.
Ban the box was proposed to prevent a potential employer from automatically rejecting an ex-offender based on the bias of that status rather than what the employee may contribute. The point is to help reintegrate people with a criminal history back into the fabric of society, providing a means to support themselves. It does not mean a background screening for criminal activity can never be done.
The difficulty with the laws are their various nuances of letters, language, and wait times.
The gig economy and screening
Employers must discern how to adapt to the growing on-demand workforce. It is expected to become a matter of course to screen temporary employees.
Continuous screening
While most companies screen at the pre-employment stage; more firms are opting for re-screenings or continuous screenings to maintaining a safe and fully-vetted workforce. According to SHRM, post-hire screenings are expected to “reduce the prevalence of insider threats occurring throughout an employee’s tenure. Highly regulated industries and the government may adopt periodic or continuous screenings.
Hiring the right background screening company like Data Screening.com is critical. Make sure the one you hire knows the laws and regulations and operates with professional standards of accuracy in a timely manner.
About DataScreeening.com
Data Screening is a Certified Women’s Business Enterprise that has offered business-to-business employment and tenant screenings to human resource professionals and business owners, including staffing companies, for two decades. Among other organizations, they are members of the New Jersey Staffing Alliance, the Society for Human Resource Management and the National Association of Professional Background Screeners. How may we help you today?