Running a background check is now considered a standard part of the pre-employment screening process. And while they are important and worthwhile in all fields, they are especially important when vetting cyber security candidates. If this is not a part of your recruitment process already, you are exposing your company and your clients to an unnecessary degree of risk. These are just a few of the reasons that background checks are VITAL.
Safeguard Your IT
IT is the lifeblood of your organization, and even minor problems can have major consequences. Your cyber security experts are charged with safeguarding this IT, meaning that they have a huge responsibility and a lot of power at their disposal. If there is something in their past that raises red flags, it could compromise their ability to protect you and put your mission-critical IT and data at risk.
Find the Best Possible Candidate
Let’s say you have two candidates with almost identical credentials. Then you run background checks on both and find that one has a criminal record. That important piece of information could sway you to pick the other candidate, the one who ultimately has the best chance of becoming a great employee. Without doing the background check, you may have made the opposite decision and created vulnerabilities inside your organization.
Avoid the Cost of a Bad Hire
The cost of recruitment and on boarding is significant. If you hire a new cyber security professional and they quit or are fired months after their first day, you have wasted a lot of resources. Running a pre-employment background check is one way to ensue you are making the right hire for the long term.
Protect Your Company Reputation
The damage of a cyber security breach can affect your reputation as much as it affects your bottom line. Just look at the way high-profile breaches have damaged companies like Target. Your cyber security experts are your best defense against these kinds of embarrassments, which is why you want to have total confidence in them. Running a background check gives you the peace of mind to trust the public standing and future prestige of your company to someone you are just meeting for the first time.
Hiring effective IT candidates requires a number of nontraditional recruitment strategies. If you are struggling to find qualified candidates and have been set back by a bad hire in the past, it may be time to rethink the way you look for talent. Discover faster and more reliable ways of doing things by working with The Squires Group.
