Business owners recognize that good employees are essential to their company's growth, but identifying and hiring outstanding people is a perennial challenge. Pre-employment background checks are one way to take some of the guesswork out of hiring.

You have good reason to be careful about whom you hire. Resume auditors estimate that 80 percent to 90 percent of resumes contain incorrect information. Exaggerated salary information is common, and a high percentage of job applicants either falsify their educational credentials or embellish the titles and descriptions of jobs they have held. About 2 percent to 3 percent hide criminal records.

Employers not only want to protect themselves against white-collar crime, but they also need to be aware of third-party liability for negligent hiring or negligent retention. Courts have held employers liable when they failed to investigate an employee's background and the employee later committed a crime or endangered the welfare of others while on the job.

WHAT TO CHECK

A basic pre-employment screening should include verification of information on an applicant's resume, including education credentials, previous employers, length of employment, job titles, salary history and job descriptions.

Many employers do more, especially when a job involves handling, money or dealing with the public. Just be aware that various state and federal laws, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act, place some restrictions on the kinds of information a prospective employer may use in a hiring decision.

With these caveats in mind, a complete background check might include checking educational credentials, previous employment, professional licenses, credit rating, bankruptcy filings, conviction records, Social Security number and address verification, military records and drug testing.

You can save yourself time and effort by asking applicants to verify some of their own data. A lot of cum laude graduates become B students when you ask them to provide copies of their college or high-school transcripts. Connecticut law requires employers to release personnel information to employees and former employees who request it.

Making the necessary phone calls and accessing various public databases to verify resume information is not difficult, but it can be time consuming. Many small businesses outsource resume verification to specialized reporting services. You can find them listed under "credit reporting" in the business directory pages of your phone book, or search for them on the Internet using key words like "pre-employment check" or "background check."

Don't think of p re-employment checks as a license to snoop into whatever information you want. Employers are subject to a number of state and federal laws governing privacy and confidentiality as well as the gathering and use of any information they obtain