Background checks are always a good idea during the hiring process. But you may not realize just how valuable they can be when performed periodically on your existing workforce. When running background checks on employees for the first time, employers often are surprised by their ‘hit rate,’ the percentage of their employees that are discovered to have criminal records or other issues.
As a club manager, you may be shocked at just how many of your employees may be hiding something that ultimately could jeopardize the safety of other workers and your members. The three-year criminal hit rate average for the club industry – encompassing nearly 12,000 employees – is 25.2 percent. That’s significantly higher, for example, than the three-year criminal hit rate average of 15.5 percent for a large and diversified group of more than 700,000 non-club employees. That number may be a little skewed as some employees may have had more than one criminal charge, such as a felony, misdemeanor or DUI. But it’s still a good benchmark. Clearly, the club industry has more incentive than most to make sure they are performing background checks to protect their staff and members.
Historically. we have found that the club industry has been behind the curve in the best practice of performing new employee and volunteer background checks as well as annual background checks for current employees. The good news is that we have seen an increase in background checks each year since 2010. This is a very positive shift and a sign that creating awareness is starting to work.
Last year, we had more than 100 new clubs take advantage of CMAA ClubSolutions’ discounted background check program. Want to learn more? Go to this link or contact Jeff Magoon at (703) 739-9500 or by e-mail at [email protected].