Americans, Safety & Employment Background Screening

Safety is one of those feelings constantly in flux; it varies in different situations based on location, awareness, ability and other factors that are not always in our control. In my life, I have choices – I can choose where to live, where to work and how to spend my free time. And in many cases, I see strong correlations between my feeling of safety, my level of stress and the amount of work I am able to accomplish. For example, when I feel safe, my stress levels feel lower and work performance is higher. Conversely, when my safety is in question, I’m not focused on anything else.

Fortunately, it is not a question I need to think about too much. Our latest study, conducted on behalf of Kelton Research, found that close to two in three (65%) of Americans believe that background checks provide a sense of safety to people, and 59% believe that background checks are essential to safety.

In fact, as we dug a little deeper, we found that women are more likely than men to think background checks give people a sense of safety (69% vs. 61%) or are critical to safety (64% vs. 54%). In addition, Americans 55 and over are more likely than those 18-54 to think background checks provide a sense of safety (72% vs. 61%) or are necessary to safety (68% vs. 55%). In contract, only 14% of Americans believe that background checks are an invasion of privacy.

It was not until I started to work for an employment background checks company that I even started to think about background screening in a serious way. Knowing that we have an employment background screening policy in place provides me with a greater sense of safety, allowing my mental energy to go towards what I do best – marketing, as opposed to worrying about my safety. And I’m sure it would do the same for your employees too!

Recently we published an article sharing three tips to help you increase safety at work, which you can read here. This is not only crucial to help your current employees, but it also impacts your ability to attract and retain high-performance talent at your organization. It will help to get you to think about safety in a new way.