Nearly all amusement park executives have a different opinion as to what keeps their organisation healthy and vibrant, but the most important factor in the success of any park is the people that show up to work everyday. These employees not only interact with your customers but also serve as the public face for the operation.

Finding the right people to employ is usually one of the most frustrating and costliest elements of running a successful business. As the employment market continues to tighten, discontinuing background checks is a common response amongst employers who are not looking at the ‘big picture.’ When considering the expenses associated with recruiting, hiring and training, turnover becomes a bottom line problem many parks cannot afford to ignore.

Simply stated, employee turnover will be drastically reduced if the proper screening is implemented at the beginning stages of the interview process. Executives and human resources professionals also have to address some employees who lie about their backgrounds during the interview process. According to the Wall Street Journal, 34 per cent of all job applications contain lies regarding experience, education and the ability to perform essential functions of the job, proving that an application is only as good as the paper it is written on.

Additionally, the latest statistics released by the US Department of Commerce state that internal employee-related thefts occur 15 times more often than external theft, and employee fraud costs companies more than $400 billion annually. It can be a frightening reality to think that one wrong hire could be so detrimental to a company, but it is even more frightening to know that this could have been prevented with one simple step – screening applicants prior to a job offer being made.

For years, employers have searched to find a fast, inexpensive and reliable way to verify a candidate’s background and credentials during the interview process. In the past, human resources staff made minimal efforts to try and determine a candidate’s past employment and criminal history, but times have changed, and so has the process. Speed and efficiency can make or break an important hire, meaning there is no time to waste on unqualified candidates or employees who misrepresent themselves during the interview process.

New technologies, such as online background screening, are increasingly being used to help employers identify and weed out undesirable candidates. These applications offer faster and more affordable background-check capabilities since they leverage breakthrough data management technologies and massive data repositories, containing billions of existing public records documents.

Like any other acquisition or major transaction that a business would face, staffing is heavily reliant on innovative tools and resources that enable both speed and efficiency for increased profit margins and productivity. Today’s online screening technologies not only help park managers be more confident with their hiring decisions, but also help to increase both profitability and image of the operation.

Kim Kerr is vice-president and general manager of the LexisNexis Risk and Information Analytics Group, a leading US-based provider of risk and business information services.

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