Mining and forestry in British Columbia, Alberta, and Quebec represent bustling sectors of the job market and result in unique employment screening needs for employers. Not only are employment screening needs unique, but they also need to be performed with frequency. As you know, safety is paramount in the mining and forestry industries in Canada and likely something already high on your radar.

Beyond standard employment screening verifications like employment history and references, mining and forestry companies should have capabilities in place to be able to perform:

The ability to obtain these checks is critical because of the high prevalence of employees needing to drive in these industries. Driving could mean moving around materials on job sites or even long distances.

Anytime driving is involved in a role, a criminal record check, driver’s abstracts and social media background check should be obtained as part of the employment screening and rescreening process. These checks reveal very different things and when used together can help form a complete picture about a candidate or employee.

Driving record abstracts will reveal previous traffic offences and license suspensions, while a criminal record check may reveal other behaviour that involved unsafe driving or even substance abuse that may not even turn up on a driver’s abstract.

A social media background check will reveal things that a driving record abstract and criminal record check may not. That’s because a social media background check will flag behaviour based on your candidate’s activities on social media. While a conviction is generally needed to support an infraction on a driver’s abstract or criminal background check, a social media check will reveal problematic behaviour much more easily. A social media background check will reveal violence, substance abuse, dangerous and/or illicit activities, etc.

Now, performing these checks at the hiring stage is a given, but where some organizations are weak is in the area of rescreening. Drivers need to be routinely rescreened. You need to be aware if there has been an occurrence that means that a driver represents a risk to your company, your property, and people on your job sites.

Having access to centralized background checks is your first step in the right direction. This empowers your team to put processes in place to strengthen employment screening with quick access to all the verifications and background checks that they may need in one place. Some mining and forestry organizations with high volume recruitment go as far as to integrate their background check partner’s systems into their own.

Use employment screening to improve the quality of your team while reducing costs and operating more efficiently. For more information about pre employment screening for the mining and forestry industries please visit www.tritoncanada.ca.