Conducting A Proper Medical Background Check

The health of your employees inevitably reflects on the company. For one thing, it can show whether or not you take care of your employees. A lot of sickly employees could hurt your company's image, especially if you are in a health-related industry. There is also the fact that illnesses equal a lot of expenses in terms of health benefits and such. Illnesses also mean a lot of lost productivity and profit. Conducting a proper medical background check will help you make sure that your company keeps performing at the top. Because of this, you have to make sure that the medical background check you conduct actually gets you the information you need to decide whether or not to hire someone. Here are a few tips:

1.) Always get permission – You need to remember that medical records are confidential in nature. This means that accessing them without the permission of the subject of the medical background check could mean a lawsuit. Before conducting a medical background check, you have to make sure that you have the proper documentation to do so. You need to have the applicant sign a permission form before you can act.

2.) Look for serious illnesses – Of course, what most companies immediately look for in a medical background check is any sign of a serious illness. This is because most companies look for employees which would be able to commit to long-term jobs. People do not want to place their company's future in someone who may be going in and out of hospitals and who may not be able to commit the amount of time needed to truly ensure the success of the company. This is actually the whole point of the medical background check. By avoiding hiring people with serious illnesses, you will be able to make sure that you don't have to waste any time in the future looking for a replacement.

3.) Look for any physical inadequacy – Certain jobs require specific physical requirements. Many jobs require people to operate certain pieces of equipment which could affect their health. An example of this is the pacemaker. People who have pacemakers cannot operate pieces of equipment or machinery which emit microwaves. By looking into this carefully, you will make sure that the employee and your company will not be put in danger.

4.) Look for signs of susceptibility for illnesses – How many times in a year does an applicant fall ill bad enough to need to go to the doctor? This is very important to know since you want your employees to keep up productivity and not lag behind. You also should realize that work does take a toll on a person's health. You have to make sure that the people you hire will be able to take the demands of the work and still keep doing a great job. You do not want them blaming their ill health on the demands of your company. This may cost you some cash on medical bills.

By following these tips on conducting proper medical background checks, you should be able to make sure that you will be able to hire the employee that's most physically fit for the job you have in mind. This means that you will be able to ensure your company's future –at least in terms of productivity.