SYNOPSIS IN POINT FORM

• Seeking recommendation is vital when dealing with new contacts
• A person’s past is a very good indicator of their expected future behaviour
• Background checks are easy to make as an effective means of checking up on people
• If several reports are firmly negative then stay away
• No honest person should be upset to find out that they are being checked upon
• Ask as many people as you can about them
• You may also check them out well on Facebook and other social media
• Try to find common friends and contacts to speak to
• The same principles apply when recruiting – never take anyone’s word for it
• Make sure that certain jobs & professional experiences have not been purposely omitted

FULL ARTICLE

It is inconceivable to do business, give credit, or trust in any way, anyone whom you do not know well, without first obtaining some background on the person. Yet so many people unfortunately and carelessly do this.

Nobody can give you a guarantee on anyone else’s behaviour and often not even on their own future actions. However it is very obvious that someone’s past behaviour, attitudes, achievements or lack of, are about as clear a picture as you can ever get, and are over all very revealing.

Nobody could have had decades of bad luck or simply a bad phase, and even if they truly did, then this is just as good a reason to steer clear of them.

We live in a perfect society and era to easily obtain such recommendations from others. Malta is small enough to invariably find some connection with anyone, if you look hard enough. And with Facebook and other social media, it is often very easy to delve into somebody’s background and stye.

If you take the time and make the effort to ask around, you will usually get a pretty good profile and feel to the person you are considering dealing with. If you sense some hesitation from various people you ask, then it is always best to delve deeper. Check out what their reservations are based on. Admittedly there are certain individuals, such as some sharp successful businesspeople, who might create some apprehension in others, without every really having caused anyone any harm.

However if you start hearing of hard facts, such as people not being paid, being cheated, or taken for a ride, or simply treated badly, then this is a very clear warning sign to stay well away. Do not kid yourself, if this person has a history of being dishonest and nasty, then the chances of you being the next victim are very close to 100%.

If, on the other hand, you receive only fair reports, then hopefully the coast is clear, and you would have at least surmounted the very first hurdle.

If the person in question finds out that you have been checking on them, then unless they have something ugly to hide, this should really not bother them at all, it should actually flatter them. It also shows that you know how to do your homework and that you are a sensible and clever businessperson. So don’t be duped by silly stories of them being offended by your lack of trust. If they are true businesspeople and not charlatans they know that business is not based on trust but on facts, at least not in the very being.

Trust must be earned through being honest in situations where you had absolutely no control or means to check up on them. When on the other hand there are means of control available, such as this one, then every businessperson should use them to their advantage.

Here are some of the most obvious ways of checking up on someone :
– Simply ask the people around you – family, friends, colleagues, acquaintances
– Ask in any private group, club, forum you form part of, which groups up many individuals
– Check for mutual Facebook friends
– Check out their personal background such as schools, clubs and interests, where you
might have a few contacts
– Ask contacts who are involved in the same business or industry as them
– Check out their business platforms such as their website and FB page for contacts,
recommendations and third parties whom you may know
– Ask for general recommendations in related professional fora
– Failing all of this just ask them! Yes, tell them that you require some recommendations.
This too is normal practice and certainly should never offend

Above all do not just hope for the best. Keep in mind that often the biggest crooks are the best talkers who easily convince others of their false good intentions. So never take anyone’s word for it. Furthermore, what anyone tells you verbally, they should have no qualms putting down on paper. If you are given the lame reply that their word is enough, then start running as fast as you can in the opposite direction.

The same applies when recruiting personnel, although the situation here is much easier. When applying for a job, candidates are meant to list their previous employments and also present written recommendations. But here again never simply take their word for it. Check up on them and follow up all of their past claims without fail.

Also keep in mind that the documentation presented to you could easily be missing certain unsavoury experiences, such as jobs where things went horribly wrong. So when checking up with previous employers, always confirm employment dates to ensure that all jobs have been included.

Possibly the only circumstances when I wouldn’t even bother checking on job candidates, is when they come with stories of abuse and victimisation at each of their past jobs. We can all be misfortunate once or at very most perhaps twice, but anything more is most obviously a self-produced trend. Even however if it is stated that this happened only once, I would still ensure that I delve deeply into the matter by hearing the other side of the story, before I come to my own conclusions on the matter.

What leaves me totally speechless, is how many employers, some of whom are even considered as serious companies, have employed some of my very worst and dishonest employees without even enquiring with me about them. I am referring to cases when I know for a fact that the new employers were very aware that the person in question worked for me, but no checking was done. In every such case that I know of, this employment too finished off with a very terrible outcome, as of course expected.

On one specific occasion, I was under the distinct impression that an employee was hugely cheating me and trying to obtain hard evidence to dismiss him. Then suddenly a close business acquaintance of mine poached him off me to work at his competing business. It transpired later that the employee misappropriated a large amount of money from his new employer’s business within months of his engagement. I still make it a point to thank my ex-competitor each time I see him!