Before hiring an employee it can only benefit you and your company to do basic people research into the potential employee you’re planning to hire. This can help you to better understand how trustworthy and safe the employee is, but can also cross-check details in his or her application or resume to determine the breadth of experience based on the truthfulness of employment-related facts. Such a search can also confirm identity.

People research for employees can be easy. A wise search is a broad search for public records, which can be performed online through a number of web sites for a small fee. Employment records, marriage records, birth certificates, divorce records, criminal records, and more may be included in the results of your people research.

Some of the information you uncover in during your people research might be of no use to you. Marriage records, for example, may not be directly useful aside from confirming identity. Property records, however, can help you determine if the employee’s residential history matches with the work history he/she provided. A little sifting and creativity can help turn your broad search results into gems of specific information that will help you with your hiring decision.