The days of walking in off the street and getting a job are long gone for the most part. And while there might be a few jobs that people can find that do not require background checks are growing slimmer and slimmer. In fact, the employee verification and background process is an important part of many application processes. Although many companies will extend the opportunity for an interview without these checks, the reality is that many workers are not allowed to start until they have passed a background check and a required drug screening test for employment. Employers have to know that they are hiring reliable people, and in a time when CareerBuilder Survey indicates that as many as 58% percent of employers have found a lie on a resume, it should come as no surprise that these checks continue to grow in importance.

Background Checks Help Employers Make the Best Hires

Schools, churches, and other places that work with children, not surprisingly, often have the most thorough background checks. When parents entrust their children into the care of someone else they need to know that their sons and daughters are in a safe place. Being able to let parents and other customers know that you have done a thorough background checks on all of your employees can help you build confidence. And while there are also many other safety practices that you have to be able to put in place to guarantee a safe environment, drug testing and background checks are a great start.

Consider some of these facts and figures about the importance that many employers place on making sure that they do their research in finding the best employees:

• 50% of all drug tests are positive for marijuana, according to a survey from Quest Diagnostics.
• 9.5 million urine drug tests were positive in the U.S. workforce in the year 2015 alone.
• Able to detect drug use over a 90 day period, hair follicle drug tests have one of the most dependable detection rates.
• Although chronic use of marijuana can stay in the system for four weeks or longer after the last use, many other drugs only remain in the system from two to four days.
• Substance use is a problem in both white and blue collar jobs. In fact, a study from the U.S. Department of Health and Human services found that construction, information, and professional workers are the most likely to have used substances in the past 30 days.

Today’s job market is increasingly competitive, so it only makes sense that more and more employers require that their applicants submit to a drug test and that they must pass a background check.