What started as a spinoff from his private investigating practice has grown into a global firm that does about 10,000 background checks a day for employers.

On one particular weekday afternoon, inside the company’s Anderson headquarters, CEO Robert Mather talked about a contract the firm just signed with a Midwest trucking company - background checks for 5,000 applicants.

No wonder Mather doesn’t see an economic downturn from where he sits. His business continues to grow.

Good times, bad times - employers always will need people.

“No, we are growing rapidly,” Mather said when asked if the recession has given his company hiccups.

Mather attributes his success to the people he employs.

“All I can say is the people here are great,” Mather said.

Within three months, Mather will expand his business to a location on Meadow View Drive, near Redding Municipal Airport. He will keep his headquarters in Anderson.

Mather started Pre-employ.com in the mid-1990s. Mather worked in internal security departments for corporations before he became a private investigator.

Today, Mather has grown Pre-employ.com into a family of companies that includes Mybackgroundcheck.com, Past-employ.com and I-9Compliance.com, the latter helps employers comply with Homeland Security laws.

Mather said he’s in the business to protect employers and employees.

“My original vision was to protect employers from embezzlement,” Mather said as he sat in his office inside the firm’s spacious 23,000-square-foot building on Balls Ferry Road, west of the Safeway store in Anderson.

Mather contends that crimes like embezzlement are worse than people think. That’s because a lot of them never get reported.

“Most employers don’t want to prosecute. There are a lot of reasons - the time it takes, the possible civil liabilities if you can’t prove your case, and the bad press,” Mather said.

Mather employs about 150 people. Most employees work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Pay starts at $9 an hour, but there are people in the building who make more than $200,000 a year with bonuses. The family of companies has about a $3.5 million annual payroll.

Employees are offered medical and dental benefits, a free health club membership, a 401(k) retirement program with 100 percent vesting immediately.

There’s also a day-care center that Mather operates for employees, who can use it for a fee. The facility is across the street from the company’s headquarters.

Meanwhile, in the past year Mather has been forced to recruit and relocate four executives from Oregon, New Mexico, Iowa and Texas. He sometimes finds it frustrating that he can’t get more qualified local candidates to apply.

When it comes to background checks for employers, the information that Mather’s people obtains is from public records and often comes from county courthouses. Mather pays about 3,500 independent contractors, such as private investigators, retired police officers, to do background checks around the world.

Companies pay from $5 to $100 for each background report. Most of the companies, whom Mather wouldn’t identify, that use Pre-employ.com have at least 1,000 employees.

Mather said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks helped change his business. The importance of checking a potential worker’s background increased.

“You’re probably not going to catch a terrorist with what we do, but it heightened people’s awareness,” Mather said.

Before Sept. 11, Mather did about 200 employee background checks a day. That number has grown 50-fold.

Company headquarters for Mather are inside what used to be a Holiday Quality Foods store on Balls Ferry Road. Mather renovated the building and relocated from Redding in 2005.

Ironically, Mather worked security for Holiday in the early 1980s.