Miranda Bailey has been a valued member of SELECTiON.COM® since 2017. Here’s a little more about her.
Favorite part of working at SELECTiON.COM®
The friendly office environment.
Favorite Hobby
Hanging out with family.
Favorite Quote
“Just a drop in the ocean.”
Favorite Food
Chips
Fun Fact
My favorite color is turquoise.
On September 12, 2018, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection issued an interim final rule to update the model Summary of Consumer Rights and model Summary of Consumer Identity Theft Rights provided in Appendices I and K to Regulation V, which implement the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
This is effective September 21, 2018.
The interim final rule is driven by the FCRA’s recent amendment by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155). The Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act mandates that whenever the FCRA requires a consumer to receive either the Summary of Consumer Rights or the Summary of Consumer Identity Theft Rights, a notice regarding the new security freeze right also must be included.
Nationwide consumer reporting agencies must include an initial fraud alert in a consumer’s file a minimum of one year. A fraud alert informs a prospective lender that a consumer may have been a victim of identity theft and requires that the lender take steps to verify the identity of anyone seeking credit in the consumer’s name. Congress set an effective date of Sept. 21, 2018 for the security freeze right, the notice requirement, and the change in duration for initial fraud alerts.
What this means for you
Appropriate language as outlined under the FCRA has been updated in our Summary of Consumer Rights and we are making a consumer version available for distribution to anyone suspecting that they may have been the victim of identity theft.
SELECTiON.COM® has updated versions of these documents available for your use under the “Forms” tab on your Fastrax Select® dashboard.
Please download and update versions of the documents in your permanent files, or according to your specific needs.
Summary of Consumer Rights Statement
A summary of rights to obtain and dispute information in consumer reports and to obtain credit scores.
Summary of Rights For Victims of Identity Theft
A summary of rights for victims of identity theft.
Let’s face it, most criminals aren’t going to just hand over their records. That would make your job a lot easier if they did! Instead they hide their history by working the flaws inherent to the criminal record reporting system.
That’s why you need a background check partner who understands the ways criminals try to work the system. In this video we discuss the top 3 ways criminals try to circumvent the system and how you can prevent it from working.
In case you haven’t heard, Ban the Box is a growing movement and it looks like it’s here to stay. Every month it seems like we see a new city or state adding Ban the Box regulations.
It’s been around for 20 years now, so if you still have “the box” on your application, it may be time to think about removing it.
What is Ban the Box?
Ban the Box policies aim to make employers consider job candidates’ qualifications first, without the stigma of any criminal record. So-called “Ban the Box” initiatives are meant to provide job applicants a fair chance by removing conviction history questions on job application forms and delaying background check inquiries until later in the hiring process.
Each city and state has their own regulations when it comes to Ban the Box. Add to that Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulations, and that can make navigating the hiring pool difficult.
As always, you should check with your own legal counsel before changing any part of your background check program, but we have outlined some simple steps below to keeping your business compliant.
Obtain a Release
First and foremost, have the applicant sign a release form authorizing a background check.
Consistency
Run background checks on a consistent basis. Don’t just run one when you think an applicant looks fishy. That can lead to litigation down the road.
You can have a different set of reports that you run depending on the type of job, but make sure that you have clearly defined what types of reports you intend to run for each job.
If a criminal conviction is found, check to see if the conviction is relevant to the position. Again, consistency is key. Know beforehand what types of convictions would exclude someone from working in certain departments/positions.
Proper Applicant Notification
Follow FCRA guidelines if you choose not to hire based on the results of a background check.
If you don’t know what the Summary of Rights or Adverse Action forms are, not to worry, we have you covered! Not only are these forms available on the Fastrax® website, but we can also turn on a feature for your account that will allow you to have us send the forms for you, with just the check of a box.
SELECTiON.COM® provides the comprehensive and customizable screening solutions needed to navigate the legal aspects of background screening. We stay up-to-date with all EEOC and FCRA regulations and provide you with all the forms you need on our proprietary system, Fastrax®, our easy to use one-click FCRA notification system that makes the FCRA compliance a breeze.
The Fastraxt® system allows employers to stay compliant and provides them with the ability to follow the background check process from start to finish.
Our Applicant Entry system will obtain accurate information straight from the applicant, as well as provide an electronic release form for a permanent digital record of their FCRA consent.
Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can keep you compliant while taking your employment background check process to the next level.
NOTE: The contents of this article are not legal advice for your particular situation. You should neither act nor rely upon anything stated in this article without first consulting your own legal counsel.
Christina Phillips has been a valued member of SELECTiON.COM® since 1997. Here’s a little more about her.
Favorite part of working at SELECTiON.COM®
We are like one big family.
Favorite Hobby
Spending time with my family and friends.
Favorite Quote
“It is what it is.”
Favorite Food
Italian
Favorite Sports Team
Michigan Wolverines
Fun Fact
I have 3 grandsons
At SELECTiON.COM® we believe in open communication and above all, protecting our clients through background checks.
As such, it follows that we make sure our services are accurately presented to the public. We want our clients to be able to choose the reports that will work best to protect their company from bad hires, and that starts with understanding exactly what’s included in each report.
Too often in this industry you’ll see background check companies trying to sell national criminal background checks as a catch-all, one-and-done report.
While that may be appropriate in some cases, a national background check should never be sold as all-encompassing.
We believe in a many pronged approach to background checks. Of course, this all depends on industry and need, but the basic elements are a Social Security Number Trace report to identify where your applicant has lived, county searches in those areas and a national criminal database search to catch those surrounding areas that a crime may have been committed.
SELECTiON.COM® conducts dozens of pre-employment background screenings and verifications, including some of these most common services that we offer:
A Social Security Number Trace uses the applicant’s Social Security Number to obtain address history information, which is provided by an aggregate of databased information supplied by credit reporting agencies. The information provided by the SSN Trace feeds those name variations and aliases into any number and combination of other reports.
Search America™ is the largest national criminal database in the industry and is the perfect complement to virtually any criminal background check via Fastrax Select®. A SSN Trace can be combined and fed into Search America™ populating records provided by hundreds of databases from every state and permanently-inhabited territories (District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and America Samoa) in the United States.
Information comes from Administrative Office of the Courts, Departments of Correction, Sex Offender Registries, as well as county court record information from cooperating jurisdictions. More than 140 unique sex offender registries, including all 50 states and permanently-inhabited territories.
Search America™ also pulls from a large list of national security and international sources, including INTERPOL’s Most Wanted List and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) terrorist watchlist.
The County Criminal Record Search is used to obtain criminal record information from any of the more than 3,100+ counties in the United States. Record information may be obtained electronically either via a court-provided source, or at the courthouse via public access terminals.
There are jurisdictions where record information is not electronically available, and in those counties, record researchers or court clerks directly are utilized to obtain criminal record information directly from the courthouse.
The scope of the information provided is determined by client preference, and limited by state and federal guidelines.
The County Criminal Record Search is utilized to verify potential criminal records found by Search America™, or to backfill counties/jurisdictions that do not make record information digitally available. The address history is used to determine which jurisdictions need to be searched.
Federal cases are searched independently of state or county criminal records, as the courts in question are separate of each other. Federal case information is searched electronically from the 94 United States District Courts, and jurisdictions are ordered are potentially based on the SSN Trace information. Each district court is ordered separately, and information reported adheres to the guidelines of the FCRA and the preference of the client.
For detail related to some of the other background checks or verifications provided by SELECTiON.COM® including, but not limited to prior employment verifications, education verifications, personal references, motor vehicle records and credit checks, visit our Truth in Advertising page at www.Selection.com.
SELECTiON.COM® has more than 25 years of experience and we can provide you the tools to feel confident that you are doing everything possible to keep your workplace safe.
Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can improve your background check process.
NOTE: The contents of this article are not legal advice for your particular situation. You should neither act nor rely upon anything stated in this article without first consulting your own legal counsel.
