Blog
One of the most frequent questions that we receive from our clients is whether their organization has to abide by the terms of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) if they are not seeking an applicant’s credit information.
The simple answer is yes. And here’s why…
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, enacted by Congress in 1970, was initially designed to promote the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of consumer reporting agencies, of which there are many types, specifically as it related to the collection and dissemination of credit-based information.
Subsequently, however, the FCRA has been expanded to cover more than just credit reporting companies and now covers all consumer reporting agencies that gather, retain, compile, issue, and use credit reports, insurance reports, employee background reports, tenant screening, bank bad check and overdraft reports, and other consumer reports based on consumer reporting information such as consumer credit experiences, court records, and other personal consumer information.
SELECTiON.COM® is a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) and we are bound to operate fully and unequivocally under the government-mandated FCRA guidelines.
As such, any company or organization that uses the information that we provide as part of an applicant-approval process must also abide by the FCRA.
The basic tenants of the FCRA require companies that use a CRA to:
- provide disclosure of their consumer rights to an applicant
- acquire consent from the applicant prior to a background check being initiated
- allow access to the information from which approval decisions are being made
- inform the applicant if information in their file is being used against them
- provide an avenue for disputing inaccurate or incomplete information
Additionally, SELECTiON.COM® is required to maintain the following minimum standards:
- We must correct or delete inaccurate, incomplete, or unverifiable information
- We may not report outdated negative information
- We must maintain strict adherence to privacy policies and assure that access to Personally Identifiable Information (PII) be limited to only those individuals with a valid need
While we recognize that timeliness of reporting is a critical need for virtually all of our clients, SELECTiON.COM® places even greater value in the two most important components of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and those are accuracy and fairness.
Click here for a summary of consumer rights under the FCRA.
For more information about the Fair Credit Reporting Act itself, visit www.ftc.gov/credit.
Finally, for more details about the many ways that SELECTiON.COM® works to provide coverage, protection and benefits for our customers and applicants alike, please contact me today at (800) 325-3609.
Blog
by Wayne J. Jung
“That statement alone sends shivers through many of our applicants, especially those with something to hide who fear the disclosure will cost them their chance at a job.”
That’s what an HR director recently told me as we were discussing the type of background checks that their company needed in order to do a better job assessing the quality of the candidates that they were considering for employment.
This particular company previously had been hiring solely based upon a number of factors, not one of which included a background check. Their approach was similar to buying a new car:
- Curb Appeal – How does the candidate look and act when they arrive for the interview?
- New Car Smell – Are they factory fresh, or a used clunker with the rust spots hidden?
- Test Drive – How do they handle the “tough questions” during the interview itself?
- Reviews – Can anyone within the company personally vouch for the candidate and do their references check out?
My phone rings often throughout the day with calls from small to medium-sized companies wanting to implement some sort of background check, but not having any idea what they really need, or where to even begin.
And frankly it can be a bit overwhelming.
Most background checks begin with a simple Social Security Number (SSN) trace to determine validity of the given SSN and to map a residency history for the applicant.
From there a more thorough criminal check may be used to discover any history of bad behavior that could place the company at risk, or the current employees themselves.
Verifications of prior employment, education and personal references are almost becoming a necessity with the increased amount of resume falsification in today’s job market.
Will they be handling any money in their new role?
Include a Federal Criminal Report to uncover any white collar criminal history, or a credit report containing information such as civil judgments, tax liens, bankruptcies, credit and payment history.
Will they be given a company vehicle, or will they drive as part of their job responsibility?
A Motor Vehicle Records search provides license validity, suspensions and driving violations depending on the state in question, with the information provided adhering to each state’s specifications.
There is a background check for any specific position or need within any corporate, educational, non-profit, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and staffing environment in the marketplace. And if not, one can always be created to meet a specific need.
Hiring is tough. Background checks are easy.
At SELECTiON.COM®, we specialize in making it the least stressful part of your day.
So, whether you NEED a background check as part of your job application process, or you WANT to start from scratch, why don’t you give us a call and kick the tires today?
Blog, Resources
by Wayne J. Jung
When I started in the background check business, one of the first things I learned was that no “silver bullet” reporting solution exists.
Which I understood to mean, despite the use of an overused analogy, that there wasn’t one single report that provided all of the necessary data to properly assess an applicant’s candidacy with near certain accuracy, especially as it related to criminal background checks.
And that is part of the reason why at SELECTiON.COM® we offer more than 35 unique reports, a solid half-dozen of which are specifically criminal background check-related.
Why so many, you ask?
Criminal records and sex offender registries are not reported across state lines. In many cases, they aren’t reported up to the state level either.
State background check reports, including fingerprint-based state reports, oftentimes don’t include criminal records from the counties within their own state. This happens because the crimes are tried at the county level, and depending upon the type of offense, the counties are not required to report all records.
In the case of fingerprint background checks, some records, such as misdemeanor drug offenses, public intoxication and disorderly conduct, can be missed simply because the crime is a ticketed offense in that area and doesn’t require being fingerprinted in the first place.
As I mentioned last week, there is no universal reporting methodology and the FBI database is reliant solely upon what state and local agencies choose to report.
The best solution is to not depend solely on one source expecting to return a 100 percent accurate and thorough criminal background report.
We recommend utilizing a Social Security Trace Report to create a residency history, from which our national network of researchers scour the available records in the specific counties in which the applicant has lived.
From there, Search America® provides a snapshot in order to fill in the gaps by pulling data from more than 1500 sources in the United States and abroad.
The Search America® database aggregates information from Administrative Office of the Courts, Departments of Correction, Sex Offender Registries, as well as county court record information from cooperating jurisdictions.
This search 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 combination of a SELECTiON.COM® proprietary Search America® database report and our nationwide network of criminal researchers equals the most comprehensive applicant criminal check in the industry.
Almost as important as providing thorough reporting in an expeditious fashion, is returning accurate data allowing our clients to make the most informed decisions possible.
Our experienced Quality Assurance team of knowledgeable researchers helps ensure you aren’t overwhelmed with false hits, or forced to make decisions based upon faulty data.
The FBI doesn’t have a method allowing applicants to challenge the results, unlike FCRA-regulated consumer reports such as those provided by SELECTiON.COM®, a process that is designed to protect job applicants from unfair employment actions.
And that’s important, because as we have all learned from the recent Robins v. Spokeo, Inc. ruling, consumers may be able to bring FCRA claims in federal court whenever their reports contain inaccurate information, unless that information is truly insignificant.
At SELECTiON.COM® we pride ourselves in being thorough, timely, and above all, accurate.
See for yourself, please call me today at (800) 325-3609, extension 3024.
SOURCE: Robins v. Spokeo, Inc., 867 F.3d 1108 (9th Cir. 2017)
Blog, Resources
According to The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), which is maintained by the FBI, there are currently 78-million subjects in its criminal master fingerprint file.
When you take into consideration that slightly more than one in three American adults has a criminal record, that number seems low. Especially when you consider that over the past 20 years authorities have made more than a quarter of a billion arrests, according to the FBI.
America now houses roughly the same number of people with criminal records as it does four-year college graduates. In fact, the number of Americans with criminal records today is larger than the entire U.S. population in 1900.
All of this isn’t meant to disparage the use of fingerprints as part of any company or organization’s background check process, because it is absolutely true that the use of fingerprints for identity verification does have its advantages.
For one thing, fingerprint data is unique and cannot be falsified.
However, the associated information is oftentimes inaccurate or incomplete. That’s especially true as it relates to case dispositions, because many records submitted to the FBI don’t report the court’s final ruling.
A big part of the problem is that there is no universal reporting methodology and local regulations vary. Thus, the FBI database is reliant solely upon what state and local agencies choose to originally report.
That is why at SELECTiON.COM® we always recommend a thorough approach to your pre-employment discovery and background check procedure.
We bundle reporting based specifically upon the needs of our clients, combining granular criminal reporting from the actual counties of residency and the most complete national criminal database in the industry.
Next week, we’ll talk about our Search America™ product and the benefits that it brings to any criminal history reporting. If you can’t wait until then, I’ll be happy to talk to you right now. Call me at (800) 325-3609, extension 3024.
SOURCES:
“Fbi — Iafis”. Fbi.gov. 1999-07-28. Archived from the original on 2012-09-21. Retrieved 2012-09-14.
Fields, G., & Emshwiller, J.R. “As Arrest Records Rise, Americans Find Consequences Can Last a Lifetime.” The Wall Street Journal, 18 Aug. 2014. Web.
Friedman, Matthew. “As Many Americans Have Criminal Records As College Diplomas.” Web blog post. Just Facts. Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, 17 Nov. 2015. Web.
Blog
According to the DHS website, the government shutdown has caused them to suspend their E-Verify services. SELECTiON.COM®’s customer support and all other services are up and running. This will only affect the E-Verify reports.
- E-Verify telephone and e-mail support will be unavailable. You may send e-mail messages, however, they will not respond until they reopen.
- Employees will be unable to resolve E-Verify Tentative Nonconfirmations (TNCs).
- Any E-Verify webinars and training sessions scheduled during the unavailability of E-Verify are cancelled.
- Self Check and myE-Verify will not be available.
To minimize the burden on both employers and employees, the following policies have been implemented by E-Verify:
- The ‘three-day rule’ for E-Verify cases is suspended for cases affected by the unavailability of E-Verify. They will provide additional guidance regarding these time deadlines once they reopen. This does NOT affect Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, requirements—employers must still complete Form I-9 no later than the third business day after an employee starts work for pay, and comply with all other Form I-9 requirements.
- The time period during which employees may resolve TNCs will be extended. The number of days E-Verify is not available will not count toward the days the employee has to begin the process of resolving their TNCs. They will provide additional guidance regarding these time deadlines once we reopen.
- For federal contractors covered by the federal contractor rule, please contact your contracting officer to inquire about extending federal contractor deadlines.
- Employers may not take any adverse action against an employee because the E-Verify case is in an interim case status, including while the employee’s case is in an extended interim case status due to the unavailability of E-Verify. (Consult the E-Verify User Manual for more information on interim case statuses).
Feel free to contact SELECTiON.COM® with any questions on how this will affect your hiring process.
Blog
by Wayne J. Jung
Life comes at you fast.
I know, what an overused cliché.
In fact, you hear it so much online these days that it really has lost its significance. Which I suppose makes it the truest of truisms.
During the holidays especially, the speed with which we process the sales, jingles, greetings, parties, family, holiday music, weather, travel, debt, health and good cheer make this the time of year when life comes at you fastest!
And that can be a very bad thing.
We recently lost a dear member of my extended family after a lengthy illness. Hers was a life well-lived, spending the better part of the last 25 years serving as a galley cook on an assorted variety of seagoing vessels (research, charter, etc.).
She was a remarkable person who lived life to the fullest even while spending most of her time in the slow lane, and watching so many around her just speed by.
Never sweating the small stuff, life seemingly never came at her too fast to handle.
When our children were younger, my late wife used to remind them to “just breathe” and that life was best lived one breath after another.
As we speed through this holiday season, I find myself oftentimes struggling to remember her advice, but I keep trying.
And it shouldn’t be just a holiday mantra, or a “when times turn tough” kind of thing. It is truly good advice year-round.
There are so many things that we can’t control in our life, like the speed at which it is delivered, but there is one thing that we can master and that is how we react to it.
So, this holiday season and the new year ahead, my wish for all is a simple one.
Just breathe.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at SELECTiON.COM®!
