Blog
By Brian Huseman
September 9, 2016
One of the toughest challenges for managers today is securing resources for their open positions while navigating the legal web associated with hiring. Your method of recruiting, interviewing, evaluating and hiring is not something to set and forget. A quick audit of your hiring process may uncover issues associated with applications, release forms, interview questions, screening and hiring/rejecting.
The following considerations should be taken when auditing your background check / hiring process:
Provide accurate job descriptions and methods of application.
Sorting through applications from candidates that lack the skills, experience or education required for a position is a terrible waste of time for reviewer and the applicant. Taking the time to review your job descriptions and updating them as needed will save time and disappointment down the road. Think about the skills and experience of your top producers and build your job descriptions based upon those.
Secure the applicant’s consent to run the background check.
Section 604(b)(2) of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) specifically provides that “…a person may not procure a consumer report…for employment purposes with respect to any consumer, unless—
- a clear and conspicuous disclosure has been made in writing to the consumer at any time before the report is procured…in a document that consists solely of the disclosure, that a consumer report may be obtained for employment purposes; and
- the consumer has authorized in writing…the procurement of the report by that person.”
Basically, you must have your applicant fill out a release to run a background check. In addition, the form should be provided to the applicant as a document separate from the application.
Background check reports should be based upon the position being filled.
Begin with residence based criminal history. This provides research in the areas where your applicant has lived. Consider a National Criminal file or Statewide report to expand your research to find records outside of the areas they have lived. If you are looking to hire a person for a cash handling position, an employment credit report may be a good idea. Management hires may require additional checks such as federal courts and education verification. The important thing is to be sure that it’s consistently applied and should have a direct relation to the risk associated with the position.
Submit accurate applicant information (Name, DOB & SSN) for research and verification.
The accuracy of the information provided to your background check company is very important. Something as simple as a transposed number in a date of birth or a misspelled last name can make all the difference. Typically, criminal records are kept with only name and date of birth on file. Courts are obligated to file records under the subject’s legal name. You should consider asking for the applicant’s name as it appears on their driver’s license or government issued ID. Across the country, social security numbers have been removed to protect people from identity theft. Therefore, a simple typo can prevent you from finding criminal history.
Allow time for the research to complete.
Criminal background checks and employment verifications can take a couple of days. It’s important to hold off on that hiring decision until you have the information you need to make a smart choice. It’s easy to look at an applicant and think they’re perfect for the job, but you never know what you may find in the background check results. Making a hasty decision can cause more legal problems for you down the line.
Review the details of the background research and determine if the applicant’s qualifications meet your hiring criteria.
Per the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it’s important to consider the type of job the applicant is applying for. In 2012, the EEOC issued a new guidance document on criminal conviction exclusion policies. This guidance endorsed removing conviction questions from job applications as a “best practice” and made it clear that federal civil rights laws regulate employment decisions based on arrests and convictions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended.
What this means for you is that if a criminal record is uncovered, it’s best to only consider convictions with a direct relationship to job duties and responsibilities and also consider the length of time since the offense.
If you are considering not hiring, provide a copy of the report and their rights under the FCRA prior to making your decision final.
According to the FCRA, If a criminal background report contains negative information which “in whole or in part” may cause you to take any adverse action, including rejecting that candidate for employment / denying a promotion / terminating a current employee, you must provide a copy of the report to the applicant and the CFPB’s summary of rights prior to making your decision final.
It’s also important to give the applicant sufficient time to obtain /dispute/ clarify the background check report before making a final decision. It’s suggested that you wait 4-5 business days after mailing a copy of the report and the summary of rights, before you contact the applicant with your final decision.
If you decide to hire, make the offer of employment.
There are certain background check searches that cannot be started until an offer of employment has been extended. At this point in the process, once the employee has been hired, a Workers Compensation report can be initiated. Or, if you are in the governments E-Verify program, an E-Verify check should be run within 3 days of hire.
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 of the forms you need on our proprietary system, Fastrax Select®. Our system allows employers to stay compliant and provides clients 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 an electronic release form. The one-click FCRA notification system makes the FCRA compliance a breeze.
Our 5-star customer service is available via phone, email and chat to help clients with any questions they may have along the way. SELECTiON.COM® has been in the background check industry since 1991 and we understand the many problems employers face in trying to hire and maintain a good workforce.
SELECTiON.COM® is integrated with HR management software, including the top applicant tracking systems. We also offer our proprietary applicant entry process at no additional cost. We will support you through the entire recruitment process from candidate to employee, including a final check through E-Verify after hiring.
Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can take your employment background check process to the next level.
Brian Huseman
Sales Executive
bhuseman@selection.com
800-325-3609 ex. 3023
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.
Blog
DATE – 09/02/2016
By: Thomas A. Coz, VP of Legal & Compliance Affairs at SELECTiON.COM®
The new ruling by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) takes effect January 1, 2017, and requires that certain employers electronically submit accounts of injuries and illnesses at their facility. Analysis of this data will enable OSHA to use its enforcement and compliance assistance resources more efficiently. Some of the data will also be posted to the OSHA website.
The rule also includes some anti-retaliation provisions. These officially went into effect August 10th, but OSHA has delayed enforcement of them until November 1st, 2016 in order to have time to reach out to regulated employers.
- Employers are required to inform their employees of their right to report work-related illnesses and injuries free from retaliation.
- Employers must clarify the existing requirement that an employer’s procedure for reporting work-related injuries and illnesses be reasonable and not deter or discourage employees from reporting incidents.
- They must incorporate the existing statutory prohibition on retaliating against employees for reporting work-related injuries or illnesses.
This final ruling comes along with some commentary from OSHA to further explain how this applies to drug testing in the workplace. According to the agency:
Although drug testing of employees may be a reasonable workplace policy in some situations, it is often perceived as an invasion of privacy, so if an injury or illness is very unlikely to have been caused by employee drug use, or if the method of drug testing does not identify impairment but only use at some time in the recent past, requiring the employee to be drug tested may inappropriately deter reporting.
OSHA then concludes that only testing where drug use likely contributed to the accident will be immune from enforcement action under the new rule:
…this final rule does not ban drug testing of employees. However, the final rule does prohibit employers from using drug testing (or the threat of drug testing) as a form of adverse action against employees who report injuries or illnesses. To strike the appropriate balance here, drug testing policies should limit post-incident testing to situations in which employee drug use is likely to have contributed to the incident, and for which the drug test can accurately identify impairment caused by drug use. For example, it would likely not be reasonable to drug-test an employee who reports a bee sting, a repetitive strain injury, or an injury caused by a lack of machine guarding or a machine or tool malfunction. Such a policy is likely only to deter reporting without contributing to the employer’s understanding of why the injury occurred, or in any other way contributing to workplace safety. Employers need not specifically suspect drug use before testing, but there should be a reasonable possibility that drug use by the reporting employee was a contributing factor to the reported injury or illness in order for an employer to require drug testing. In addition, drug testing that is designed in a way that may be perceived as punitive or embarrassing to the employee is likely to deter injury reporting.
For those concerned that the final rule will conflict with drug testing requirements contained in workers’ compensation laws, OSHA claims that this concern is unwarranted.
If an employer conducts drug testing to comply with the requirements of a state or federal law or regulation, the employer’s motive would not be retaliatory and the final rule would not prohibit such testing. This is doubly true because Section 4(b)(4) of the Act prohibits OSHA from superseding or affecting workers’ compensation laws. 29 U.S.C. 653(b)(4).
For full information on the ruling, visit OSHA’s website.
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.
Thomas A. Coz
Vice President of Legal & Compliance
Blog
By Julie F. Burke
August 22, 2016
The retail industry faces some unique challenges when it comes to performing background checks and making sure they hire the best employees possible. Based upon my experience working with retailers nationwide, here are the top three problems most of my clients have dealt with at one time or another, along with some suggestions for overcoming each one.
Theft
Shoplifting by customers lags a distant second to employee theft for most retailers and that can make hiring the right person incredibly important. Getting a background check with accurate and timely results can be equally difficult. While theft is a top concern for retailers, sometimes you cannot see that pattern unless the applicant has actually been convicted of a crime. What you can see are specific incidents or a work history with a pattern that lead to this behavior. Knowing the background of your applicant can be your greatest indicator of their ability to do their job with honesty and integrity.
Customer Support
Background check results are not always crystal clear. Case information and terminology differ from state to state. Human Resource Managers and Compliance Officers often need an answer right away while viewing criminal history reports. It is imperative that customer support is available to answer questions instantly, whether by phone or Live Chat. If they do not receive support in a timely and efficient fashion, it can cause missed opportunities for everyone concerned.
Compliance
FCRA stands for the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FCRA dictates that an applicant / volunteer / current employee be given a clear and conspicuous disclosure that a consumer report (background check) may be procured for employment purposes during the application process. If for any reason, in whole or in part, a Retailer decides not to hire or place an applicant due to their background check, the company must send the applicant a “Pre-Decision Letter”, copy of their background check and a Consumer Rights Letter.
After that, it’s required that the company wait the appropriate number of days and then mail an “Adverse Action Letter” to the applicant. Failure to follow the above proper procedures could lead to litigation. Retailers need an easy process to match their industry in order to be compliant with FCRA regulations.
SELECTiON.COM® will help to keep you compliant with the click of a button via our proprietary web portal, Fastrax Select®. We offer pre-populated Pre-Decision and Adverse Action Letters free of charge on your custom dashboard, or by checking a box, our clients can choose to have our in-house staff do the mailings for them.
Solutions
SELECTiON.COM® has solutions for all of the above challenges. We can customize your reports for part-time, full-time and managerial positions. Our Social Security Number Trace report, County Criminal History Reports and our proprietary national criminal database, Search America®, provide a perfect solution for the fast paced retail industry. Our Search America® Report provides a multi-jurisdictional search of criminal record databases and Government Watch lists including correction records and Sex Offender registries from all 50 states.
In addition to clear results being INSTANT, records found are personally reviewed by our dedicated Quality Assurance Department before being sent back to the client. These reports with criminal records, once reviewed, are transmitted within 2-3 business hours. Furthermore, we can add a Credit Report to the Management Reports.
Customer service representatives at SELECTiON.COM® have a tenure of 7.5 years in the industry. Our entire team, from part-time researcher to CEO, is accessible by phone or email and LIVE help via an online chat portal is available M-F, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM (EST). Our Verification Specialists and IT Department are in-house and easy to reach.
Contact SELECTiON.COM® today for your customized background screening solution.
Julie F. Burke
Associate Vice President of Sales
800-325-3609 ex. 3027
Blog
Database searches can be a valuable tool in combination with other background check reports, but remember, they are not a true national criminal history report. If your current background check provider claims that their database has ALL counties in the United States or even calls their report a national criminal history report, think again. We will outline below a few facts that prevent this from being possible.
Not all counties are online
There is a great variance in the technology used in county courthouses. Some counties still have ledger books or microfilm for storage of court records. Although electronic records may be available they often require Clerk searches to provide details on the case.
Many courts charge access fees
Budgets have been squeezed at all levels of government, leading administrators to look for additional sources of revenue. Access to court records is now viewed as a revenue stream by many local governments. Court access fees have become the norm through the United States.
State Laws Vary
Federal regulations set the standard but several states have instituted restrictions that are different when it comes to reporting crimes. Other states have restrictions as to what can be released when a database is being created; full information is not made available for this purpose. Some repositories simply won’t release the information to be included in a database…period. As referenced above, to some governments, both state and local, this is a source of revenue based on individual searches that are paid for at the time of the search. A database search doesn’t make them any money so they won’t release information in this manner.
Not all laws are equal
Searching court systems for individuals is very complex; spelling, compound names, middle names / initials, those that utilize a nickname or AKA and missing identifiers are just a few examples. Courthouses may offer some help with this in their programs when utilizing on-site methods but those methods are simply not available with a database search. More importantly, not all laws are the same from courthouse to courthouse. In New Jersey, for example, there is no such thing as a felony. Try putting all this information about cases and laws into a database search, and the results will be inconsistent.
These are just a few ways that you can know that you’re not getting a search of all county courthouses in the country in a simple database search.
So What is The Solution?
At SELECTiON.COM® we know that a combined approach will give you all the information you need to make smart hiring decisions. Our Search America® Background Check is THE standard in national criminal database searches. With over 650 MILLION records, from over 1,100 different sources, Search America® is an unparalleled tool to combine with prime source searches to ensure you have the most complete picture available of your applicant. Not only is our Search America® database the largest in the industry, we also take an extra step to provide the most accurate information possible. Unlike our competitors, our Search America® report undergoes a specialized review/ Quality Assurance process in order to reduce the chance of false positives. Combined with our residence-based criminal county search, and our federal criminal background check and you have a solution that can’t be beat. 
Blog
At SELECTiON.COM®, we take customer service VERY seriously. Our goal is to deliver the best customer service in the background check industry every day. One way we do that is by keeping track of FCRA and EEOC regulations and making sure you have the tools you need to stay compliant. Our in-house legal team stays up-to-date with all federal and state regulations regarding consumer reports.
As such, we have made changes to our FCRA Disclosure / Employment Inquiry Release Form and issued an updated version for your use.
This document is available at SELECTiON.COM® and Fastrax Select® under “Forms”. We recommend that you download and update this document on your system, and that you present applicants with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Summary of Your Rights Under the FCRA as well. The Summary of Rights is also available in the “Forms” area of our websites.
Thank you for trusting SELECTiON.COM® to protect your company through background checks.
Blog
The Crown Royal presents the Combat Wounded Coalition 400 at the Brickyard is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, IN. Defending race winner Kyle Busch along with Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski, Denny Hamlin, and all of the stars of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, will battle it out for the checkered flag. As part of the opening ceremony, Team Fastrax™ will be performing their famous American Flag skydive with the largest American Flag flown by a skydiver, an amazing 8,000 sq. ft. patriotic display not found anywhere else. Also included in the demonstration will be their 5,000 and two 1,100 sq. ft. American Flags, as well as a 1,100 sq. ft. Purple Heart flag to honor our Combat Wounded Veterans, with approval from the Order of the Purple Heart Association. It’s sure to be an aerial demonstration you’ll not soon forget. For the full story, click here.
