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Ninety-six percent of employers conduct at least one type of background check to guide their hiring-related decision, according to the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA). Ninety-four percent of employers incorporate some form of a criminal history check in their screening programs.
Criminal history checks are an essential part of the background screening process for hiring. Employers rely heavily on these background checks to make their hiring decisions. They must be sure that their background screening company can provide background checks that are accurate, timely, and transparent.
In this blog, we highlight the two most important qualities that employers require from their background screening provider.
Accurate data
Accuracy is essential in the background screening industry as employee hiring and retention decisions are frequently based on the results of the background check. If the information isn’t accurate, then it can affect the wellbeing, security, and profitability of a given workplace. Defects, gaps, or errors in a report can be incredibly costly and potentially damaging. It’s imperative that these reports not just be precise most of the time, but every time.
Many steps go into a criminal record history check. Organizations need to trust that their background screening provider has an in-depth quality program that includes:
- Expert research team members
- Data that originates from authoritative sources
- Quality assurance
ETAs that mean something
The biggest challenge that employers have when it comes to background screenings is the length of time it takes to receive the results, according to a PBSA study. It costs the company money, and there’s a risk of losing the right candidate with each day spent with an unfilled position.
Your background screening provider should give you a reasonable, exact turnaround time that is based on real-world experience and data. Researchers can provide reasoning for the timeline to avoid the frustration that comes when employers and applicants are waiting for an unknown or unexplained period.
Because background checks are fundamental for practically every organization, employers need to thoroughly research and vet background screening providers before choosing a valuable partner. How does your provider compare when it comes to quality and turnaround times?
At SELECTiON.COM®, quality is our number one priority. Before our criminal reports are sent to clients, they are sent to our quality assurance team for the final review. Our clients expect that the reports we deliver are accurate and reliable, every time. We do this by logging status updates, which allows the employer to know the applicant’s status at any given time.
Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can take your employment background check process to the next level.
This article gives a general overview of the legal matters. However, it is your responsibility to ensure compliance with all the relevant federal, state, and local laws governing this area. SELECTiON.COM® does not provide legal advice, and we always suggest consulting your own legal counsel for all applicant approval matters.
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New technology helps companies to go
beyond pre-employment checks and allows for the monitoring of current employees
for concerning behavior. Continuous monitoring is a real game-changer for
employment screening and adds immeasurable value to any employer. While some
industries are mandated to do periodic screening, there are more companies than
ever embracing some form of continuous background check.
Continuing compliance with the Fair
Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
guidance and applicable state laws is essential. Employers will need to
familiarize themselves with these regulations before starting a continuous
monitoring program.
Continuous monitoring programs can
help to make workplaces and communities safer. Listed below are five questions
an employer should keep in mind when implementing an ongoing monitoring program
with a third-party background check company.
Will your hiring and employment policies need to be amended?
The simple answer, yes. Ask yourself what type of report that will be run and add this to your policy. What procedures will you follow after receiving the results of the report? Consult with legal counsel to remain within jurisdictional regulations.
When should you seek authorization and consent?
The FRCA mandates that employers must obtain the job applicant’s consent before running a background check. State laws dictate the language that is required on a background check authorization form. If the applicant signs the Release and Authorization form during the hiring process, this document works for background checks at any time. However, it is essential that every time the employer wants to run a background check for their employees, that they make sure the release form still complies with the current FCRA regulations. If the release form is no longer compliant, a new form will need to be obtained for continuous monitoring.
How do I make sure the information reported is accurate?
A third-party background screening company runs a quality check to verify the information. At SELECTiON.COM®, precise searches are returned almost immediately, and all searches returning with records are reviewed manually by our experienced research team to reduce false-positive results and to ensure accuracy. In those cases, the average turnaround time is two to three hours, during regular business hours – Monday thru Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM.
How often should I re-screen current employees?
Quarterly Watch® by SELECTiON.COM® combines our Search America® national criminal database with background check automation. Employers can re-check their employees to verify that no illegal activity has occurred since hiring. Most of our clients choose to re-screen every three months, while others prefer annual and semi-annual checks.
What action can be taken from the record?
Employers
should follow procedure after receiving the background check report. According to the EEOC, an
employer cannot act or base employment decisions solely on arrest or incarceration
records. However, new criminal activity may lead to an investigation to
understand the details and other circumstances surrounding the event. After the
independent investigation, it is up to the employer to make a disciplinary
decision regarding the specific employee.
When an employer finds a criminal record
on a background check run pre or post-hire that causes the applicant to be
rejected or terminated, they must follow the FCRA mandated adverse action
policy. This process gives applicants and employees the opportunity to review
and dispute the information in the report. Your legal team should determine how
this policy applies to continuous monitoring and what the procedure should be for
the employers regarding suspension, discipline, or termination of an employee.
The Quarterly Watch® product by
SELECTiON.COM® has proven to be a great asset to many companies. Out of over
one million Quarterly Watch® searches ran by SELECTiON.COM® in the past
year, 949 employees/volunteers had criminal hits. The Quarterly Watch®
report
catches criminal activity before it becomes an issue for your company.
Contact
us today to add Quarterly Watch® to
your company’s background screening process.
This article gives a general overview of the legal matters. However, it is your responsibility to ensure compliance with all the relevant federal, state, and local laws governing this area. SELECTiON.COM® does not provide legal advice, and we always suggest consulting your own legal counsel for all applicant approval matters.
Blog
Even in a digital world, resumes are still relied upon heavily in the hiring process. Especially in a world of “first impressions”, information provided on the resume is often the difference between an applicant being hired or rejected.
But, how do you know the information is truthful?
In a recent CareerBuilder survey of more than 2,500 hiring managers, 56% have caught job candidates lying on their resumes.
You don’t have to be a math scholar to know that MORE THAN HALF of all job applicants have misrepresented themselves on their application!
If you would have seen this glaring statistic before your most recent hire, would you still have accepted the resume without question, or would you have done more due diligence before making the offer?
Studies show that every time a business replaces a salaried employee, it costs 6 to 9 months’ salary on average.
Even on the conservative end of the pay scale, such as a new hire earning $400 per week for six months, that can cost your company nearly $10,000! 
You can greatly reduce that risk through proper verification and background check services BEFORE making an offer of employment, and best of all it will cost a great deal less than a HALF DAY worth of salary!
At SELECTiON.COM®, we usually recommend three different types of pre-employment verification reports: prior employment, education and character reference. These three reports will help you verify the accuracy of the information listed on a resume.
Most, if not all resumes list an applicant’s education history. For upper-level and management positions, education can be an important factor in the hiring decision. Some advanced positions, such has nursing or teaching, may require specific education requirements.
A SELECTiON.COM® education verification documents an applicant’s educational start dates, end dates, major, fields of study and degrees earned. Other stated credentials may also be validated through the institution when contacted.
Job experience is also a very important factor to finding the perfect candidate.
However, also per CareerBuilder “A quarter [of hiring managers] have seen people who claim to be employed by companies they never really worked for.”
Employment verifications are available so that you can not only ensure that an applicant has the experience necessary for the position, but the integrity and truthfulness to only represent accurate information on their resume.
In most cases, SELECTiON.COM® will work directly with previous employers to verify an applicant’s positions held, length of employment, salary and other relevant information about the applicant.
Lastly, a character reference will provide information about an applicant that the individual more than likely would never include on their resume.
Character references gather personal information concerning the reputation, conduct, and integrity of the applicant.
When you pair these three checks and verify the information on the resume, you greatly reduce the possibility of hiring an applicant with false information.
It’s your job to find the most qualified candidate to fill an opening. It is ours to verify your selection.
That’s why at SELECTiON.COM® our motto is “Your SELECTiON™, Verified!”
SOURCE: CareerBuilder Survey: http://time.com/money/3995981/how-many-people-lie-resumes/
Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) https://online.alvernia.edu/cost-employee-turnover/
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Employers, and subsequently Human Resources personnel, are constantly seeking to recruit and hire the best applicants available. With a large applicant pool it can be difficult to differentiate one qualified applicant from another. Effective pre-employment assessments can certainly identify the skill set of each applicant to help narrow the field but there is more to be considered.
Every employer wants to build from a base of trust with each employee and verifying the information that an applicant provides is essential to a solid relationship. Beyond the trust factor is the duty of an employer to provide a safe environment for employees and ultimately the market that they serve.
Without a sufficient background check the employer runs the risk of being held negligent for any problems that the employee causes in the performance of their duties. Due diligence in the form of a pre-employment background check can identify a foreseeable risk that can mean the difference between a valuable resource or a liability for the employer.
Components of the Background Check
- Social Security Number Check and Validation: A Social Security Number is unique to each individual. The Social Security Number Check provides information about the names and addresses associated with a given Social Security Number. In addition to providing name and address information for comparison against what is provided on the application, a Social Security Number Check is used to derive addresses in order to conduct the personal history information search. Social Security Number Validation does not tie the Social Security Number to the applicant. It only provides an indication that the number may be accurate.
- Criminal Court Record History: There are two entirely separate court systems in the United States – federal courts and county courts – and a search of one system does not include a search of the other. Each system operates under its own set of rules and has its own courthouses, clerks’ offices, indexes, and judges. As such, criminal history records are contained as follows:
- Local/County Court: Also, known as a “court record search,” this search requires a direct examination of the digital records of a county courthouse to determine if the applicant has a record at that court. Most often a court record search requires physical access to obtain information or simply to obtain copies of dispositions for review.
- Statewide Criminal History Information: There are two varieties of statewide information. The first is a state repository managed by a division of state law enforcement. The second is actual court data from a statewide case management system. Even when available both types of sources have limitations and advantages. The advantages are a single point of access for an entire state with one search. If that state has many courts with statutory access fees, a single access fee may be less expensive than a search of indicated counties separately. A disadvantage, with respect to a case management system, is that not all counties may have become activated on the system at the same time and there may be inconsistencies in how the system is used from county to county. Many law enforcement repositories have been shown to lack current case updates or dispositions. Both types may suffer from delays in entering information, high access fees, or very long turnaround times for results. Additionally, it may not be clear what data is included and what is not.
The site may provide conviction records only or may provide non-conviction records as well. In response to increased use and heightened privacy concerns, many records will not be publicly available if mandated internal documentation is missing, and useful identifiers, such as a date of birth, a driver’s license number, and a Social Security number, are often redacted rendering the data useful only as an initial index search. The most accurate, current, and reliable criminal history information is found at the court of origin, not in any repository.
Nevertheless, statewide criminal history information may have a place in an employer’s background program. (Florida, for example, provides an employer a measure of protection against negligent hiring lawsuits if that employer specifically included a check of the state repository as one element of a background screen.) As with all aspects of pre-employment background screening, the decision to use statewide criminal history information should be considered in the context of an employer’s complete pre-employment background screening program and the advice of counsel.
- Federal Court (District, Nationwide): This is a search for a record of a federal offense in one or more of 94 U.S. federal district courts. Federal offenses include crimes committed on federal property (government office, national park, etc.) and violations of the US Federal Criminal Statutes. It is imperative the user obtain additional identifiers on the result prior to making any decision. Additional identifiers are found on a Judgment and Conviction page. If the federal offense did not result in a conviction, there will be no identifiers, and the result should not be used.
- Propriety databases: These databases are offered and run by specific Consumer Reporting Agencies and contain negative history information about subjects. Data may include State Sex Offender registries, corrections records and assorted criminal records. The sites may not have complete identifiers and caution should be taken to verify the match with the applicant. In addition, although these services are marketed as “National Criminal Files” they are not comprehensive in any state and should not be used as a standalone for criminal research.
Criminal History and identity verification should be considered as basic elements of your background check. The level of research should be determined by the risk associated with the given position. To avoid complications with equal employment opportunity, the same level of background check should be applied to all candidates for the same position.
Additionally, if the position requires handling cash, or goods that are easily convertible to cash, a Credit Report is advisable.
Similarly, if the position requires driving a company car, or the applicant’s own car on company business, a state Motor Vehicle Report is recommended.
There are still more options for creating a thorough pre-employment screening. Some of those include: A Prior Employment Verification, an Education / Degree Verification, a Professional License Certification, a Character Reference and a Drug Screening.
At SELECTiON.COM® we offer a la carte pricing on more than 25 different reports and bundled packages created by client specifically meeting the needs for the industry or the position being filled.
Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can take 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.
