Background checks and What to Look for

When hiring  a new employee and you need to do a background check, Do you know what you need to look for to make sure you have the right candidate?  First of all, you need to be knowledgeable about the laws regarding background checks in your state.  What Washington seems reasonable, may not quite cut it for California and vice versa.   Due you due diligence before attempting to do a background check without knowing the Ins and outs of the law.  Make sure that your process about hiring and doing background checks are consistent throughout the company, you do not want to be the target of an employee discrimination lawsuit because of different treatment to different possible candidates.

Read more by following the links below.

Retail Industry Update, No. 3, September 2013: EEOC Loses (Again) On Criminal-Background Checks

 Last year, we wrote about the EEOC’s then-new guidance on the use of criminal-background checks in hiring decisions. [“Using Conviction Records As A Screening Tool,” Retail Industry Update, June 2012].  In December 2012, the Commission issued a strategic enforcement plan that included targeting background checks as a barrier to employment of minorities. In June of this year, the Commission trumpeted the filing of lawsuits against Dollar General and BMW North America claiming their use of criminal convictions in hiring violates Title VII.

But these latest lawsuits were not the EEOC’s first attempt to challenge an employer’s alleged blanket use of criminal-background checks in hiring. In 2009, prior to the publication of the latest guidance, it sued Freeman Companies in federal court in South Carolina alleging that the manner in which Freeman used background checks had a disparate impact on minorities. Recently, the district court sent the EEOC packing with its tail between its legs.

 The Background Check Checklist: Avoiding Pitfalls in Screening Process

There was a time when employment background checks were reserved for those entering very specific careers; government jobs with access to sensitive information, those working closely with children or finances and a handful of other public-facing corporate positions.

But in the last two decades, technology has made conducting background checks faster, cheaper and more convenient for employers. According to data from the Society of Human Resource Management, 73 percent of employers use criminal background checks on employees.

Job applicants applying for almost any level of position in nearly every industry are far more likely to have to pass a background check as a pre-requisite for employment. For example, employers in the transportation, health care and retail industries often use background screening services of consumer reporting agencies.

 Our Brave New World of Employment Background Checks

With unemployment stubbornly high, even a small problem can be enough to keep you from getting a job. And thanks to modern technology, employers are a lot more likely to be aware of these problems. Obviously a prison record has always made it hard to find a job. A poor credit report can blackball you these days. And today the New York Times reports on a new breed of databases that track retail employees accused of stealing:

Retailers “don’t want to take a chance on hiring somebody that they might have a problem with,” said Richard Mellor, the [National Retail Federation’s] vice president for loss prevention.

But the databases, which are legal, are facing scrutiny from labor lawyers and federal regulators, who worry they are so sweeping that innocent employees can be harmed. The lawyers say workers are often coerced into confessing, sometimes when they have done nothing wrong, without understanding that they will be branded as thieves.