Using Credit Background Checks for Employment Purposes

February 2, 2011 by

Using Credit Background Checks for Employment Purposes

Employers using a credit check as part of background checks for new employees should be made aware of potential developments in Washington over its use.

There has been much scrutiny by the EEOC over the use of credit reports being used in making hiring decisions by employers.  Employers can expect to see closer attention paid to the question of “disparate impact” that cause certain groups to be excluded from employment because of the information contained in the report.

Most employers use the information in credit background checks as part of the overall pre employment screening process, and never rely solely on the credit history, although the EEOC does not seem convinced of that.

To ensure compliance, the following non-legal advice is offered regarding the use of credit reports for employment purposes:

· Review employment applications to be certain information requested is compliant
· Review background screening policies for your business for fairness
· Review positions requiring credit background checks and narrow if necessary
· Request a credit report only after a conditional offer of employment is made
· Discuss concerns with the applicant beforehand
· Ensure compliance with all state regulations, which may be more restrictive than those regulated by the FCRA

The Equal Opportunity for All Act, which severely restricts the use of credit reports in pre employment background checks, has been reintroduced in the new Congress as HB 321.

All information contained in this blog is informational/opinion only and should not be construed as legal advice.  If you need legal advice, consult a qualified attorney.

For information on background checks, call 770-426-0547 or click here: Pre Employment Screening

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Eyes Wide Open with Employee Background Checks in Atlanta GA

January 31, 2011 by

Eyes Wide Open with Employee Background Checks in Atlanta GA

Putting a new employee into a position of trust requires a giant leap of faith on the part of the employer.  The employer deserves to know the facts about his new employee, facts that are frequently developed through employee background checks.

The employer will learn plenty about the employee after he is hired, but some of that education could come at a high price. Not only stealing thousands of dollars in cash and/or merchandise, but hundreds of thousands if he subjects the business to a negligent hiring or negligent retention lawsuit.

Employee background checks can alert the employer of any red flags or past history of illegal activities on the part of any potential employees, mitigating the risk of a dishonest employee, or one that may affect profit through poor performance, or one that may affect employee morale with a bad attitude.

Evidence of these things can be found through employee background checks.

Better to limit spend a little now on quality background checks than to pay a lot later in lost profits and the costs of recruiting a training yet another replacement after the employee show his true colors.

To learn more about background checks, call 770-426-0547 or click here:  Background Check Experts – Atlanta GA

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Background Checks are a Time Saver

January 26, 2011 by

Background Checks are a Time Saver

How much time could an employer save if unqualified and unsuitable applicants just didn’t apply for open positions at your business?

Letting all applicants know – before the interview phase begins – that your company conducts pre employment background checks on everyone as part of the process.  That is often enough to discourage potential applicants who have something to hide from wasting their time in applying.  Let them know that you check relevant claims on the resume, such as previous employers, education and address verifications, and the information contained on the application, and that you do conduct these checks early in the hiring process.  If an applicant seeking a position with your company is aware that he will be screened by a comprehensive background check conducted by background check experts, he may either decide to not pursue the position or to be more open and honest when describing his history and abilities, allowing a decision to reached more quickly.

The earlier in the process an applicant reveals any potentially adverse information, the more likely the potential employer will be to consider the relativity of the information to the position offered.  The attitude of the applicant with something to hide is often, “If I can just talk to the hiring manager, I can explain this issue”, but this approach will usually not work if information has been withheld, falsified or embellished by the applicant.  However, if the applicant is honest up front, the chances are better that the message will be heard.

The bottom line is that the sooner an under qualified candidate is removed from the pool of potential hires, the more time can be spent qualifying candidates who would truly be good fits for the open positions.  Similarly, the sooner a lesser-qualified individual is removed from the process by a pre employment background checks, the better for all concerned.

To learn more about background checks, call background check experts at  770-426-0547 or click here.

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Criminal Background Check – A Comparison

January 24, 2011 by

Criminal Background Check – A Comparison

When is a criminal background check not a criminal background check?  When it doesn’t deliver accurate results in a timely manner.  The search for criminal records always begins at the local courthouse level in the county where the applicant resides, or has lived, gone to school, or been employed.  The public records contained here follow a criminal action from arrest to conviction or acquittal, and all the steps in between.  Records that come from the county level are generally obtained from retrievers, individuals whose job it is to go to the local courthouse and look up and report records to interested parties, maybe a background check company or an attorney or insurance company.

A step broader that the county search is the statewide repository.  These are provided by state law enforcement entities that maintain them and are made available to the public from some, but not all states.  The states receive the information from law enforcement and court agencies in that state.  The problem with state repositories is that not all agencies consistently report activity to them.  Another is that they are frequently expensive, slow to obtain, and the information is more likely to be restricted than a criminal background check that comes from the county courthouse.  The advantage is that is covers a much broader area than a county search.  Your background company will advise you which states are dependable and economical and which ones aren’t.

A step above the statewide search is the National Crime Information Center, which maintains information gathered from jurisdictions all over the country.  Access to this information is severely restricted and unavailable to the public for employment purposes, and the reporting error and missing record rate is high.

Frequently represented as a National Criminal Background Check are records that are offered by a background check company that (there are several of them) maintains its own commercial database, containing millions of records.  These records are purchased from jurisdictions that make them available electronically in bulk.  They are periodically uploaded to the computer equipment of the background check company and resold to companies as National Background Checks.  These are not usually current and can’t be considered comprehensive in any way, as so many jurisdictions are not included.  An employer should never depend on a commercial database to make a hiring decision, as most background check experts do not consider them compliant with current federal laws regulating the background check industry.

Finally, there is the Federal Court System, which houses the records of those that have violated federal statutes, everything from littering a national park to the RICOH Act.  These records are generally obtained by a retriever.

Need help with your criminal background check?  Call background check experts at 770-426-0547 or click Background Checks.

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But I DO a Background Checks!

January 21, 2011 by

But I DO a Background Checks!

And my employee stole from me anyway!  What good are the background checks?

A recently burned employer might well ask this question.  Despite doing everything right, despite pre employment screening that included background checks, would an employee with no previous history of trouble with the law suddenly turn into workplace thief?

Just because a background check is conducted and comes back clean, does not absolutely mean that the applicant has never stolen. The check may not have been broad enough, not checking in every location where the applicant lived, worked, or attended school.  He may have a record that he acquired as a juvenile, which is sealed, or an adult record that has been expunged.

Or he may have been caught stealing and never prosecuted, meaning a public record of his misdeeds was never produced.

So a clean criminal background checks do not necessarily indicate the absence of criminal behavior, only that it wasn’t found or has never been documented.

Does this mean that background checks should not be done?  Absolutely not!  An employer should exercise his right to legally uncover any fact that has the potential to harm his business.  And positive results may exclude a potential thief from your business.

Does revealing a spotty history such as a criminal record mean an employer shouldn’t hire someone?  Not necessarily.  Various factors go into this decision, including age at the time of the offense, length of time since the offense, and applicability to the job to be performed.

But consider this:  Jails and prisons are full of offenders who have had multiple opportunities to “go straight.”  By the time a person is sentenced to serve time in a jail or prison, they have probably been on probation several times and continued their behavior until the court decided that incarceration was the only answer to protect the public.

As a business owner, remember that you have to keep protecting your livelihood by keeping your eyes open to the potential that some of your employees may steal from you, even if they have clear background checks.

Want to know more?  Call the background check expert at 770-426-0547 or click here.

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Where Do You Get Your Applicant Background Information

January 17, 2011 by

Where Do You Get Your Applicant Background Information

A background check expert will deliver customized results to your fax or inbox.  Most employers – small, medium, and large – will conduct some sort of pre employment screening on its potential employees.  The question they should ask themselves is, “What is the value of my background checks?”

The employer that depends on a Google name search and a glance at Facebook will save a small amount of money, but the results will be far from useful, causing some good applicants to be rejected and giving a false sense of security in others.  Most background check experts consider these methods to be worse than worthless, since they deliver unsatisfactory information and are in no way compliant with current laws.

The one size fits all background check really doesn’t fit at all.  By that I mean the quick and easy background check that is available on line and paid for by credit card.  Common sense will tell you that if you key in a name like “John Smith”, your results are not going to be reliable.  The information provider will leave it up to the requestor to discern what is or isn’t accurate.  And there is no way that the commercial database can hold information that is anywhere near real-time.  An out-of-date information can mean trouble for a potential employer.

A background check expert can help your business design a pre employment screening program that is personalized to be economical and useful.  Don’t pay for information you don’t need and don’t miss information that you do need to make the very best hiring decision and protect the company from a potential problem employee.

To speak with a background check expert for advice on your pre employment screening program, call 770-426-0547 or click:  background check expert.

 

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Why Do Companies Conduct Background Checks?

January 10, 2011 by

Why Do Companies Conduct Background Checks?

It’s now a given that most companies conduct background checks of some type on their prospective employees.  But what motivates them to budget for this portion of their pre employment screening program, beyond interviews and a basic application review?

For some, it is a policy requirement because management determined that in order to acquire the type of employee that fit their expectations, further checking into the applicant past was necessary.  Some do it because “everybody else” is doing it, and have made the decision that conducting background checks would be beneficial for their company as well.  And some do it because they were previously burned by a (former) employee who hurt the business by improper actions like theft, attendance, poor performance, or one of many other reasons that could have been reasonably anticipated through the application of a check conducted by a reputable background check company.

The latter case, being harmed by an employee, is by far the most painful to the company.  In many instances a poor choice of employees could and should have been prevented by including background checks in the hiring process.   It is a case of reacting to a problem rather than taking a proactive position to prevent the problem in the first place.

Which sounds like the better business decision?

Employee background checks are an affordable and simple insurance policy to reduce the risk of harm to a company by making a bad hire.

Explore your options in background checks by calling 770-426-0547 or click here for further information.

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HR Uses Background Checks – Atlanta Georgia

January 7, 2011 by

HR Uses Background Checks – Atlanta Georgia

HR managers who use a background check company as part of their overall hiring policy to eliminate undesirable applicants are well versed in the application of the information that can and can’t be used when taking adverse action – that is not hiring the individual base on information contained in a background check.

Any negative information revealed, whether it is a criminal history, poor credit, or something else, should be directly related to the individual’s ability to do the job.  In other words, poor credit shouldn’t preclude hiring a person who doesn’t handle cash or who is closely supervised.  A minor criminal history shouldn’t eliminate a candidate depending on the severity of the offense, the age of the person involved, and the length of time since the offense occurred.

There is leeway in the decision making process, but as most HR professionals will tell you, all policies, including pre employment screening must be fairly and consistently applied for the position.

Conversely, there are situations where the presence of derogatory information absolutely should prevent an applicant from holding a particular position.  A day care worker shouldn’t be a registered sex offender, a home health nurse shouldn’t have a criminal conviction for violence of any sort, and a cashier should be free of any convictions of credit card fraud, obviously.

The HR department should set the breadth and scope of the background check to be conducted for each position and be sure all guidelines are followed.

The HR department should be able to depend on the background check company as a business partner, getting solid advice and guidance about their background check policies.

To discuss your background check requirements, call 770-426-0547 (770-253-4593 in Atlanta, Georgia) or click here.

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Background Checks 101

January 4, 2011 by

Criminal Background Check 101

When an employer requests a criminal background check and the results include a positive criminal history, where does that information come from?

A good place to get the answer to this question (and more)  is to have a basic understanding of how criminal records are generated, stored, and made available to the public.

The origin of a criminal record occurs when an individual is arrested by a law enforcement agency because he is suspected of having committed a crime.  The person is then formally charged in a court, after an investigation is conducted.  All criminal records are under the supervision of the clerk of the respective court that has jurisdiction of the case.

Eventually, the case is heard and adjudicated and the charged individual is either released as a result of a non-conviction, or convicted and sentenced to a penalty that depends on the severity of the crime, previous convictions and other mitigating or aggravating issues.  All these records remain in the custody of the clerk of the court, but are considered public record, unless there is some special circumstance.

If anyone wants to see the record or if there is a record on someone, she generally must physically go to the courthouse, look up the case number in an index, give that to the clerk who will then go and pull the file containing the paperwork pertaining to the case and let the retriever view it there in the records room.  If copies are required, they are generally done by the clerk for a fee.

Some counties, however make this information available on the internet, where it may be viewed by the general public.  Caution is advised when using the internet to obtain a criminal background check, because while some sites are quite good and complete, others are difficult to use and often incomplete or inaccurate.

County courts as well as law enforcement agencies in most cases also report activity to a central state repository, which may be made available to the public.  The quality of the information contained in these repositories can range from accurate and adequate to less than useful because of omissions and inaccuracies.  Many states don’t make the information in their repositories available at all, and others make access so inconvenient that it is basically worthless.

Crimes are also reported to a national criminal database known as NCIC, but these records are not generally made available to the public.

Commercial databases purchase information from courts that allow it, but although the information from these sources is usually fast and cheap, it should never be used as an employer’s primary source for a criminal background check.

For more information on how to obtain a quality criminal background check call 770-426-0547 or click here.

Fine Print:  We are not attorneys, and the content in this blog should be considered as informational and not as legal advice.  If you need legal advice, contact an attorney.

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Backgound Checks vs an Honest Face

December 31, 2010 by

Theft… Fraud… Embezzlement… Litigation… Poor Performance… Traffic Tickets… Drug Use… Dishonesty… Violence… Alcohol Abuse…

A quality employee background check can help employers avoid discovering the traits listed above in their employees.

An “honest face” just doesn’t get it anymore.  There was a time when employers could hire someone based on reputation, their family, or the school they attended.  Today’s labor force is far more mobile and getting more desperate to find employment in the current economy.  There are far more applicants that there are positions to fill.

How can an employer be certain that he is finding out all he needs to know about an applicant?  Has the applicant been convicted of a crime?  Graduated from college?  Actually held a position at a large company?  Served time in prison?  Been terminated from a previous employer for theft?

Again, an employee background check conducted by an experienced investigator can go a long way in avoiding problems with an employee in the future by screening out undesirable candidates who lack the skills, integrity, and experience to perform the job and meet or exceed the employer’s expectations.

To use an old cliché, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”  As an employer, you are entitled to know everything about your candidate that can be revealed in an employee background check, because it’s your business that’s on the line, and you need people you can trust.

Eliminate the obvious and not-so-obvious applicants from consideration with a thorough and complete employee background check.

For further information about background checks, call 770-426-0547 or click here.

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