Running an Employment Background Check for a Successful Business

Running a business?  Are you making hiring decisions?  If so, you might need a bit more information than your applicants provide.  After all, in today’s highly complicated world where crimes and other felonies rule, some folks give false or incomplete information in employment applications.   There is even a great probability that workers don’t want you to know certain facts about their past or present that might debar them from obtaining a job.  In general, it is always a good policy to do a little investigation before hiring a person.   It is very important that you know who you enter relationship with.

However, before you proceed to any employment background checking, it is best that you know exactly where you can find factual information about a particular person.   First, be aware that public records are your primary source.  These records are held by the government at all levels, and some organizations even record a variety of factual information about individuals and companies.  These records are now available for public use, although some states require a nominal fee for public access.

What You Can Find About Someone Through Public Records?

Be clear in the first place that public records will not tell you everything about everybody.  That’s a truth for all times.

For example, if you want to know if your subject is a drug user, information will not usually show up in the public records unless the person you are investigating has been arrested for drug possession or use.  And when it comes to his or her medical records, which are not public records, you cannot gain access to it without the person’s permission.   So you would in this case have to use other approaches, like a surveillance or interviews of the subject’s associates or neighbors.  You can perform these either by yourself or by a private investigator.

That said.  There is a wealth of information about individuals available in public records.   Included in the list are the person’s age, address, phone number, marital status, occupation, current and past employment, educational level, driving record, bankruptcies, military records and financial worth, with some limitations however.   Also, you can access public records to gain a somewhat sense of reputation and what people think of him.

Few Facts-of-Life about Background Checks

If you plan to do a fair amount of background checking, I guess it’s helpful if you are aware of a few facts about background checks before you begin your search.  Here are the facts that you should know before you get started:

1. Most of the information you will need will be accessible at a county courthouse or the county clerk’s office.   Therefore, it is necessary that you know what county your subject lives in.   If in case, you want to check him out over a period of years, you should know exactly what county or counties he or she has lived in during that period of time.

2. Though you may find your best sources at the county level, you might also want to access public records at the state level.  Note that state governments are the repositories for a number of types of basic background information.  However, there are certain pros and cons to using the state public records:

Pros:  Generally, state information includes all the counties in the given state.  Thus, considering the state level is a more comprehensive way to search for information about somebody than by county.

Cons:  Most of the time, state information is incomplete, for a number of reasons.  Most have to do with human error or bureaucratic inefficiency.   Chances are, you are liable to miss something if you entirely rely depend on state information.

With such pros and cons, experts often recommend that in background check, one should consider both the county and state repositories.   The county to be considered must be where the subject is currently residing in.

3. One particular tip:  Always start your background checks by focusing your investigation.  How you can do this?  First, you must identify what you presently know about the person.  Second, you must be clear about what you want to know about your subject and where you are likely to find and access that information.

Although you have the right to access public records, it doesn’t mean that you are free to dig into the person’s personal affairs.   The truth is, you do not have an unfettered right to do it.   Just like you, other people have the right to privacy.  And, so your workers have a right to it in certain personal matters.  Note that they can enforce this right by suing you if you pry too deeply.

How to Avoid Crossing the Line?

Knowing that people have the right to privacy and they can sue you if you dig too deeply, it is now necessary for you to know how you can avoid crossing such line.  Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Tip #1:  Be Clear With Your Intention

If you decide to do a background check, make sure that your inquiries are related to the job.  Just know your intention and stick to information that is relevant to the job for which you are considering the worker. 

For example, if you are hiring a security guard, chances are he or she will carry a weapon and be responsible for large amounts of cash.  So you might reasonably check for the person’s past criminal convictions.  And, if for instance, you are hiring a seasonal farm worker, a criminal background check is probably unnecessary, however.

Tip #2:  Ask for the Person’s Consent

One more important thing to remember when conducting a background check is to ask for consent.   Always note that if you ask the person, perhaps in writing, to consent to your background check, it’s clear that you are on safest legal ground.  So explain to him or her clearly what you plan to check and how you will gather information.  This actually provides the applicants a chance to take themselves out of the running if there are things they don’t want you to know.   Asking for consent also prevents applicants from later claiming that you unfairly invaded their privacy. 

However, if the subject refuses to consent to a reasonable request for information, you may legally decide not to hire him or her on that basis.

Tip #3:  Be Reasonable Enough

Probably you all know that the common reason that employers get in legal trouble is “overkilling”. Well, the tip here is not to engage yourself into it.  You will not need to perform an extensive background check on every applicant.  And, even if you decide to check, you probably won’t need to get into excessive detail for every position.    If for instance you find yourself throwing questions to neighbors, performing exhaustive searches of public records, or ordering credit checks every time you hire a clerk or counterperson, you basically need to scale it back.

Rules that Apply to Certain Types of Information

Aside from those above mentioned general considerations, there are also some specific rules that you must need to know when considering employment background checking.  These rules generally apply to certain types of information:

Rule #1:  School Records

Under the federal law and law of some states, education records which typically include recommendations, transcripts, and financial information are held confidential.  Yes, they are confidential!  Because of these laws, most schools say no to some requests for access to school records.  They will not release records without the consent of the student.  Other schools, however, will only release records directly to the student.

Rule #2:  Bankruptcies

Note that federal law prohibits employers from discriminating against applicants just for the reason that they have filed for bankruptcy.   This means that you cannot decide to turn down someone simply because he or she has declared bankruptcy in the past.

Rule #3:  Credit Reports

In terms of credit reports, the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA applies.  Under this Act, FCRA (15 U.S.C. §1681), employers are subjected to obtain an employee’s written consent before searching for that employee’s credit report.  Usually, a number of employers routinely include a request for such consent in their employment applications.  So, if the employer decides not to hire or promote someone based on information in the credit report, the employer must then provide a copy of the report and let the applicant know of his or her right to challenge the report under the rules maintained by the FCRA.

Today, some states have maintained more stringent rules restricting the use of credit reports.

Rule #4:  Criminal Records

When it comes to criminal records, it is important to note that generally the law varies from state to state on whether and to what extent a private employer may consider an applicant’s criminal history in forming hiring decisions.  There are some states today that prohibit employers from asking about convictions, arrests that happened well in the past.   The limitation also applies to juvenile crimes and sealed records.

However, there are also some other states that allow employers to consider criminal history only for specific positions, such as childcare workers, nurses, private detectives, and other jobs requiring licenses.  With this variation, it is then necessary to consult with a lawyer first or do further searches without breaking any of the state before you dig deep into an applicant’s criminal history.

Rule #5:  Compensation Records

Under certain laws, an employer may consider information contained in the public record from worker’s compensation appeal in forming a job decision only if the injury obtained by the applicant might interfere with his or her ability to work and perform the required duties and responsibilities.

Rule #6:  Other Medical Records

Under the ADA or Americans with Disabilities Act, employers may make inquiries only about the ability of the applicant to perform certain job duties and responsibilities.   They may not request medical records of the employees.   Also, it is worth noting that the ADA maintains that an employer may not make a job decision, for example on hiring or promotion, based on an employee’s disability as long as the person can do the job, with or without a reasonable accommodation.  It is further worth noting that some states these days hold certain laws protecting the confidentiality of medical records.

Rule #7:  Driving Records

One particular rule to note that applies to certain information is that an employer must check the driving record of any of his or her employee whose job will need large amounts of driving.  As maintained, these records are available, sometimes for a nominal charge, from the motor vehicle department of the state.

Rule #8:  Military Service Records

In terms of records of military service, one rule holds that members and former members of the armed forces have a right to privacy in their service records.   With that, these military records may only be released under limited circumstances.  Consent is generally required.  Nevertheless, the military has the right to disclose the person’s name, salary, rank, duty assignments, duty status and awards without the member’s consent.

How to Get Started?

After knowing those facts, tips and rules of employment background checking, I think you are now ready to start with your search.  Okay, here’s what you should note:

A basic background check typically involves most or all of the following:

• Verifying the identity of the candidate
• Checking the candidate’s references and former employers
• A criminal background check, usually covering the past several years
• Verifying the candidate’s names and social security number against public records
• Checking the educational background as well as professional or occupational licenses of the candidate
• An MVR check

Here are also additional pre-employment checks that you can do:

• Pre-employment credit check
• Workman’s compensation records check
• Drug Test
• Employment psychological test
• In-depth interviewing or reference checks

As presented, background checking for employment purposes is absolutely vital these days, even for the smallest company.  This is for the reasons that employers are constantly faced with the costly possibilities of resume fraud or misinterpretation of qualifications, hidden criminal backgrounds of the applicants, and some other forms of deceit.  We cannot even deny the fact that hiring the wrong applicant can be one of the most costly mistakes that a company can make.