Background checks are crucial in the employment process both before you hire and while an employee is in your employ.
Background checks before hire serve as a tool to discover if an individual is falsifying your company documents. We believe that for the most part people will behave for your firm in the future as they have behaved in the past. If you don’t perform an investigation to find out how an individual has behaved in the past then how will you know how to expect the individual to behave for your firm going forward?
Background checks primarily aim to:
Mitigate Risks –
There is the risk of exposing your firm to the tort of negligent hiring. Negligent hiring means that if a firm knew, OR SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, that an individual had a prior history of harming individuals and then in fact injured someone while in your employ, the employer is held liable under the theory of Respondeat Superior. Negligent hiring risk lawsuits can easily result in a million dollars of damages or more.
Assure workplace safety –
Employers can avoid those individuals who have exhibited a history of violence or dangerous behavior.
Safeguard assets –
Employers can avoid hiring individuals who have exhibited prior history of embezzlement or stealing.
Safeguard reputation –
Your firm has probably worked very hard over many years to build up a solid reputation in the community. One person can destroy that reputation by injuring someone for whom your firm has not conducted a proper background check.
Who should get a background check?
We recommend that any individual should get a background check before hire (or post offer, depending on your firm’s policy).
We also recommend that your current employee population undergo a periodic background check particularly if you provide products or services to vulnerable people here. Just because an individual has passed the background check at the beginning of your hire process doesn’t mean that they will not behave in a manner subsequently that would indicate they may have a propensity to injure someone while in your employ.
What should be in a background check?
Criminal History – Criminal history should be linked to the job position. We have a blog post here talking about why linking criminal conviction type to a job’s description. For example, if you are hiring a bus driver a prior or if the position is highly supervised a criminal conviction related to check fraud wouldn’t be particularly applicable. On the contrary, if the position is not highly supervised then prior criminal convictions of violence would be applicable. The number of prior years searched can also vary with these factors. Both local and federal convictions, if appropriate, should be researched. These two types of convictions are housed in mutually exclusive courts. The number of years’ address history investigated should be linked to the depth of the background investigation. The more significant the job position the longer the number of prior years’ history that should be investigated.
Trace report – This report will validate the person’s status of living or deceased. If the trace report indicates the person associated with the social security number is deceased, you know the social security number was stolen. And this report will contain any prior addresses that were used when the individual engaged in a financial transaction. We recommend that a criminal conviction search be performed in any jurisdiction on the trace report but not contained in the application under the assumption that the individual knows there is a criminal conviction in the withheld jurisdiction.
Multi-jurisdictional database report – Many providers can provide access to a database that contains millions of criminal convictions from around the country and hundreds of databases. This should be considered a secondary level search. Many jurisdictions only report convictions for those individuals who served time in prison. There are millions of convictions where individuals are not sentenced to prison. Thus the importance of searching for records at the individual’s addresses. We have found that clients who use this report increase their criminal conviction hit ratio by about 12%
Motor Vehicle Record – A motor vehicle record, if appropriate for the position’ duties, can be very revealing. You will discover if their driver license has been suspended and if they have a reckless history of speeding. If pertinent to the position, prior employment can be verified. While you may think this will not be useful, it will confirm in the least that they worked for the company and the hire and separation dates. We have seen instances where individuals have fudged these dates to hide time spent in prison.
Education verification – Also, if pertinent to the position an education verification should be performed. Our experience has been that almost one-third of individuals falsify their education.
Credit report – If appropriate for the responsibilities of the position, this will reveal the individual’s payment history and any bankruptcies.
License verification – Again if appropriate this report will provide the status of an individual’s license e.g. medical licenses, accounting licenses, etc.
Create a Background Check Policy – Before conducting any background checks, it’s important to create a background check policy for your organization. This outlines the guidelines for checking any part of the job applicant’s background during the hiring process. A policy is designed to help an organization stay compliant with federal and state laws. A background check policy should clearly state what type of screenings will be conducted, the proper procedures for conducting these screenings and how the background check results will be used in hiring decisions.
Third-Party Engagement and Data Submission – When using a third-party background check provider, your firm will need to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. We make it very easy to comply with this law as stated here.
Compliance – We recommend that you assign one or more individuals, in your firm, who are familiar with applicable law and how to comply with the law.
Frequently Asked Questions
Red flags on a background check can include criminal convictions that may present risks to the workplace, inconsistencies in employment and education information and records and false identification information.
James P. Randisi, President of Randisi & Associates, Inc., has been helping employers protect their clients, workforce and reputation through implementation of employment screening and drug testing programs since 1999. This post does not constitute legal advice. Randisi & Associates, Inc. is not a law firm. Always contact competent employment legal counsel. Mr. Randisi can be contacted by phone at 410.494.0232 or Email: info@randisiandassociates.com or the website at randisiandassociates.com
