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Do you conduct background checks on job applicants before officially hiring them? If you do, are you in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)? When getting started with background screening, some employers don’t realize they are required to comply with the FCRA as part of this process.
‘Ban-the-box’ laws are laws that say you cannot have a question on your application that asks ‘do you have a criminal conviction?’ Typically, applications will ask for an explanation or description if the answer was yes. This forces immediate disclosure.
Why perform background checks? The primary reason is to protect your employees, clients/customers, suppliers and anyone who interacts with your employees. You have a duty to provide a safe working environment. Done legally, background checks can be an effective screening tool to find relevant information about job candidates. And employers have a duty to provide a safe workplace
Social media use is prevalent for potential employees, so why shouldn’t it be prevalent for background checks? Most employers think it should—the use of social media in background checks has grown steadily in recent years. But what are the risks?
How many years back into the past can a criminal background check go? What is the difference between an investigative consumer report and a regular consumer report? Can you have different screening processes or factors that warrant disqualification for different positions? These are just a few of the questions that were asked by participants in […]
Employers performing employee background checks are actually subject to Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulations. FCRA applies to all consumer reports and investigative consumer reports, whether they’re conducted in house or by a third-party such as a consumer reporting agency (CRA). FCRA “is a federal law, and it imposes minimum standards on employers that they […]
Employee background checks are used by an estimated 92 percent of organizations in one form or another before hiring someone. They can be quite useful, but employers should be careful because the EEOC has been cracking down on illegal use of background information. Are you aware of what you should and shouldn’t be doing with […]