Essential Background Checks Employers Should Do

Sometimes hiring new people is like walking on a wire. You need to find the best people for the job, but you also need to look into their backgrounds to get a better idea of their current skills, how well they’ll do on the job, and their character and honesty. Also, people who work with kids, the elderly, or people with disabilities often have to go through a criminal history check. If you don’t check up on these workers, you could get in trouble at work, get fined or punished, and hurt the reputation of your company. You can’t avoid doing your research by running  a background checks these days; it’s a must for running a successful business.

There’s a good chance that you already do background checks. You’ve come to the right place, though, if you want to know what are the essential background checks you can do or how to make them better.

Pick your screens

Basic criminal history reports are what most people think of when they hear the word “background check.” That being said, you can run a lot of different job screens based on your wants. Also, keep in mind that the most common and straightforward way to do a background check is to use a third-party service or firm that does background checks. Most of the time, the screening service you hire will know the right legalese to get each candidate’s permission for a background check and keep track of the reasons why they weren’t chosen, which is important to help make sure you’re following the rules.

The Essential Background Checks For Employers Are:

Criminal Records Check

Criminal records checks are the most common form of background checks. You can find out about the type of crime (felony, misdemeanor, infraction, etc.), when the crime happened, the disposition code, details about the sentence, and other information about the case.

Education and Employer Verification

How sure are you that a candidate has really done everything they say they have? With Education and Employer Verification checks, you can be sure that the person you’re hiring “walks the walk.” With an education background check, you can be sure of the times that a candidate attended a school, the majors they studied, and the degrees they earned. Employer background checks can confirm a person’s work experience. They can show details like the dates of employment, the titles held, and the highest salaries achieved.

Social Media Background Check

These days, it’s common to think about doing a social media as essential background checks on a possible employee. This is because their social media or online presence could bring attention to your business, for better or worse. However, you should make sure that you are doing this in the legalest way possible. If you want to do a proper social media background check, you should get a request from a third party and include clear screening criteria like racism, sexually explicit material, illegal activity, or violence. You shouldn’t have the human resources department search all of the channels for the candidate’s name. When you add this part, be very careful because a process that doesn’t follow the rules could lead to claims of discrimination.

How to conduct pre-employment screens

Personal identifiable information (PII) must be handled carefully during a background check or pre-employment screening. This is why many businesses hire a third party that follows the law to do the screens. When conducting a background check the agency should be compliant with FCRA and GDPR as well as any local rules and laws or other legislations respectively to the country in question. People who apply for jobs with you should be able to see a privacy policy. You may share this policy with the third party you hire, with job candidates, in case you are audited.

Legality of Background checks

Remember that the people who are applying for the job have legal rights that you need to respect. There are federal and state rules that say you can’t do a background check on a job applicant without their permission. While the purpose of a background check is to protect the business, it is also important to protect the applicant’s privacy and follow all applicable laws. As an example, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) says that employers need written permission from job applicants before they can check their credit records. Also, if you use an applicant’s background information to decide whether to hire them, you must follow federal rules that protect them from discrimination based on their age, race, color, national origin, sex, religion, disability, or genetic information. But you need to make sure you treat everyone the same.

**Disclaimer** The information presented here serve only for learning purposes and is not meant to be taken as legal advice. We recommend that you talk to your own lawyer if you have legal questions about how your business methods fit with the law.