Do Organizations Do Background Checks Before Final Interviews

Bad hires are every company'southward worst nightmare.

Not simply practise they waste the company'south resources but also jeopardize the safety of employees and customers.

A bad or incompetent employee brings downwardly morale and creates an uncomfortable work environment for everyone else. More than that, a bad hire can create dangerous working conditions or make a error that hurts clients or costs them money.

Unfortunately, these bad apples escape most hiring professionals' scrutiny by lying on their resumes. A better way to weed out these wrong candidates is to perform background checks that will rummage through each bidder'southward history as a true detective would.

Top Groundwork Check Companies to Do a Groundwork Check Before Hiring

If you desire to practise a background cheque earlier hiring, you'll need a background cheque company. Here's the best options.

Intelius — Best for unlimited background checks
GoodHire — Best for flexible pricing and intermittent use
B&B Reporting — All-time for next-day groundwork check results
Accurate — Most affordable background checks for small-scale businesses
Verifirst — Best background bank check service for property direction companies

You tin can read our full reviews of each groundwork check visitor here.

5 Steps to Practice a Groundwork Check Before Hiring

Follow the pace-by-step instructions below to run a groundwork check before y'all rent a new employee:

Create a background bank check policy
Choose a reliable groundwork check company
Prepare the applicant for pre-employment screening
Perform the background check
Brand a hiring decision based on the background check results

How to do a background check before hiring in 5 easy steps.

The Like shooting fish in a barrel Parts of Doing Groundwork Check

Yous don't take to go all-out when doing groundwork checks.

If you lot're just screening candidates applying for entry-level positions, yous don't demand to conduct all groundwork checks right off the bat. Similarly, if you're at the initial stage of the screening process to filter out multiple candidates, paying for comprehensive background reports may not exist practical at all.

In both instances, simple identity verification is enough.

Dissimilar other more than complicated reports, identity verification tin can provide background bank check results almost instantly or within the 24-hour interval. All you lot need is the applicant's proper name, social security number, and nascency date and the third-political party provider can return valuable results for yous.

Intelius is a leading provider that can run unlimited groundwork checks for a fixed monthly fee. The bones background checks information technology provides offer insights into a person'south employment, didactics, criminal records, marriage, and any lawsuits, bankruptcies, or liens associated with his name.

The reports are express but plenty to whittle down your candidates before you motility on to comprehensive all the same more time-consuming reports.

Intelius background check company homepage.

The Hard Parts of Doing Background Check

Background checks are covered by federal, state, and county laws that often overlap with each other.

Information technology becomes more complicated when the company hires beyond multiple locations where laws are practical differently. For example, while one state prohibits access to certain criminal records, some other state just limits when and how such records are accessed.

One way to get out of this legal limbo is to make sure the company follows a written background check policy from the get-go. This set of guidelines can be created with the help of in-house legal counsel to ensure consistency in conducting background checks, all while ensuring compliance with existing laws.

If you lot're screening applicants from multiple states, in that location are as well third-party background check providers similar GoodHire that can simplify the process for you.

GoodHire background check company homepage.

GoodHire has a born adverse reaction workflow which simply means it can automatically recognize the company's location and the applicant'due south location. Based on this information, information technology identifies overlapping rules and and then implements the strictest rule that applies to all jurisdictions.

Pace 1: Create a Background Check Policy

A written background bank check policy prevents arbitrary checks and potential lawsuits and ensures anybody is on the same page.

With a concrete set of guidelines put into place, key conclusion-makers volition be attuned to the type of background checks to be conducted, for whom information technology volition exist conducted, and how the results will be interpreted.

Make up one's mind the Types of Background Checks To Be Conducted

Pre-employment screening comes in many forms. Depending on the size and nature of your business, you tin can either comport all or a select few of these background checks.

The type of background cheque you'll implement also varies by position. For example, credit checks may be necessary for positions requiring fiscal discretion while driving record checks are considered not-negotiable for employees who will operate company vehicles.

When drafting a groundwork cheque policy, specify which background checks will be performed, and for whom. Here'southward a rundown of the different types of background checks to assist you get started:

Basic identity-check – involves checking the validity of the bidder's social security number and tracing everything associated with information technology. This includes name, alias, appointment of birth, and address.

Criminal records check – wades through databases to check whether an individual has felony or misdemeanor convictions at federal, land, and county levels. Arrest records can effect in either confidence or dismissal but it depends on your state which one tin can be included in your written report. In California, for instance, you lot tin't review arrest records unless they resulted in a conviction. Criminal background checks also involve searches on multi-country sex offender registries and U.Due south. terror scout lists.

Civil courts cheque – brings to light any non-criminal suits that the candidate has been involved in. These may include restraining orders, civil rights violations, or small claims recorded past federal and county ceremonious courts.

Credit history check – is a required pre-employment screening for candidates vying for jobs in the fiscal sector. Financial responsibility is a prerequisite in managing other people's assets, making this type of background check a reliable way to filter out candidates applying for a bookkeeping job or a position in the bank or brokerage. A credit history check collects information almost whatsoever bankruptcies, unpaid bills drove, tax liens, and payment history associated with the applicant's name.

Motor vehicle report – provides insights into a candidate's driving competency. The driving record cheque confirms whether the candidate's driving license is valid. Information technology likewise brings up any traffic violation and suspension, giving employers a articulate moving-picture show of the person'south behavior on the road. Information technology's a required pre-employment screening for applicants who volition drive visitor-owned vehicles for business purposes.

Employment verification – is the starting time line of defense confronting candidates who usually embellish their resumes or omit crucial information to sway hiring decisions in their favor. To put it simply, it's a background cheque that ensures the applicants are really equally experienced and qualified for the chore position as they're claiming to be. To verify the bidder'south employment history, HR professionals usually achieve out to the previous employers to enquire about the applicant's job title, date of employment, duties performed, and circumstances surrounding the applicant's departure.

Education verification – mitigates the risk of hiring an impostor, peculiarly for executive-level positions that require advanced degrees. It ensures the candidate went to the exact school and earned the exact degrees as stated on the resume.

The list above is not exhaustive, as companies or staffing firms can also use other background checks as needed.

Healthcare sanction checks, for example, tin can be conducted to verify the healthcare professional's history. Someone with a long list of disciplinary deportment, suspensions, or penalties may non be automatically butterfingers, but they provide insights into the candidate's professionalism.

If the bidder is based in the Usa but previously studied, worked, or lived overseas, in that location are also international background checks to capture vital details that would have been missed otherwise.

Determine Which Background Checks Should Be Performed on Each Applicant Category

Non all applicants should exist subjected to the same fix of background checks. After all, employees take varying levels of responsibilities. You don't button a candidate applying for an entry-level position to the aforementioned stringent screening procedure that applicants for a senior management office undergo.

Therefore, it's imperative to clearly state in the background check policy not only the types of pre-employment screening to be conducted but also for whom. 1 way to pull this off is by dividing the applicants into different categories and deciding which background checks will be conducted on each category.

For example, Category ane is at the bottom of the hierarchy so information technology may include employees or contractors with no access to the company's operational processes. The cleaning staff belongs to this category and they tin can exist hired subsequently going through basic identity and criminal background checks.

Category 2, meanwhile, may cover most of the company's employees who utilise the workstations, drive company vehicles, and accept access to operational processes. Therefore, they should be subjected to instruction verification and motor vehicle written report in add-on to basic background checks.

Employees in Category 3 are at the tiptop of the hierarchy as they take direct admission to the company's critical resources and information. They include internal auditors, department heads, and senior management.

More responsibilities hateful more than stringent screening. And then on top of the background checks required for the previous two categories, Category 3 members volition besides exist subjected to boosted and more comprehensive pre-employment screening.

Consult With a Lawyer To Ensure Compliance With Labor Laws

Writing a background policy from scratch without advice from an chaser or the state labor department is a lawsuit waiting to happen. This is considering background checks are covered by federal, state, and local laws, and failure to comply with whatever of these may result in costly and lengthy litigations.

Things become more complicated for multistate employers that accept to contend with multiple laws governing multiple jurisdictions. With the help of a lawyer, companies and staffing firms can place where these laws overlap and figure out how to move forward without violating anything.

In summary, hither's how legal communication tin ensure your background check policy complies with rules and regulations:

Timing of the background checks. Ban-the-box laws prohibit companies or staffing firms from inquiring about the bidder'due south criminal history on the initial job application. If yous're in the state, city, or state where ban-the-box regulations are in total effect, yous tin can't deport a background check until after a provisional job offer is made. However, exceptions may apply depending on the size of the company and where it's located. In Washington D.C., for example, ban-the-box law applies merely to companies with at least 15 employees working in the district.

Process of conducting background checks. The Fair Credit Reporting Deed (FCRA) has laid out guidelines to make sure the applicant is aware of the background check from beginning to end. FCRA requires employers to provide a consent grade to the applicants informing them that a background cheque volition be conducted for employment purposes. In instance the background check results led the employer to decline the candidate'south application, FCRA also requires the employer to follow a three-step agin reaction process. This procedure involves sending the applicant a copy of the background report, waiting for the candidate to respond or brand an appeal, before finally sending the agin action notice.

Criminal records to be used for background checks. Federal and state laws impose restrictions on the type of records companies can use to influence their hiring decisions. FCRA, for case, states that the credit history checks should exclude bankruptcies afterwards 10 years and paid tax liens after seven years, among others. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) also enforces the Championship VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which basically prevents employers from making a hiring decision based solely on a person's criminal tape. Discrimination can get y'all into a lot of trouble so avert relying on criminal records that have nothing to exercise with the job position the candidate is applying for. Companies should also consider the nature of the offense and the length of time since the applicant completed the sentence.

Equally if the federal laws are non complex enough, some country laws too overlap with them and should besides be considered when drafting the background cheque policy.

For instance, several states take banned the utilise of credit reports equally pre-employment screening. In places where they're but restricted, credit reports tin just exist used to bolster the screening process for applicants in banks and other fiscal institutions.

Stride ii: Choose a Reliable Background Bank check Visitor

If you're not equipped to do background checks, fifty-fifty obtaining criminal records at the courthouse tin have most a lifetime. As a outcome, potential stellar candidates will lose patience and utilize to the competitors instead.

Federal, state, and local laws too govern background checks so unless you have in-firm legal counsel available 24/vii, lawsuits are always i simple fault away.

Fortunately, there are third-party providers that tin can help companies and staffing firms take the guesswork out of background checks. Here are some of the ones I recommend.

If you already have a background bank check policy in place, the side by side step is to find a third-party provider that ticks all of your boxes.

If you have a huge hiring book, for case, there are companies like Intelius that can meet your needs. Past paying a fixed monthly fee, Intelius can carry unlimited reports nigh your applicants including their names, aliases, contact information, educational groundwork, employment history, and criminal records, among others.

Intelius can generate reports almost instantly so it'south a good option if you're looking for bones background checks. Once you're fix to get more than thorough reports, y'all tin can abode in on the all-time provider based on two of the most important features that will exist discussed below.

Select a Background Check Company With Congenital-In FCRA Compliance

The Off-white Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) exists then you lot won't overstep the boundaries of groundwork checking. It determines when to conduct background checks and restricts the records you tin can use and so applicants with criminal convictions won't be discriminated against.

The problem is unlike states and cities follow FCRA regulations differently. As a consequence, employers that rent in multiple locations can take a difficult fourth dimension navigating the legalities of background checking.

An FCRA-compliant groundwork check visitor does all the heavy lifting so companies can hire the best talents without worrying about compliance. If a company you're dealing with claims to exist FCRA-compliant, ask for the documents that can show it.

A good company is one that offers individualized assessments then each applicant receives an equal opportunity to prove their competence. It also has integrated workflows so you volition go a notification when a rejected applicant receives a pre-adverse activeness discover, and another 1 when the final agin notice is issued.

Have Note of Groundwork Check Turnaround Times

How fast a third-party provider delivers background cheque results varies depending on the type of records you're requesting.

Basic background checks can be completed near instantly whereas employment, education, and license verifications tin take up to a week to complete. Criminal records in counties where the database isn't digitized even so likewise dull downwards the process so make certain the provider sets a realistic timeline when completing background checks.

The shorter the turnaround time, the better equally you don't want to lose great talents due to delays.
Still, make sure the company doesn't provide quick results at the expense of quality data. Information technology's common for some screening providers to cut corners in the proper name of making more profits in the shortest amount of fourth dimension.

Make certain to do your due diligence when selecting a background check company based on how fast the turnaround time is. The use of an automated arrangement to scrape off information from online criminal databases is usually a cherry-red flag unless the provider tin can prove that the data are the functional equivalent of what they tin obtain offline.

Another way providers have shortcuts is past simply searching for the bidder's name and ignoring other aliases they discover just to save time. Choose companies with proprietary technology that performs a more in-depth search to identify different names associated with an individual, peculiarly those who changed names either by union or a civil court proceeding.

Lastly, investigate how the visitor obtains the records. There are screening firms that outsource tasks to business organization processing centers in India and the Philippines to save on labor costs. Not merely are they making applicants' data vulnerable to identity theft but also putting the visitor's reputation at run a risk by letting poorly trained workers manually access courthouse records.

Step 3: Gear up the Applicant for the Pre-Employment Screening

As per FCRA regulations, you can't perform background checks without the applicant's consent. The procedure should too be delayed until a provisional chore offer has been fabricated to ensure there'due south no prejudice against those with past criminal convictions.

These prerequisites are necessary to plant transparency, making both parties less likely to be involved in lawsuits when things don't work out in the end.

Notify the Bidder Virtually the Impending Background Checks

Before whatsoever groundwork check company can practise its job, you demand to obtain the bidder'south permission first.

This is advantageous in two ways. If the applicant declines to be subjected to pre-employment screening, it means one less problem to deal with. Should the applicant agrees, it can give him time to identify and correct inaccuracies. It will also help him prepare to make a proper appeal in case the results turn out to exist unfavorable.

To get the applicant'southward consent, the groundwork check provider should issue him two forms: a disclosure form and an authorisation form.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recommends including in the disclosure grade a argument that assures any awarding won't be automatically rejected based on criminal conviction lonely.

The applicant must be given the peace of mind that the employer will consider the gravity of the conviction, the circumstances surrounding the conviction, and how much time has passed since the conviction before making a hiring conclusion.

To consent to the background cheque, the applicant must fully understand what'southward written on the disclosure course and later sign the authorization form provided.

In addition to the two forms mentioned, the bidder must also be given a copy of the Federal Merchandise Commission (FTC) certificate entitled "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act." This certificate ensures the applicant knows his rights are protected under FCRA and that the employer is obligated to perform background checks without violating these rights.

Brand a Provisional Job Offering

A job offer contingent on the completion of the required background checks is considered best practice. This is particularly true if the company is hiring in states where ban-the-box laws are implemented.

Ban the box prohibits employers from conducting pre-employment screening during the initial interview or prior to making a job offer. This constabulary is now beingness applied to private employers in states such every bit California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Colorado, Illinois, New United mexican states, Vermont, Rhode Isle, and Washington.

Step 4: Perform the Background Cheque

Outsourcing background checks to an FCRA-compliant provider takes away a huge burden from your shoulders. By dissimilarity, conducting an in-house background check requires that yous have your own infrastructure to automate the process, besides equally a technical team to take care of system budget.

Depending on the types of information you'll need to obtain, a background check can exist completed inside a bridge of ii to v days. As mentioned previously, it's imperative to deal with a third-party provider that guarantees quick turnaround time without sacrificing the quality of the results.

Bear Bones Identity Verification

A basic background cheque can be completed almost instantly, provided you have already obtained the bidder's personal details.

In order to perform an initial identity bank check, you demand the person's name, social security number, birth date, and addresses for the past seven years. The addresses are needed and so the screening firm won't miss any criminal convictions recorded in other states or counties outside of the bidder's current identify of residence.

Once the data are entered in the background checking company's web portal, the organization will return results that will determine what steps you should take next.

If the initial identity verification returns questionable results, yous can decide not to proceed to the side by side step until the issue is addressed. Otherwise, yous can perform more in-depth background checks.

Keep to More Thorough Groundwork Checks

For almost employee categories, basic identity verification is only the commencement step. In guild to construct a more accurate portrait of a person'southward character and history, you need to conduct background checks using multiple databases.

Hither's an overview of some of the standard components of background checks and what is often involved in each of them:

Criminal record check – entails a comprehensive search of criminal databases at federal, state, and county levels. Employers face the challenge of getting access to records from multiple jurisdictions, simply a competent groundwork bank check company tin can provide the right assistance.

Civil records bank check – reveals any employment-related lawsuits associated with the applicant. In that location's no connectedness between record departments of different counties so the assist of a background cheque provider is besides highly sought later.

Employment, teaching, and license verification – are conducted to ensure the applicants are actually who they claim to exist. Altogether, these groundwork checks take a lot of time to consummate. The data needed to complete the verification are available in public records but one with a signed release can obtain them.

Credit check – involves evaluation of the applicant's credit history. Notwithstanding, the data are off-limits to the public and the credit bureaus won't disembalm them unless you have the permission, right, and potency to obtain them.

Motor vehicle records – refer to driving records that tin be released to a background check provider with a signed release.

Step 5: Make a hiring decision based on background bank check results

The effect of background checks tin either be favorable or unfavorable to the bidder. Apparently, it'south easy to issue a permanent task offer to applicants with no criminal convictions.

But what if the qualified candidate isn't starting with a make clean slate? With FCRA regulations, ban-the-box laws, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission forbidding employers from rejecting applications based on past criminal acts, the answer is non as straightforward.

Subject area the background check results to multiple levels of review

When making a critical hiring decision that can impact the unabridged organization, multiple pairs of optics are meliorate than one. By putting the background check results under the scrutiny of several fundamental determination-makers, biased judgments are thrown out of the motion-picture show.

For example, a conclusion fabricated by a hiring manager tin exist reviewed by the vice president for human resource, the vice president of benefits and compliance, or both. This ensures accuracy and principle of fairness are observed and no great talent is wasted through a haphazard decision.

Of class, at that place are instances when you tin can't exercise the same fairness. If the person is applying for a government position and the federal regime explicitly mentions it'south not open to anyone with felony convictions, then you must follow the rule. In most cases, nonetheless, a iii-part test tin can come in handy.

Likewise known as a "targeted screen," the three-function test involves examining the nature or gravity of the crime, the context of the said crime, and how long agone since it was committed.

For example, if a person was charged with possession of marijuana when he was a teenager, it's probably prophylactic to give him a chance and then long as he has all the qualifications needed to fulfill the office.

But fifty-fifty if the offense is serious plenty to forbid an otherwise potent applicant from existence considered for the job, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) still offers promise in the form of individualized assessment.

Provide individualized cess to rejected applicants

An individualized assessment simply means giving applicants who have been deprived of an opportunity a hazard to redeem themselves. For all y'all know, there might be a real inaccuracy in the background check results and an individualized assessment gives the applicant enough fourth dimension to set the tape directly.

In order for an individualized assessment to take place, employers must follow a iii-step agin activity procedure.

An adverse action is a procedure employers need to complete when rejecting applications after the groundwork results have been obtained. The background cheque visitor may perform the needed agin action process on the employer's behalf simply the important decisions must still be made by the latter.

Here are the three steps required to ensure the applicant is given an individualized assessment:

First, send a pre-adverse activeness letter to the applicant notifying the person almost your decision and how the background bank check results influenced the negative outcome. Along with the pre-agin action discover, you lot should as well include a re-create of the background check written report, the contact details of the third-party provider that ran the background checks, and a copy of the FTC's "A Summary of Your Rights Nether the FCRA."

Requite the applicant aplenty time to process the outcome so that he or she can file a dispute if necessary. Although the standard waiting fourth dimension is five business days, some states governed by ban-the-box laws require longer. Make sure the background check company you lot're working with is aware of the regulations so the automated adverse action procedure can exist adapted accordingly.

Once the waiting time is over, and nothing has influenced you to alter your determination, you can then send the last adverse action detect to the applicant.

Brand a final hiring decision

In instance the applicant showed resiliency in proving his or her innocence, or if the background check results prove to be inaccurate, refrain from sending the final adverse activity letter.

If the position is of disquisitional importance to the company, organize an appeal panel so a reasonable decision tin exist fabricated. This panel may include representatives from the Legal, HR, Security, and other departments deem to be of import in making company-wide decisions.

If the majority agrees, you can push through with the job offering and mitigate the risks of the conclusion by conducting postal service-employment background checks.