Employment Background Checks

As the talent marketplace gets more challenging, employers are expanding into new locations and territories where complexity has increased due to both global expansion and sourcing international talent. With the surge in remote work following a global pandemic, companies are no longer as reliant on work visa programs and immigration laws to fill talent needs.

While employers are evaluating background screening services or making policy decisions about employment background checks, there are multiple references to “seven years.” This can create confusion for employers using background checks in hiring, as not all background checks are created equal. Depending on the context, this common window of time may refer to:

Since the pandemic began, roles have been moved around within healthcare systems to fill urgent needs. Clinicians have been overworked and fatigued, and all of this disruption has affected patient safety outcomes. Preventable central-line associated bloodstream infections, for example, have risen 51% compared to pre-pandemic rates.

2020 was an unprecedented year reminding us how rapidly change can affect the workplace; 2021 proved to be just as challenging for employers. On the employment background screening front, employers must ensure these changes are reflected in their screening policies. Having an updated company policy in place gives clarity to a background check and protects your company from potential liability around the use of background screening information.

For Cisive's most recent benchmark report, Cisive Insights: Talent Screening Trends 2021, Cisive surveyed more than 1,500 human resources, talent acquisition, compliance, and recruitment professionals worldwide to get a big picture view of the talent screening landscape during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A year of unprecedented challenges resulting from the global pandemic has dramatically shifted how we all attract, hire, screen, and onboard new talent.

Employers across the globe have had to quickly adapt to a new world of hybrid or work-from-home environments, converting to virtual hiring processes in order to complete daily tasks such as interviews and onboarding.

A growing number of states are beginning to implement new identity protection rules that may impact employer background screening. As more court records have personal identifying information (PII) like driver’s license numbers and birth dates removed, background checks will become increasingly difficult.

Here are a few changes that are currently on the horizon:

Michigan Courts to Shield Personal Identifying Information Starting in 2022

HR leaders are very familiar with company audits, risk assessments, and gap analyses for skills, talent, and hiring needs. However, you don’t always take the time to audit your own department, identify potential risks and opportunities to strengthen resources, and ensure compliance best practices.

The areas within HR that create the greatest risk are likely the same areas on which you and your team expend the greatest amount of time and energy, such as: 

According to the SentencingProject.org, nearly one in three adults in the U.S.—or 70 million Americans—have a criminal record, including those who were arrested but not convicted. For many of these individuals, a criminal record creates a significant barrier to employment, even when the record includes only a misdemeanor arrest or conviction.

Background screening is vital for meeting regulatory and accreditation standards in healthcare, but because background checks are triggered at the time of offer, they are largely considered a necessary evil of the pre-employment process. Once an employer decides to hire an individual, they have been through requisition creation, multiple interviews, and even pre-hire assessments, all before an offer is made. This puts tremendous pressure on the background screening partner and the entire onboarding process to ensure that the new hire is making it into the earliest orientation possible.