Employment Background Checks

PreCheck's Vice President of Compliance, Vu Do's latest article discussing the implications of the EEOC's Enforcement Guidance on employers' use of criminal records was published in the March/April 2013 issue of Compliance & Ethics Professional. If you do not currently subscribe to this publication of the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics, you may download the complete article here.

Typically, my blogs are devoted to discussing compliance topics, covering emerging regulations, or highlighting best practices. But today, I’d like to share with our readers some of the true thrills of our job. At PreCheck, we identify ourselves as a “background investigations and credentialing firm.” Our tag line is “investigate further.” All of our employees are licensed private investigators. Hopefully you’ve identified the common denominator.

At PreCheck, we’re often asked about criminal record searches whether it be how they are obtained, what coverage they offer the clients we work with day in and day out, and other burning questions.  Our clients aren’t alone; we know the world of criminal records can be a confusing one!  Today (and as part of an ongoing series) we hope to set the record straight and shed some light on this mystical topic by sharing a few basics regarding criminal record searches.  Other related topics coming up in this series will be fingerprinting, as well as the threats that currently exist to criminal rec

Earlier this morning, NBC’s Today Show aired a segment about how employment background screening inaccuracies can cost applicants their jobs. While the examples shared during the segment are unfortunate, they do not represent the overall standard of quality in the industry. More importantly, the practices discussed in that segment do not reflect the manner in which PreCheck conducts and reports criminal records to our clients.

We would like to take this opportunity to address some of the issues raised in the Today Show segment:

As the job market remains competitive, PreCheck has noticed an upswing in our detection and reporting of diploma mills as we conduct education verifications for our clients. There is no indication this trend will decrease. So what does this mean for employers?

You've heard the term and you suspect you know what it is, but what exactly is a social trace, and why is it important?

Background Report Basics

The social trace is a fundamental tool and part of most employment background checks. Let's first understand the standard components of a background check to better grasp the function of the social trace.

Typically, an employment background check consists of conducting some or all of the following searches:

The recent case of David Kwiatkowski, the traveling radiologic technologist who exposed countless patients to Hepatitis C, shines a spotlight on healthcare employment screening practices in general and those of healthcare staffing firms in particular.  Kwiatkowski allegedly stole Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opiate used as a post-surgery anesthetic, and replaced the syringes with saline where those needles were then used on patients, infecting them with Hepatitis C.  Working for numerous healthcare staffing companies, this serial infector moved from state to state, harming innocent patien

Effective July 1, 2012, House Bill 1033 (HB 1033) restricts employers and criminal history providers from inquiring about and obtaining certain criminal history information. As a result, employers should be aware that background reports may not provide a complete picture about an applicant or employee given the law's restrictions.

Companies have differing policies regarding the amount of information they will disclose when responding to requests for verification/information about their present and former employees. Some only give out objective information such as the employee's position and the dates of employment; while others allow the release of more subjective information, including comments about the employee's behavior, professionalism or their eligibility for rehire.

As a reputable employer yourself, it probably comes as no surprise that the majority of employers and educational institutions that we contact for verifying applicant history or credentials require that we provide them with an authorization (release) form signed by the applicant before they will provide any information. As people continue to become even more concerned with sensitivity of personal information and maintaining secure data, we are seeing an increasing trend in such requirements.