Tips for Conducting Effective Employment Background Checks

You don’t have to risk your company because you don’t know the details of running employment background checks when all it takes is using the right company with the tools to carry out the important screening process for you and search everything from a criminal record to education verification. It will streamline the hiring process and you’ll immediately know if a candidate has broken federal law or has a criminal history you should care about. A background screening is part of every hiring process; the background report you get will give you all the information you need.

Every business is ultimately responsible for the people brought in throughout the entire organization and you can mitigate risk taken by your other employees when you use a company with high screening standards that can tell you about the candidates based on your screening needs. Everything from driving records to restraining orders and dismissed charges can come with additional context so you can decide on employment. Always run background checks to look for a criminal record when hiring a new employee so you can be sure of who you have working for you.

Understanding Background Screening

When you conduct background checks, you’ll be able to make more informed hiring decisions and the screening services can be as deep or superficial as you need them to be for the employment verification process you want to run for your company. For instance, you can run international background checks for employment that will look into local laws broken and criminal searches for any country in the world.

It’s also possible to run background checks for credit history, the person’s payment history, tax liens, or other public records for the past seven years and all employers need is written consent to get all background check results. If the candidate doesn’t meet your standards, you’ll have legal recourse to start the adverse action process and give them the pre-adverse action notice. If the person is unable to clear the problems, it will be up to the employer to decide on a final adverse action notice and stop the onboarding process.

The Background Check Process

Employment background checks are easy to carry out and they work in the same ways every time you run them, no matter the depth of the criminal background checks or drug screening services you want to get in your report. The first step is identity verification, which will satisfy your legal requirements to ensure you’re not hiring someone with inaccurate information when it comes to their social security number. Next up are the criminal record checks which will give you the criminal history of the candidate and let you know if they’ve been convicted of breaking federal law or state law.

Certain industries require employers to check on a candidate’s employment background on top of the criminal record and the right background check company can do that for you just as easily as searching through driving records. If employers have a more robust background check policy, the company can provide additional context for employment decisions based on credit history and country of national origin. It’s ultimately up to the employer to determine the depth of pre-employment background checks, but the background report will be ready whenever you need it to make your final decision.

Choosing a Background Check Company

One of the most important parts of employment background checks is ensuring you have the right company on your side, getting you the employment and criminal record information you need in a few business days. Every employment candidate should undergo criminal record checks, which means the company has to have the ability to handle your hiring volume, no matter how many background checks you have to run. You should also be able to see the background check status so you can make your hiring decisions as quickly as possible.

It should also follow all applicable laws when it comes to searching a person’s employment background so you don’t have to worry about the background screening process when you’re focused on growing your business and industry. That’s the first advantage of using the right company for background checks for employment and your hiring decisions will be made in days, not weeks. Getting your background report should be easy and handled completely by professionals for all your employment purposes, no matter what kind of business you’re in.

Background Check Types and Uses

There are a few different types of background checks for employment and your business will have a background check policy that works in the industry it inhabits for the kind of work that each candidate is expected to carry out. Employers will have the option to get a background report with the information they need to make final hiring decisions and choosing the correct information will make a difference in the amount of time it takes to run the background check process. Any background report can have information on federal and state law criminality, drug screening, and driving records.

For a more involved candidate check, your business can opt for employment verification, education verification, and a reference check to ensure you’re hiring the right person for the job, no matter what it happens to be. Background checks for employment can even go beyond employment background checks with information on credit history when you need an employee who can be trusted with financial decisions. On top of all that, background screening can go beyond employment background checks and give you reports on social media accounts and objectionable behavior on the internet.

Communicating with Candidates

Communicating with every candidate is important throughout the hiring process, no matter which industry you’re in, so access to the information, as it’s available, will make all the difference to both employers and prospective employees. Your background check status should always be available to you while the background checks are being carried out so you know what’s going on and can speak with the candidate about anything. Whether it’s about the employment background of the candidate or something to do with local laws, the sooner you know about it, the sooner you can get more information.

Each candidate is also entitled to all information from background checks, so it’s important to have an easy way to get it to them, including their employment background, credit information, and criminal history. It’s only fair that employers give the candidate a chance to dispute any inaccurate information that might show up on their records and it should be easy to give them a copy of everything you get from the company running the employment background checks for your business. This is just one more reason that employers should seek out the right company to run their checks for them, no matter how important they believe the process happens to be in their hiring practices within the industry they inhabit.

Best Practices for Background Checks

There are some best practices for employers to follow for employment background checks and background screening, with the most important being that you always have to get the consent of the candidate before you look into any of the history they haven’t already provided to you. Whether or not you check into their references is up to you, but any further background screening will require a signature from the prospective employee before you start getting the background checks you need to make your decision. This is possibly the most important rule that employers have to follow and it’s the same for every industry in the country, no matter how often to carry out the process or mention it to your candidates.

It’s also important to understand the laws that apply to asking a potential employee about his or her criminal record before running background checks or asking for information about it on the job application they fill out. Many states make it illegal to ask about this information, and it may not be possible for you to ask the candidate to willfully provide a copy of their criminal record as a way to circumvent the practices. That’s why it’s so important to have the right company carry out your background screening for you since they’ll know all the applicable laws and practices that have to be a part of your hiring process.

Avoiding Pitfalls and Ensuring Compliance

No matter how many new employees you’ve onboarded or how many new hires you need for your business, it’s always going to be in your best interests to have a professional company take care of your background screening for you, and it doesn’t matter how much or how little information you need to know. Some companies specialize in background screening and they’ll keep you in the loop as information is made available so you don’t have to simply wait to get the full report before going with a new hire or seeking out someone else. The sooner employers begin the process, the sooner they’ll have the information so positions aren’t left unfilled at a time when you need new employees the most.

Keep in mind that employers will always need a signature from the candidates before they can run their checks to ensure compliance and carry out the best ways of getting the information they need when filling a position. Each industry is different, but the more care that’s put into the checks, the better employers will know their potential hires before onboarding them and making them an integral part of their business. Always carry out pre-employment background checks and you’ll know who you’re employing and how capable they happen to be at doing the work you need them to do.