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Employee Background Screening Helps Bosses and Workers

Guest post by: Lester Rosen

Article Overview: Employers that hire a worker that is dangerous, unqualified, unfit or dishonest can face a legal and financial nightmare. Background checks have become mission critical for keeping an employer productive and out of court. Without exercising due diligence, firms are likely to hire problems just waiting to happen. However, job applicants should not feel that background checks are an invasion of privacy. Federal law gives applicants a great deal of rights in the process, and a safe workplace with qualified and honest workers benefits everyone.

Employee Background Screening Helps Bosses and Workers

Employers are increasingly turning to background screenings of job applicants as a way of minimizing legal and financial exposure from a bad hiring decision. Concerns about workplace violence, negligent-hiring lawsuits, false resumes, the high cost of employee turnover, wrongful termination threats and other problems are leading many employers to be more careful about who is hired in the first place. A firm that hires an employee that is dangerous, unqualified, unfit or dishonest may find themselves more focused on dealing with the problem employee than growing their business. Employers not only have a duty to exercise due diligence in hiring, but background checks have become mission critical for any business of any size that wants to hire the best employees possible. For applicants, however, background screening can create an uneasy feeling that they are mistrusted from the start or that Big Brother is watching. The fact is, however, that background screenings of job applicants benefit employers and employees alike. And under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, job applicants have a great deal of legal protection. A number of states also afford protection to consumers as well. For job applicants and employees, the advantages of working for a company that requires employment screening is that efforts have been made to ensure that co-workers have the qualifications and credentials they say they have. No one wants to work along side someone that got a job by lying about their qualification, such as past employment or education. There is increasing evidence that if a person got a job dishonestly, then they are more likely to be dishonest once in the job. In addition, employers typically screen for criminal records, especially those involving violence or dishonesty. Maintaining a safe workplace is a critical consideration for everyone. For the employer, screening saves the time and money wasted in recruiting, hiring and training the wrong candidates and eliminates potential difficulties in the work force, not to mention the threat of lawsuits. Of course, a background screening is not a full-fledged FBI-type investigation. Screening companies are typically looking for red flags indicating potential problems or resumes that are not factual or omit important information. Job applicants have been afforded substantial new legal rights to ensure the accuracy and fairness of the process. Consumers must be informed about exactly what is going on and be given the opportunity to voice their objections in case of errors or mistakes. An applicant’s rights are listed in detail on the Federal Trade Commission Web site. Under the FCRA, when an employer uses a background screening company to prepare a report, several steps must occur: • The employer must clearly disclose to the applicant in a separate document that a report is being prepared. The disclosure can no longer be buried in an application in the fine print. • A signed release is required before checking records such as criminal convictions or pending criminal cases, driving records, credit reports or educational credentials. • An additional notice is required when a background firm checks references, such as asking previous employers about job performance. • If an employer intends to deny employment based upon information in the report, the job applicant must receive a copy of the report and a notice of legal rights. • If an applicant believes the information is wrong, the applicant can inform the screening agency, which must remove or correct inaccurate or unverified information, usually within 30 days. • Applicants have the right to inspect their files. The law is designed to strike a balance between an employer’s need to exercise due diligence in hiring and an applicant’s right of accuracy and privacy. For applicants who are genuinely the victims of mistaken identity or bureaucratic errors, there is an opportunity to know what is being said about them and to fix the record so they are not denied opportunities unfairly. For a job applicant, honesty is always the best policy. Negative information honestly disclosed in an interview with an explanation may well have no effect. However, if the employer discovers it through a third party, then the lack of honesty may be the reason for not getting the position. Even a criminal conviction cannot legally automatically disqualify a person from employment, without considering the nature of the offense, when it occurred, what the applicant has done since and whether it is related to job performance. The bottom-line: Employees are typically a businesses biggest asset and expense. Unless employers choose carefully, a bad hire can become a firm’s biggest liability. A well thought out hiring plan including background screening can help any seize business stay productive and focused on their business instead of being sidetracked unnecessarily by bad hiring decisions.

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Article Tags: background checks, due diligence, employee background screening, honest workers, invasion of privacy, job applicants, nightmare



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