RELIABLE BACKGROUND SCREENING INDUSTRY NEWS AND ARTICLES

There is a plethora of referral services (and other types of companies) that promote, “our members (or employees) are background checked.” Some of these companies advertise on television and other media formats, while many others only promote their services via brochures and signs. When you check “the fine print” of the websites of most of these companies, the efficacy and adequacy of their background checks are typically disavowed. Most companies and regrettably, even many individuals responsible for human resources, do not fully understand the complexities and issues in performing a “best practices” background check. There are several reasons for this: There is [...]

A revised FCRA Summary of Rights must be used starting September 21, 2018. The key compliance impact for companies and other organizations that need to obtain a background check ̶ be it employee screening, tenant screening, franchisee screening, country club membership screening or other type of permissible business purpose background check ̶ is that a new FCRA Summary of Rights must now be provided. This required change is due to the recent amendment to the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) by the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act (S. 2155). The main effect of the amendment is that whenever an [...]

Criminal records typically have no Social Security Number attached to them. Thus searching for criminal records is performed on a legal name and date of birth match. The challenge is that there are at most 366 days in a year, but there are nearly 330 million people in the United States. No matter how unique your name is, it’s likely that at least several if not thousands of people share the same name as you – and with only 365/366 days in a year, it is possible and highly likely with common names – that you share not only a name but [...]

Hiring employees is generally a gamble. One never knows if the individual who applies for employment will truly succeed. Many individuals interview very well. Unfortunately, once on the job, many do not really work out. Even those who reach and surpass the proverbial 90-day probationary period are often not your ideal employee. Yet companies and organizations often keep sub-standard performers employed years after hire, due to the time and expense of conducting a new candidate search and then training another hire. Business owners and managers, either because of inertia, or taking the path of least resistance, often take the position that the [...]