Franchisee Background Checks

Protect Your Brand. Reduce Risk. Select the Right Franchisee Candidates.

Franchisee background checks are a critical step in protecting your brand, reputation, and long-term growth. You invest significant amounts of time, capital, and resources into awarding a franchise to the best prospect. Ensuring that each is financially responsible, trustworthy, and capable of representing your brand is essential to the success of your franchise system.  We are the top franchisee background screening firm to help you in this process!

At Reliable Background Screening, we specialize in franchisee background checks that help franchisors make informed, compliant decisions—quickly and confidently. With over 35 years of experience, focused on the franchise industry, and as an IFA Supplier, we are a trusted partner to franchise brands nationwide.

Why Conduct Franchisee Background Checks?

Awarding a franchise is one of the most important decisions a franchisor makes. Background checks help ensure you are bringing the right people into your system.

Protect Your Brand and Reputation

Franchisees act as ambassadors of your brand. A single poor decision can result in reputational damage, legal exposure, or operational disruption across the entire system.  As our CEO and Founder, Rudy Troisi states, “If you could have known, you SHOULD have known. ®”

Reduce Risk of Negligent Hiring or Awarding

Failing to properly vet franchise candidates can expose brands to claims of negligent hiring or awarding. Comprehensive background checks help demonstrate due diligence and risk mitigation.  We can help you with a background screening program that is right for your brand!

No Cost to the Franchisor

Franchisee background checks can be built directly into your Franchise Disclosure Document (FDD), allowing the candidate to pay for the screening—making it a no-cost risk management tool for the franchisor.  Further, smart franchisees who typically invest a considerable amount of their wealth into a brand will appreciate paying for a thorough, comprehensive background check – knowing that future applicants will similarly be vetted – thus protecting their own personal investment in the franchise brand.

Fast, Reliable Turnaround

Most franchisee background check results are returned within 2–3 business days, helping you keep the franchise awarding process moving efficiently.

Validate Financial Responsibility

You are investing significant resources to onboard your selected candidates, so you don’t want to waste resources on what could become a bad egg. Franchisee Background checks help confirm that candidates are financially capable, responsible, and prepared to operate and grow your business exactly as your intentions desire.

Increase Franchisee Success and System Growth

Screening the right candidates leads to stronger franchisees, better unit performance, reduced failure rates, and a healthier, more scalable franchise system.

What Should a Franchisee Background Check Include?

A comprehensive franchisee background check should go beyond a basic criminal search. Reliable Background Screening offers customizable packages that include:

• Criminal Background Checks – There are multiple layers to criminal background checks, as there is no single, centralized criminal database in the United States. Best-practice background screening procedures involve searching multiple criminal record sources to ensure comprehensive coverage, including the criminal courts outlined below:
  • County, State, Federal
  • National Criminal Database
  • Sex Offender Registry
  • OFAC, SDN and other global “watch lists”
• Identity Verification / Address History – This search helps identify a candidate’s prior address history and any alias names used. In some cases, candidates may omit or withhold this information; however, our screening methods are designed to uncover accurate identity and address history to support more comprehensive risk assessment.
• Credit Reports: Evaluate the credit-worthiness of your franchisee applicants. We can help by providing credit reports on these individuals. “Soft-pull” credit reports for franchisee screening are also available, which mitigate any negative impact on credit scores for those candidates’ requiring extensions of credit.
• Bankruptcy Liens and Judgements:  This is an essential search, since tax liens and civil judgments have disappeared from all credit reports since July 1, 2017.
• Motor Vehicle Records (MVR) (if applicable) – MVR information is essential in showing character related behavior that may be crucial to understanding your candidate, including multiple DUIs, failure to appear in court, suspended license, vehicle drug related offenses, etc.
• Social Media Screening – Our social media background check reviews an applicant’s publicly available online activity to identify behaviors that may pose risk to your organization. The screening flags job-relevant risk categories—such as hate speech, threats or violence, explicit content, and drug-related behavior—while filtering out information protected under ADA and EEOC guidelines.
• Employment Verifications – Let our U.S.-based team help conduct primary source verifications to verify if your candidate is telling the truth on their resume.  It has been reported that 50% of Americans admit to lying on their resume with the most common on verifications of employment and education/degree.
• Civil & Legal Records – While less commonly included in screening packages, this search can reveal patterns of litigation or legal disputes, helping identify candidates who may demonstrate litigious high-risk behavior.
• Global Searches (when applicable) – Reliable Background Screening provides franchisee background checks and credit reporting services covering more than 250 countries and territories worldwide. While we are a U.S.-based firm and require our clients to be headquartered in the United States or Canada, we can support international background screening needs for organizations with global locations or candidates abroad.

All franchisee background checks are conducted in compliance with federal (FCRA) and applicable state and municipal regulations.  Although you should always defer to your legal for final decisions on your background screening program, Reliable Background Screening is well versed in consumer reporting laws and regulations nationwide!

Why Choose Reliable Background Screening for Franchisee Background Checks?

Reliable Background Screening is a privately owned, client-focused firm with deep expertise in franchising and consumer reporting laws.  We are truly client-driven to provide you and your candidates with the best experience and ease of use:

Our Value to Franchisors

• Over 35 years of industry experience
• Extensive work with hundreds of franchise systems nationwide
• Experts in federal (FCRA), state, and local compliance
• Average turnaround time of 2–3 business days
• Transparent, discounted pricing with no hidden or back-end fees
• All customer service and data remain U.S.-based
• Hands-on support in building compliant franchisee screening programs

We don’t just run reports—we help franchisors protect their systems and make defensible decisions.

There are many reasons why Reliable Background Screening has been voted as a top enterprise background screening firm in a client-based survey by HRO Today.   Hear more about our recent award as a top ten background screening firm.

Franchisee Responsibility: Employee Background Screening Is Essential

Franchisee background checks are only the first step in protecting your brand. Once awarded, franchisees are responsible for hiring employees who also represent your brand daily.

Employee background screening is no longer optional—it is essential.

Why Franchisees Must Screen Employees:

• Protect brand reputation at the unit level
• Reduce risk of theft, workplace violence, and misconduct
• Lower exposure to negligent hiring claims
• Increase employee longevity and reduce turnover
• Create a safer environment for customers and staff

Franchisees who implement consistent, compliant franchise employee background screening programs are far more likely to build stable teams, reduce risk, and operate successful locations over the long term.

Reliable Background Screening supports franchise systems by delivering standardized employee screening programs that franchisors can recommend as a preferred provider—or require—across all units. With deep expertise in consumer reporting laws and regulations, we help franchisors implement compliant, consistent screening programs across all states in which they operate, reducing exposure to negligent hiring risk.

Just as your brand’s operations and its “secret sauce” is standardized for your franchise network’s success, your employee background screening program should be consistent system-wise to help protect the franchise brand and all of its franchisees.

A Trusted Partner for Franchise Growth

At Reliable Background Screening, we understand that franchisee background checks protect more than a single location—they protect your entire brand. Our role is to help franchisors confidently award franchises, reduce risk, and build stronger systems through accurate, compliant, and timely screening.

If you are looking for a trusted partner for franchisee background checks, we’re here to support you.

CONTACT US today and learn how we can help your organization design a compliant and effective franchisee background check program.

AWARDS & AFFILIATIONS

To request information or to ask questions regarding background screening call (800) 787-2439 or click above.