What Comes Up When Companies Run Background Checks

Here's What Employers Wait for When They Run a Background Bank check

What do employers look for in a background check ?

When it comes to the pre-employment vetting processes, every employer volition approach things differently, depending on their size and resource, their industry, and the job or jobs they demand to fill. There are many types of background reporting services an employer can social club, all of which provide different information types from various sources. Generally speaking, a pre-hire investigation will cheque for a criminal record, verify resume information, such as by employment, educational credentials, and professional licenses or certifications. Perhaps assess other types of information, such as a driving record or credit history.

Read on to learn more than about what shows up on an employment background check.

The Employment Groundwork Bank check

Employers run history checks on their candidates for various reasons. For instance, past reviewing a person'southward criminal by, a hiring director can assess the level of take a chance that a candidate might pose if given the job at hand. In some cases, a person'south criminal past may fifty-fifty prevent them from working a specific type of job, such every bit a registered sex offender interviewing for a didactics position. On the other hand, verification checks of employment, pedagogy, and credentials are an essential stride for helping employers determine whether their candidates are qualified for the chore at hand.

What Employers Can and Will Wait At

Below, we have recapped the well-nigh common types of employee background verification, equally well as the kind of information each of those checks will typically return. Exercise note that, while employers are typically allowed to consider the data highlighted below as role of the pre-employment procedure, that privilege is not absolute. Employers must follow the tenets of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when conducting searches, which include very detailed steps for obtaining a subject's permission earlier looking into their past.

Besides, the specific laws and regulations surrounding the data in each category may vary depending on land or local jurisdiction. Nosotros have highlighted checks that tend to exist more regulated and, therefore, limited.

Work history

Piece of work history is ane of the acme items that hiring managers consider when assessing candidates for a vacancy. The idea is that someone's employment experience can offer a skilful sense of how qualified they are for a particular job. Some jobs call for candidates to accept a specified number of years' feel working in a specific industry or type of position. In other cases, employers will not be nearly equally particular about work history. However, they volition still consider employment history to determine what skills or hands-on experience applicants may bring to the job.

Employment verification checks piece of work differently than many other types of groundwork checks. No database tracks where people have worked over the years. While candidates cocky-provide this information on their resumes and/or task applications, verification checks are an opportunity for employers to vet that information for inaccuracies or falsehood—an of import step given the commonality of dishonesty on resumes.

Since there is no job history database, these checks ever involve direct contact with previous employers. At backgroundchecks.com, we contact past employers on behalf of the hiring team to verify central information on the resume, such every bit dates of employment and job title.

Credit bank check

Some employers consider a candidate'south credit history as part of the pre-employment cheque process. These types of checks are prevalent in finance-related jobs, such as cyberbanking or stock trading, to appraise a candidate's financial habits. Some employers believe that, by evaluating how a person handles money in their personal life, they will know how to grade that person'southward overall financial responsibility in the professional realm. A credit cheque that reveals poor credit can sometimes be a sign of risk for an employer filling a function involving accounts, handling money, or other financial matters.

Employers should tread carefully when using this type of screening, even so. While fiscal literacy and responsibility are essential skills for some jobs, there has been some debate in recent years about how much insight a candidate's credit record tin can lend to this blazon of position. Medical bills, unemployment, and especially student loans are factors that tin touch on a person'southward credit detrimentally. Particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused substantial spikes in unemployment rates nationwide, disqualifying someone for bad credit may be seen equally only exacerbating the problem.

It is too worth noting that credit assessments for employment purposes are illegal in some areas. In xi states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington – plus several other jurisdictions (including Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia), employers are heavily restricted in their ability to employ credit screenings when making hiring decisions. Employers should be aware of their local and country laws when considering this type of assessment.

Criminal records

Criminal searches are the cornerstone of most verification processes. These records tin include "red flags" such every bit violent offenses, sex crimes, embezzlement convictions, DUIs, or other history that could render someone a risky rent. Employers will await for this blazon of information to protect their legal interests, as well equally their customers, other employees, their finances, and more. For example, an employer hiring for financial accounts and sensitive personal data would want to avoid hiring a candidate with a history of embezzlement or identity theft, lest they take advantage of their position to commit similar crimes. Employers who overlook this type of relevant criminal history in filling a task may face negligent hiring lawsuits if the person they rent ends upwards facing farther accusations for their behavior on the job.

At backgrounchecks.com, we offer various criminal searches, including a county check, a state repository search, a federal court search, and an instant search of our proprietary multi-jurisdictional database.

Reverse to popular belief, there is no single, central database for criminal information. Records about criminal charges or convictions are ofttimes filed at the county courthouse level. Still, they may as well be filed at U.S. District Courts (in the instance of federal crimes) or reported into state repositories (in the case of state records searches). We recommend a multi-faceted criminal exploration, incorporating county checks in places where the candidate has lived recently. We too offering searches of our Usa OneSEARCH database, which includes more than than 650 million criminal records from all 50 states and all U.Due south. territories.

Driving tape

When hiring for jobs that involve operating vehicles, employers will often include driving record checks every bit part of their candidate vetting process. While motor vehicle history is not relevant to all jobs, it is one of the most critical metrics for delivery vacancies, trucking jobs, positions that involve operating heavy structure machinery, and other like types of employment. A history of unsafe driving – from lots of speeding tickets to suspended licenses and DUI convictions – is a prophylactic and liability risk for employers filling these types of positions.

References

Though sometimes confused with employment verification checks, reference checks serve a unlike purpose. Employment verifications determine whether resume data is accurate, while professional references are people who can speak to a candidate's character, task performance, skills, and overall work style. Often, employers will ask that candidates list two to three references equally part of the job application. Reference checks involve contacting those individuals direct to learn more virtually the candidate.

Verification Checks

Beyond work history and references, verification checks can also check a person'southward educational credentials and professional licenses. Education checks involve contacting a higher or academy to verify that a candidate attended, also as dates of attendance, degrees or certificates received, and whatever honors attached to those degrees.

Professional license verifications ensure that a person holds the license(southward) necessary to work in a specific field in a item state. Examples include didactics licenses, licenses to practice law, nursing licenses, or licenses to practise medicine.

What Employers Cannot look At

While different types of employment background checks can reveal much information about a candidate, in that location are certain types of information that employers are not immune to access—even as function of checks that might seem to reveal that data. Examples include:

School records

While educational activity verifications will indicate whether a candidate earned the higher degree they claimed on their resume - these checks won't show a full school tape. Employers won't know which courses the candidate took, for instance, or what grades they received. School records from farther back—high school, for example—are also not accessible to employers.

Military records

There is no type of history checking service available to private employers to access a person's war machine record. While candidates may voluntarily offer information almost their war machine service, if applicative, employers should not programme to vet that information, cheque for details about a person'due south military history, or look for bear witness of discharges.

Medical records

Much of the information gleaned through an employee or candidate investigation is technically part of the public record. Medical records do not fall into this category: they are private documents, with privacy ensured by doctor-patient confidentiality. Employers should not expect to larn about medical history through background screening.

Criminal history

While criminal history is at the center of many pre-employment vetting protocols, that doesn't hateful employers have gratuitous reign to access or brand hiring decisions based on the full scope of a person'southward criminal record?. Records that have been sealed or expunged, for case, should non characteristic on a check report and cannot be used to bar a person from employment. Many states also have laws that restrict the use of arrest records in hiring, that specify a criminal history lookback period of seven years, or both. Employers should accept care to learn the laws of where they exercise business organization to avoid any compliance issues in how they use criminal details in their hiring decisions.

How to Fix for an Employment Background Check

Request "What practice employers look for in a background check?" is a smart strategy for job seekers wishing to prepare themselves for the employment screening procedure. Hither are a few steps that candidates tin can continue in mind to avoid any surprises:

Empathize what previous employers might say about you

Reverse to widespread assumption, most employers volition stick to answering only simple signal-of-fact questions when chosen for an employment verification check. Task titles, employment dates, the reason for leaving, eligibility for rehire: these topics are objective talking points that HR managers are willing to answer. More than freeform questions, such equally a past employer's comment on character or work ethic, are challenging territory. HR managers or former supervisors will oftentimes decline to answer them to avoid legal claims of defamation from their previous employees.

Obtain your records

Job seekers concerned virtually the verification process are oftentimes encouraged to run investigations on themselves. At backgroundchecks.com, we even offering a cocky-bank check service. This strategy provides an opportunity for a candidate to see their tape and get a preview of what their hiring director volition see. Running a self-check tin can be a valuable manner to brand sure that an expungement has gone through or simply to achieve peace of mind.

Bank check your credit

Like a self-check for criminal history, a self-check for credit can give a sense of what employers might see and what conclusions they could draw from that information. Job seekers volition sometimes employ these self-assessments to determine if they need to provide whatsoever explanations most their history that may help provide context for less-than-flattering results. Note that every consumer is entitled to a free credit report from each of the iii credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) each yr.

Often Asked Questions

What tin disqualify a job candidate on a background bank check?

The respond to this question will vary from one employer to the next. Factors such as the industry where the employer operates, industry regulations, state and local laws, the job in question, specific company policies, and fifty-fifty the leniency of individual hiring managers can touch the answer. The virtually common disqualifiers in the vetting process tend to be either severe felony convictions (vehement crimes, sexual activity offenses, etc.) or blatant dishonesty of the job seeker. These factors register every bit "red flags" almost no affair the industry or visitor. Yet, as previously discussed, other factors can be disqualifiers as well, depending on the job—such as a history of unsafe driving, for jobs that involve driving, or bad credit, for financial-related positions.

How does a background check verify employment?

At backgroundchecks.com, we conduct employment verifications past contacting a candidate's past employers and asking key questions about employment dates, job titles, and other information.

What tin be revealed in a background check?

A "groundwork check" is, in fact, multiple checks or searches of various data sources, intending to provide a detailed and wide-reaching view of a job candidate's past. A pre-hire screening company can check a person's criminal past, driving history, by employment, education, and professional licensing. It too includes references, civil court history, address history, Social Security Number, aliases/alternate names, credit, bankruptcy history, social media presence, and more.

Michael Klazema

About Michael Klazema The author

Michael Klazema is Chief Marketing Technologist at EY-VODW.com and has over two decades of feel in digital consulting, online product management, and engineering science innovation. He is the lead author and editor for Dallas-based backgroundchecks.com with a focus on human resource and employment screening developments.