Background Checks
Today it is more important than ever for employers to carry out background checks on prospective employeess. The following examples serve to illustrate the importance of carrying out comprehensive research prior to employing someone.
Prior to hiring a woman to look after for a patient, a home healthcare agency carried out a a background check. The agency discovered that the person had been convicted of second-degree robbery, had served twelve months in jail, and had been required to attend an anger management course. Shortly after the company had refused the woman the position, it was discovered that she had been charged with the murder of a child.
A similar event came to light when a hotel company carried out background checks on all of the employees at a newly acquired hotel and discovered that several had criminal convictions and one had been found guilty of murder.
In another case a nursing agency discovered by doing Social Security traces that some of its nurses were using Social Security numbers of dead people.
As you can see from these examples if background checks are not carried out you may not be working with the kind of people that you may wish. Regrettably, however, many employers fail to carry out these checks and are only aware of problems with an employee when an incidence of violence, theft, fraud, or sexual harassment occurs. Employers that carry out the necessary checks not only safeguard their company's assets but also protect their reputations.
In fact employers have a duty of care in hiring individuals who may represent a threat to others. If a employer has not observed due diligence in their recruiting procedure and someone is injured as a consequence, the company may be liable to charges of negligent hiring.
A company can defend itself from this accusation by demonstrating that it had acted correctly in the hiring of an individual through adequate employment screening. Companies that are unable to demonstrate that they have acted responsibly by adopting adequate screening procedures may well find that will have to meet expensive legal costs awarded against them.
Although background checks are legally deemed only advisory, some are mandatory, such as the comprehensive background checks for all childcare providers and in some instances for anyone working with children, the elderly, or disabled persons.
There are also laws prohibiting convicted criminals from taking part in in financial and security-related transactions. An organization will want to ensure that it has the subject's permission to carry out any background checks and that the company or its service provider complies with all disclosure requirements and other related laws.
A good place to begin are with are birth records and a Social Security background check which can be obtained by going to any the three major credit bureaus or by using databases that have purchased this information in bulk. This information helps identify the subject, provides other aliases used by him, and reveals past addresses that can be used as locations to check criminal history.
With the information gathered from the Social Security trace, the criminal history can be checked. A search may throw up convictions, arrest warrants, and bail status. Driving records are another good place to do. A motor vehicle report can throw light on to a person's character. Reports with DUIs or drug possession charges, several tickets or accidents, a current warrant, or an applicant's failure to appear in court may can give warnings about a persons behaviour.
It should also be noted that a vehicle report also contains the subject's date of birth. The DOB on the license can be compared to the information provided by the subject as a crosscheck. This is needed for the criminal records search, as DOB is the primary identifier in a criminal record.
Credit reports are an excellent method to assess the reliability of a candidate who may later have to handle cash, use a credit card, or update accounting records. Although bankruptcies are public records, employers cannot discriminate against candidates who have filed for bankruptcy.
Civil lawsuits are usually not job-related and employers should be careful if they choose to carry out a search of civil records. Regardless of any authorization within the disclosure form provided to the employee, employers should seek civil information only if they are certain that discovery of lawsuit information could relate to the job requirements.
Civil records should only be used when they are included with a more comprehensive background search, such as in a search for management personnel. In those instances, civil suit searches could help discover relevant information about whether the person should be entrusted with a senior position.
Recently, databases containing national criminal files have been made easily available from specialist companies who have successful in purchasing these bulk files such as "Gov-Resources". They are generally composed of several state correctional institution lists, sex offender lists, state repository lists, and some county court jurisdiction information.
These databases serve as a good starting point, because the data from them can be used to identify records in counties the potential employee visited but never lived in or counties where the subject lived so long ago that the location does not appear on a Social Security trace report.
Every new employee has the potential to enhance the company's reputation. By conducting a proper background check, management can improve the probability that the person will not, instead, create difficulties further down the road.