In today’s hyper response and increasingly litigious culture, the pressure of starting, growing, and maintaining a healthy business is in large part dependent upon making the right hiring and firing decisions. Negligent hiring and retention lawsuits are becoming common and courts and juries are not sympathetic to companies that “should have known” the background of their employees before and after hiring them.
As a result, employers lose more than 79% of negligent hiring and retention cases, and those that decide to settle before going to trial average paying more than $1,000,000 per incident! This means, it’s more important than ever to run background checks in order to gain accurate and actionable information for your hiring decisions; and this article will help you better understand the background check process, and what to expect as you go about selecting a screening partner.
#1: How long does a typical background check take to complete?
Generally speaking, the average TAT (Turn Around Time) is 24-48 hours for most background checks; however, depending on court access, remoteness, and clerk availability it can take a couple of hours or several days to complete. The reasons vary, but largely it boils down to a couple of factors;
- The depth a client wants to achieve (i.e. 10 year, 7 year, 3 year, or 1 year criminal history); making the TAT dependent on where the applicant has lived, worked or gone to school in the past, which could include international locations which can take weeks to get results. Plus it can also come down to what is found after the initial research because sometimes, we need additional court documents to validate findings in order to keep your use compliant with the FCRA or state laws.
- The capability of the courts. Courts that offer direct electronic access with identifiers turn very quickly vs. off- line clerk assisted or manual courts that take much longer because case files have to be pulled, searched, and manually recorded by paid researchers and/or county clerks. Additionally, in the era of COVID, some courts close access for days and even weeks due to staffing issues which creates extended delays and huge back-logs.
#2: Why can’t I just use Google or Social Media to run my own background checks?
Don’t do this! There are a variety of rules, ordinances, state, and federal laws that must be followed by employers when it comes to what can legally be used for employment purposes; therefore, it is very important that employers have an understanding and comply with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s enforcement guidance on the use of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions, state consumer reporting laws, and state and local ban-the-box ordinances which limit and/or prohibit asking about arrests and/or convictions before an offer of employment has been extended.
Plus, employers need to be especially aware of privacy and discrimination issues that could arise when looking at a candidates’ social media and online profiles. Race, color, national origin, religion, gender, disability, age and citizenship status are all protected characteristics; not to mention the minefield of free-speech and self-expression issues that open all sorts of bias for hiring managers and expose you and your company to discrimination and/or wrongful termination claims and lawsuits. Working with a qualified Background Screening firm will help you head off these and many other issues.
#3: Isn’t there a “Nationwide” database for background checks like on NCIS?
Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a Nationwide Criminal background check… because there are no centralized or standardized reporting systems for the over 3800 criminal jurisdictions, plus the hundreds more local, state, federal agencies, and licensing/credentialing agencies that maintain mountains of watch-lists, sanctions lists, licensing, and other background information. What are being called Nationwide Checks are actually incomplete private databases of historical public records and public digital record sources that may or may not be accurate, timely, or up to date with the latest information. Plus with only approx. 65% of criminal records available digitally it’s a long way from being Nationwide. That’s why the FCRA mandates any criminal “hits” recovered from any database must be verified at the local originating source, typically the local county court house where the record originated.
Not even the so called “Gold Standard” FBI fingerprint database is complete… because the FBI acknowledges they are missing over 50% of the dispositions for the records they house and they have no way of verifying the accuracy of the information that is submitted matches the applicant that it is associated to! Which means the FBI system, is actually one of the worst sources for employment related information because of missing identifiers and dispositions. And so, don’t believe everything you see on TV, because while useful as an indicator, databases are not the best source for background information… are not all inclusive, and are not the originating source for final dispositions.
#4: How long should I keep a background check report?
The FCRA does not require employers to retain background check reports for any specific amount of time, but there are other factors to consider, including contractual agreements with your background screening vendor, and federal and state statutes of limitations related to document retention.
As far as the FCRA is concerned, an applicant, employee or regulatory agency can sue you for a violation related to a background check for up to five years from the date of the violation; and a person who was injured or harmed by one of your employees can typically sue you for up to two years from the date of injury or harm.
Therefore, many employers retain hired employees’ background check reports for three years from the date of employment and/or termination; and for non-hired applicants’ for six years from the date of the no-hire decision.
EDIFY Background Screening is headquartered in Greensboro, NC. As members of the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA), Concerned CRA’s, and designated as a Preferred Partner with many of their vendors and clients EDIFY Background Screening uses the latest in technology and process development to provide Nationwide, Comprehensive, Fast, and Affordable background screening to a wide range of industries across the country.
