Michael Klazema
Background checks, while common in most employment settings, remain misunderstood by the masses. We examine five background check myths and the truths behind them.
Virtually every employer these days uses some form of background check to vet new hires. Some industries even require background checks. Despite how common background checks have become, they remain wildly misunderstood by the public. Here are five of the most common background check myths and the truths behind them.
Source: https://www.backgroundchecks.com/learningcenter
Hollywood has given us the impression the authorities have a magical computer system somewhere that can pull criminal history information on anyone in the world—or at least the United States—in a matter of seconds. The reality is quite a bit more mundane.
Criminal records are scattered around the different county and federal court systems where they were filed and tried. Sometimes, these records end up in state repositories. Other times, they are pulled into multi-jurisdictional databases. Nowhere on the planetis there a truly all-encompassing database of criminal records.
One of the bigger legislative trends to touch the background check industry in many years is the ban the box movement. Contrary to popular belief, ban the box does not prohibit employers from running background checks. Instead, ban the box laws require employers to remove questions about criminal history from their job applications. Some laws also delay the background check until after a conditional offer of employment has been made, but no ban the box law prohibits the employer from running a background check.
Job seekers sometimes fail to realize how much of their information can be checked or verified using background searches—often to their detriment. Criminal background checks do tend to be at the center of most pre-employment screening policies. However, employers can also order background checks to verify resume information (including work history, education, and professional licenses), check references, look at driving records, pull credit history, and more.
Another misconception bred in part by a Hollywood trope is the expectation of instant background checks. In fact, some background checks do process instantly: if you are working with a background check that maintains its own multi-jurisdictional criminal records database, the company should be able to process those searches instantaneously. However, for other types of checks, there are more steps than just typing a name into a computer.
County criminal history checks sometimes involve sending court runners to the court in question to search for a record, while verification checks usually involve calling college admissions offices or past employers. These steps can easily cause delays in the background check process—delays employers should anticipate and plan for to avoid a sub-par candidate experience.
Often, background checks are talked about with “pass/fail” language. “Passing” a background check is generally meant to indicate that the candidate has no criminal history or red flags, while “failing” a background check means there were red flags and the employer is at liberty to disqualify the person from job consideration. The reality is a lot more complicated.
First, employers need to follow the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Among other things, the FCRA requires employers to give their candidates a chance to review criminal history findings before taking adverse action. Second, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued guidance instructing employers to reject candidates only for background check findings that relate directly to the job at hand. Failure to follow this guidance can lead to discrimination claims and even litigation.
Michael Klazema is Chief Marketing Technologist at VODW.com and has over two decades of experience in digital consulting, online product management and technology innovation. In the evenings he wor...
