New hire background checks

Bill Leftwich · May 2006

What is the current feeling for the proper use of background checks. I don't beleive they are necessary for my new hires since they don't handle money or critical information.

WT · May 2006

Backround checks can be useful to bring to light facts that applicants would not disclose. Use of them is fairly heavily regulated now so if you do use them, do it right.

You must disclose to the applicant that you intend to use an outside agency for a backround check and receive written authorization from the applicant. You must certify to the agancy that you will comply with the statute (FCRA). Before you take adverse action based on what is in the report, you must notify the applicant that adverse action is possible, provide a copy of the report to the applicant, and provide the applicant a copy of consumer rights. If you do not hire the applicant, you must send yet another disclosure to the applicant to explain the role of the employer and agency preparing the report. The applicant has a right to dispute the information with the agency and receive a free copy of the report from the agency. Further, it must be explained that the agency did not make the adverse employment decision.

Good luck.

Brother Bluto · May 2006

I believe strongly in doing background checks for all new hires. Here's the arguement, if you could have found out about a persons background, but made no effort to look into it you're putting your company at risk for liability. If you hire a convicted fellon with a violent background and the employee becomes physically violent with one of your employees you're going to have some liability on your sholders. Just because you didn't do a background check and didn't know the hire was a convicted felon, does not preclude your company from responsibility if something were to occur. The other arguement for a background check makes for a selling point when hiring people. You are letting each person that works for you know the company has made a good faith effort to assure that they are entering a safe and secure work environment. Makes me feel better just saying it!

Down_the_Middle · May 2006

I strongly share the sentiments of the prior responses......... money has little to do w/your ability to feel comfortable with the new hire. Requiring criminal BGC's not only tells your customers/vendors/clients, etc that you are serious about employing quality applicants, but it helps you avoid those embarrasing situations that often arise on 20/20 or AC 360 when someone goes off the deep end and it should've been known at the front end. In my industry, we routinely accept 4K applications per year and find a 1% presence of felony convictions. We generally discharge 1-2 people per year for not disclosing convictions at the front end and we find it via BGC's........

pork1 · May 2006

Bill: Welcome to the forum! I agree with all stated above. We only do truck driver back ground checks. We also run a check on-line for W/C issues for new employees. Otherwise, we get a MVR run on anyone that will be assigned to operate any company vehicles! If anything pops out of these routine checks we would then seek a police check of the employee history in criminal activities.

PORK

HRVolley · May 2006

>> We also run a check on-line for
>W/C issues for new employees.

PORK

I am assuming you are referring to Worker's Comp. Where/How do you run an online check for W/C issues. I thought only the company with whom the accident occured has access to that type of information.

Just curious.

HRVolley

CJinNM · May 2006

Do you have any recommendations for external companies to use for background checks?

NaeNae55 · May 2006

We use USIS. I can't take credit for them, as our owner company found them and I just follow suit.

I did one just this morning. I logged on, entered a little info on our candidate, and in 2 hours I had all the info I needed. Loved it!

Nae

Leo · May 2006

We contract with Pembrooke for our drug testing, MVRs, DOT Verifications and background checks. [url]www.pembrooke.com[/url]

Pembrooke gets the results of the background checks from Acxiom. (I'm unsure if you can go straight through Acxiom or not.)

Paul in Cannon Beach · May 2006

Here is a story from today's Oregon headline where a family is suing the company that abducted and murdered their 19 year old daughter because the company did not run a background check.

[url]http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_051806_news_wilberger_lawsuit_negligence.553a8f1c.html[/url]

Had the company run a check, they would have learned the of the individual's sex offender past.

The family of the murdered girl are suing "in excess of $75,000".

New hire background checks

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