Let us get this clear – There should be no ambiguity on the fact that employers need to do background checks before hiring anyone on their rolls. If you ask us, it is their fundamental right to know more, rather know the truth about the candidate who has applied for a job with them. Before companies get doing a background check on prospective employees, there are some laws need to be followed.
Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the governing law, which mandates employers to follow certain rules and regulations before they do a background check on applicants. One of the most important clauses of this law is – You need to take a permission from the applicant in writing, in which you tell him, you wish to do a background check. The other clause states – Certain bits of information can be looked up, for example bankruptcies, but these shouldn’t determine your final decision on hiring the applicant.
Some companies decide to use Google and other Search engines to do a background check, not knowing that they could be entrapped legally. Using Google and other search engines to know more about an individual is fine, but you can’t base your findings from these search engines and apply it to your decisions.
Confidentiality of data is really important for you when you get to do a background check on individuals. When you do get the background check report, it is your responsibility to keep the data confidential enough with you. This will allow you to be safe in case the applicant comes up with a complaint on you leaking the background check report. Importantly, it also ensures the sensitivity to the procedure.
Every employer is entitled to run an employee background check before hiring them. It is called the pre-employment background check. It is a useful exercise as you’ll get to know past history of the employee you want to hire and then you can decide whether or not the candidate is worth hiring. But to perform employee background checks, an employer has to abide by certain norms and guidelines compiled by the law. The first thing employers should know while running an employee background check is to comply with Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This act states that the employer can perform employee background check only after obtaining written permission from the employee. Also it states that the employer can lookup for any information but cannot use it against hiring the employee. For example, if a candidate has had bankruptcy in the past, that should not be the reason for not hiring the employee. This would be termed as discrimination towards the candidate. The other guideline for employee background check is that if the employer uses only regular search engines like Google to run a background check on a candidate then they would be liable for legal risks. Using only search engines to conduct background checks in case of minorities will be termed as discrimination.
Also the employer must be looking up information of the correct person and not viewing information of another person with the same name. More over the employer must be consistent in their employee background check routines or else they’ll face legal implications.
It is always wise to check up on anyone you are going to be doing business with, this includes people you are employing in your company. Would you not want to know that the person you are working with is clear of any federal offenses?
Want to find out more about online background checks, then visit Regisaid Buccough’s site on how to choose the best background check search sites for your needs. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service
