What Comes Up During A Background Check

Here'south What Employers Wait for When They Run a Background Check

What practice employers look for in a background check ?

When it comes to the pre-employment vetting processes, every employer volition approach things differently, depending on their size and resources, their industry, and the job or jobs they need to fill. There are many types of background reporting services an employer tin can club, all of which provide different information types from various sources. More often than not speaking, a pre-hire investigation will bank check for a criminal record, verify resume information, such as by employment, educational credentials, and professional person licenses or certifications. Possibly assess other types of data, such as a driving tape or credit history.

Read on to acquire more about what shows up on an employment background check.

The Employment Groundwork Check

Employers run history checks on their candidates for diverse reasons. For example, past reviewing a person's criminal past, a hiring manager tin can appraise the level of risk that a candidate might pose if given the job at manus. In some cases, a person's criminal by may fifty-fifty forestall them from working a specific type of job, such as a registered sex offender interviewing for a teaching position. On the other hand, verification checks of employment, education, and credentials are an essential stride for helping employers determine whether their candidates are qualified for the task at hand.

What Employers Tin and Volition Look At

Beneath, nosotros have recapped the well-nigh common types of employee background verification, also as the kind of data each of those checks will typically return. Practise annotation that, while employers are typically allowed to consider the information highlighted below as part of the pre-employment process, that privilege is not accented. Employers must follow the tenets of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when conducting searches, which include very detailed steps for obtaining a field of study's permission before looking into their past.

Besides, the specific laws and regulations surrounding the data in each category may vary depending on state or local jurisdiction. We have highlighted checks that tend to be more regulated and, therefore, limited.

Work history

Work history is one of the pinnacle items that hiring managers consider when assessing candidates for a vacancy. The thought is that someone'south employment feel can offer a adept sense of how qualified they are for a detail job. Some jobs call for candidates to have a specified number of years' experience working in a specific industry or blazon of position. In other cases, employers volition not be virtually as particular about work history. However, they will still consider employment history to determine what skills or hands-on feel applicants may bring to the task.

Employment verification checks piece of work differently than many other types of groundwork checks. No database tracks where people have worked over the years. While candidates cocky-provide this information on their resumes and/or job applications, verification checks are an opportunity for employers to vet that information for inaccuracies or falsehood—an important footstep given the commonality of dishonesty on resumes.

Since there is no job history database, these checks always involve direct contact with previous employers. At backgroundchecks.com, we contact past employers on behalf of the hiring team to verify key information on the resume, such as dates of employment and job championship.

Credit cheque

Some employers consider a candidate's credit history every bit part of the pre-employment cheque process. These types of checks are prevalent in finance-related jobs, such equally banking or stock trading, to appraise a candidate'south financial habits. Some employers believe that, past evaluating how a person handles coin in their personal life, they will know how to form that person'southward overall financial responsibility in the professional realm. A credit bank check that reveals poor credit can sometimes be a sign of risk for an employer filling a function involving accounts, handling money, or other financial matters.

Employers should tread carefully when using this blazon of screening, however. While financial literacy and responsibility are essential skills for some jobs, at that place has been some argue in recent years nigh how much insight a candidate'southward credit record tin can lend to this type of position. Medical bills, unemployment, and especially student loans are factors that can impact a person'due south credit detrimentally. Particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which acquired substantial spikes in unemployment rates nationwide, disqualifying someone for bad credit may exist seen every bit only exacerbating the problem.

It is besides worth noting that credit assessments for employment purposes are illegal in some areas. In 11 states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington – plus several other jurisdictions (including Washington, D.C., New York Metropolis, Chicago, and Philadelphia), employers are heavily restricted in their ability to utilise credit screenings when making hiring decisions. Employers should be aware of their local and land laws when considering this type of assessment.

Criminal records

Criminal searches are the cornerstone of nearly verification processes. These records tin include "red flags" such equally vehement offenses, sex crimes, embezzlement convictions, DUIs, or other history that could render someone a risky rent. Employers volition look for this type of information to protect their legal interests, also as their customers, other employees, their finances, and more. For example, an employer hiring for financial accounts and sensitive personal information would want to avert hiring a candidate with a history of embezzlement or identity theft, lest they have advantage of their position to commit similar crimes. Employers who overlook this blazon of relevant criminal history in filling a task may face negligent hiring lawsuits if the person they hire ends up facing further accusations for their behavior on the chore.

At backgrounchecks.com, nosotros offering various criminal searches, including a county cheque, a state repository search, a federal courtroom search, and an instant search of our proprietary multi-jurisdictional database.

Opposite to popular belief, there is no unmarried, cardinal database for criminal data. Records nearly criminal charges or convictions are oft filed at the county courthouse level. All the same, they may also exist filed at U.S. District Courts (in the case of federal crimes) or reported into state repositories (in the case of land records searches). We recommend a multi-faceted criminal exploration, incorporating county checks in places where the candidate has lived recently. We also offering searches of our US OneSEARCH database, which includes more than 650 1000000 criminal records from all l states and all U.S. territories.

Driving record

When hiring for jobs that involve operating vehicles, employers will frequently include driving record checks as part of their candidate vetting process. While motor vehicle history is not relevant to all jobs, it is i of the most critical metrics for delivery vacancies, trucking jobs, positions that involve operating heavy construction machinery, and other similar types of employment. A history of dangerous driving – from lots of speeding tickets to suspended licenses and DUI convictions – is a safety and liability risk for employers filling these types of positions.

References

Though sometimes confused with employment verification checks, reference checks serve a unlike purpose. Employment verifications determine whether resume information is accurate, while professional references are people who can speak to a candidate'due south grapheme, job functioning, skills, and overall work style. Often, employers volition ask that candidates listing two to three references equally part of the task application. Reference checks involve contacting those individuals direct to learn more than about the candidate.

Verification Checks

Beyond work history and references, verification checks can also check a person's educational credentials and professional person licenses. Education checks involve contacting a college or university to verify that a candidate attended, as well equally dates of omnipresence, degrees or certificates received, and any honors attached to those degrees.

Professional person license verifications ensure that a person holds the license(southward) necessary to work in a specific field in a particular state. Examples include teaching licenses, licenses to practice law, nursing licenses, or licenses to practice medicine.

What Employers Cannot look At

While different types of employment background checks can reveal much information about a candidate, at that place are sure types of information that employers are not allowed to admission—even equally part of checks that might seem to reveal that information. Examples include:

Schoolhouse records

While education verifications will signal whether a candidate earned the higher degree they claimed on their resume - these checks won't evidence a total schoolhouse record. Employers won't know which courses the candidate took, for instance, or what grades they received. School records from further back—loftier school, for instance—are also not accessible to employers.

Military records

At that place is no blazon of history checking service available to individual employers to access a person's armed services record. While candidates may voluntarily offer information about their armed services service, if applicable, employers should non plan to vet that information, check for details nigh a person's military history, or look for evidence of discharges.

Medical records

Much of the information gleaned through an employee or candidate investigation is technically part of the public record. Medical records do not fall into this category: they are individual documents, with privacy ensured past md-patient confidentiality. Employers should not expect to larn about medical history through background screening.

Criminal history

While criminal history is at the heart of many pre-employment vetting protocols, that doesn't mean employers have free reign to access or brand hiring decisions based on the full telescopic of a person's criminal record?. Records that have been sealed or expunged, for instance, should not feature on a check report and cannot be used to bar a person from employment. Many states also have laws that restrict the use of arrest records in hiring, that specify a criminal history lookback period of seven years, or both. Employers should accept care to learn the laws of where they exercise business organisation to avoid any compliance bug in how they use criminal details in their hiring decisions.

How to Gear up for an Employment Groundwork Check

Asking "What do employers look for in a groundwork check?" is a smart strategy for job seekers wishing to prepare themselves for the employment screening procedure. Here are a few steps that candidates tin proceed in mind to avoid any surprises:

Understand what previous employers might say almost you

Opposite to widespread assumption, most employers volition stick to answering only unproblematic indicate-of-fact questions when chosen for an employment verification check. Job titles, employment dates, the reason for leaving, eligibility for rehire: these topics are objective talking points that HR managers are willing to answer. More freeform questions, such equally a past employer's annotate on character or work ethic, are challenging territory. HR managers or erstwhile supervisors volition oft decline to answer them to avoid legal claims of defamation from their previous employees.

Obtain your records

Chore seekers concerned virtually the verification process are often encouraged to run investigations on themselves. At backgroundchecks.com, we even offer a self-cheque service. This strategy provides an opportunity for a candidate to meet their record and go a preview of what their hiring manager volition come across. Running a self-cheque tin can be a valuable manner to make certain that an expungement has gone through or simply to achieve peace of heed.

Cheque your credit

Like a self-bank check for criminal history, a self-bank check for credit can give a sense of what employers might come across and what conclusions they could describe from that information. Job seekers will sometimes use these cocky-assessments to determine if they demand to provide any explanations nigh their history that may assist provide context for less-than-flattering results. Note that every consumer is entitled to a gratis credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) each twelvemonth.

Oftentimes Asked Questions

What can disqualify a job candidate on a groundwork check?

The answer to this question volition vary from one employer to the next. Factors such as the industry where the employer operates, industry regulations, state and local laws, the chore in question, specific company policies, and even the leniency of individual hiring managers can affect the answer. The most common disqualifiers in the vetting process tend to be either severe felony convictions (violent crimes, sex activity offenses, etc.) or breathy dishonesty of the job seeker. These factors register every bit "red flags" almost no affair the industry or company. However, as previously discussed, other factors tin be disqualifiers too, depending on the chore—such equally a history of dangerous driving, for jobs that involve driving, or bad credit, for fiscal-related positions.

How does a background check verify employment?

At backgroundchecks.com, we acquit employment verifications by contacting a candidate's past employers and asking primal questions well-nigh employment dates, job titles, and other information.

What can exist revealed in a background check?

A "groundwork cheque" is, in fact, multiple checks or searches of various data sources, intending to provide a detailed and wide-reaching view of a job candidate'due south by. A pre-hire screening company can check a person's criminal by, driving history, past employment, teaching, and professional person licensing. It also includes references, civil court history, address history, Social Security Number, aliases/alternate names, credit, defalcation history, social media presence, and more.

Michael Klazema

Near Michael Klazema The author

Michael Klazema is Master Marketing Technologist at EY-VODW.com and has over two decades of feel in digital consulting, online production management, and technology innovation. He is the lead writer and editor for Dallas-based backgroundchecks.com with a focus on human resources and employment screening developments.