What Are Employment Background Checks?

If you are applying for a new job or getting promoted to a new position, you may be required to give consent for an employment background check. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) sets the national standard for employment background checks. Under the federal FCRA, an "investigative consumer report" is limited to personal interviews with your friends, neighbors or business associates. Even before an employer can receive a consumer report for the purposes of pre-employment screening, the employer needs to have written authorization from the applicant. Under the current Fair Credit Reporting Act, once an applicant gives their permission for a background check, the hiring employer does not have to get the hired applicants permission to run another background check in the future, Infinity Background Screening.

You have the right to withdraw the employment application for the position if you do not want personal information disclosed. For example, under the FCRA, negative information usually cannot be reported after seven years. Exceptions apply for bankruptcy information (10 years) and jobs or insurance policies over a certain dollar amount. The FCRA says that criminal convictions can be reported indefinitely. This withdrawal right gives you an option, to decide for yourself if a certain position or is this new job promotion is worth the disclosure of particular information about personal life.

It is in your right to dispute any errors in data in a report.  Once the employer receives the background report results and chooses not to hire you due to information in it, the employer is required to provide you with a pre-adverse action disclosure, which contains your rights and a report copy. After this, they must inform you that they are not hiring you and include the address and name of the Consumer Reporting Agency, which provided the data because you have a right to dispute any errors in their data, per Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

At the very least, an employment background check includes social security number verification. More detailed employment background checks may even contain a work history analysis, complete credit report, and names of references. Criminal history, driving records, and payment of credit records may also be included.  The background inquiries are always associated with the nature of the job applied. If, you are applying to work as a cashier, trying to figure out if you had a prior conviction in the past for stealing is not a far stretch of information that an employer may want to know.

However, that there is various information sources, which in any case can be part of a comprehensive background check. There are multiple states, which do not permit inquiries concerning certain convictions or arrests before a particular period. Other states will not allow inquiries regarding criminal history for particular positions. Also, as an applicant you should be aware that employers are not allowed to base their hiring choices on a potential employee’s disabilities, which is why they may not ask for medical records. Your capability to perform the tasks for a particular position is what they may ask about as well.

If you are an applicant, you should be aware of your own information. It may sound strange, but it is actually a very smart thing to do is perform a personal online background check before applying for any employment, before Human Resources (HR). This is for your safety as well, because you do not want any errors during your HR Background Check.