The Current State Of Employee Background Checks

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The Current State Of Employee Background Checks
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• Background screening for employees is usually
  divided into 3 parts public record searches,
  verifications and drug screening, and with the
  ongoing health crisis, each part is affected
  differently
• Public Records
• Most U.S. courts appear to be open and are
  reporting no changes to their standard processes
  for fulfilling public records search requests.
  However, if a court is closed, or if clerks are
  not available, then information cannot be
  verified, even if the court has an automated
  system. While some information can be obtained by
  automated or online means, it may need to be
  validated by a court person, and if clerks arent
  working, then courts repositories may not be
  updated.

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• Verifications
• Many of the bigger employers use automated
  methods for carrying out employee verifications,
  and provided they continue to contribute their
  employment records to the repositories, and these
  remain functional, most verifications would be
  unaffected by virus related closures. However,
  some smaller and medium sized employers may
  struggle if they typically rely on traditional
  methods of employment verification. The
  alternative in such cases, would be for the
  prospective employees to provide evidence of
  their previous work history with a W-2 or pay
  stubs. That said, it pays to keep in mind the
  fact that transcripts and diplomas are easily
  falsified, so employers should use their
  discretion when assessing all documents submitted
  to them by candidates.

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• Drug screening
• Many larger patient service centres are still
  operating for drug sample collections, while some
  smaller clinics are offering specimen collection
  services via a text-ahead service. If youre an
  employer who has a physical presence in your
  workspace, you may want to consider oral fluid
  testing. This means that a job candidate can come
  to your workplace and be swabbed for recent uses
  of certain drugs.

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• Truncated screening
• With the global pandemic still affecting many
  countries, including the U.S, some employers may
  be considering revising their employee screening
  programs to enable them to quickly hire new
  workers. While this may get you out of a
  short-term fix, the long-term consequences can be
  devastating for companies. There is a strong risk
  of the entire hiring process becoming negligent
  and problems in validating the use of criminal
  checks in the future.
• To help prevent against discriminatory hiring
  practices, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
  1964 requires that employers demonstrate that
  their practices are job related for the position
  in question and consistent with business
  necessity.

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• If an employer chooses to suspend criminal checks
  during the pandemic, and reinstate them in the
  future, then those practices could be deemed
  un-job related and inconsistent with business
  necessity as the employer was able to hire
  employees without the check for some time.
• It may seem like a good idea to streamline the
  background screening process during the pandemic,
  but in truncating it, employers are at risk of
  harming their business in the long-term. Its
  essential that employers comply with the Fair
  Credit Reporting Act and all other applicable
  laws and regulations, and if youre an employer
  who isnt quite sure of their obligations during
  these difficult times, be sure to reach out to a
  payroll professional.

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  payroll services in Homestead and other cities in
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