Background checks on new hires

Aaron H · January 2002

I have a question regarding background checks. When hiring new employees, are there any legal issues as to when criminal background checks on a circut court website are conducted? For example, are they legal when done after an interview but illegal if done before? What about driving record checks? We would not use either as the only means of selection, but as a way to decide a ranking of who we want to hire. I would appreciate any help on this issue. Thanks

Aaron

Rockie · February 2002

We conduct background checks after we offer employment. It is spelled out out in the letter of hire that the job offer is contingent upon completion of a successful background check. We have an outside company that conducts background checks for us as they do it on a nationwide basis.

You have to be careful conducting background checks through local law enforcement, court systems, etc. as they are only state specific; if you hire outside of your state, nothing would show up on this individual.

Michael · February 2002

you might consider the following: your job description for that position should state that driving is required for the job. that will make your inquiry into driving history reasonably related to a legitimate business necessity.
next, you should obtain a signed fcra form from the applicant. that grants permission for you to collect "consumer information" on the applicant.
make certain that the information you rely upon is not solely data base. many states are way behind in entering conviction information. so, conceivably, you could receive a clear criminal history on someone recently convicted but whose conviction hasn't been entered in a state data base. to avoid this you need to do a hand search at each county court house of the respective counties in which the applicant has lived. similar situation for driving histories. each state has it's own turn around time. some are short--3 days others may take weeks. best way to deal with this is a conditional offer of employment, i.e.,permanent employment will not be offered if negative information is discovered in your driving history. consult your state's law regarding notice to applicant that criminal background information and driving histories will be sought. this should be set forth in the job announcement. you must also notify an applicant of negative information upon which a hiring decision is made and provide them with information on who to contact to correct an erroneous record. you may contact me at my e-mail address if you have further questions. [email]mactsuru@hotmail.com[/email]

Gerri · February 2002

To those of you that currently do background checks on applicants or new hires -would you please share some of the pros and cons of doing the checks? Thanks!

System · February 2002

Check out these articles from past issues of HR Hero Line, HRhero.com's free weekly e-mail newsletter:

Background Checks: Should you or shouldn't you?
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/hrheroline/100501.shtml[/url]

Your Feedback on Background Checks
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/hrheroline/101201.shtml[/url]

Check the FCRA before checking backgrounds
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/headlines/061501/fcra.shtml[/url]

You can sign up for HR Hero Line at [url]http://www.hrhero.com/enewsletter.shtml[/url]

Christy Reeder
Website Managing Editor
[url]www.HRhero.com[/url]

Background checks on new hires

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