The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that a company can go back infinitely for conviction records, but only 7 years for arrest records. There are certain exceptions where some companies go back 10 years. And there are other companies that utilize a database check that can go back as far as 30 years or more. It all is dependent upon which type of screening the company uses. If you are applying for a government position, the law doesn’t apply and they can go back however far. So it is dependent on the company and the type of job.

For most businesses, the driving factors for outsourcing employment screening and background checks are time and the accessibility of data. Read More…

Unfortunately, the answer is yes! According to the “2006 ACFE Report to the Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse,” about 87% of criminals caught had no prior criminal history. Read More…

With a whopping 30% of job seekers falsifying information on their applications, reference checks are critical to making a sound hiring decision. Reference checks are a valuable tool, not only for verifying information on an application, but also for gaining a knowledgeable perspective of the candidate’s character, qualifications, and work ethic. Read More…

In today’s employment world, anyone in charge of making hiring decisions for a business understands the importance of conducting a criminal background check. Just like calling references and conducting a personal interview with the applicant, a criminal background check is an essential step in the pre-employment screening process. Using the proper criminal background check allows you to make an informed and confident hiring decision. Unfortunately, most hiring managers do not fully understand how to conduct a proper criminal background check. Read More…

All job applications have a section for the applicant to list their professional references. As an employer, you take the time to carefully review the list of professional references and even call each person individually to ask about the individual applicant. Everything seems all right so you should go ahead and hire the applicant based on these references, right? Wrong. Read More…

How do you know the person you just hired does not have a long criminal history of theft charges? Are you positive the person you just hired is trustworthy? Are you sure the person you hired will not be a danger to other employees and to the workplace in general? Will the new employee leave you vulnerable to liability for negligent hiring? “Of course not,” you think. “Their application says they do not have a criminal history.” Read More…

One of the best ways to ensure a safe work environment for you employees is to hire only qualified employees. One of the leading causes of employee injuries caused by other employees is when an employer hires an employee that they do not truly know. The only way to truly know an employee is to conduct a full background check prior to hiring them. An essential part of any pre-employment background check is the criminal background check. Read More…