Protect Your Employees With Background Searches

Convincing yourself to run background checks on people applying for your company may seem such a difficult decision. A background check may seem to benefit you company. You are protected from lawsuits resulting from negligent hiring as well as making sure that you hired trusted employees. On the other hand, you may think that you are being unfair to the other party. First is that it seems that you are invading their privacy and second is that the negative things which may be written on the records may drive you to make decisions such as not hiring them at all.

If you are concerned with these issues, you do not need to worry because even if you are not aware of it, there are actually guidelines in conducting these pre-employment background searches. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) has provided guidelines which need to be followed when doing background searches on applicants. These set of guidelines provide the applicants with protection when it comes to the misuse of the information obtained in these searches particularly outright rejection based on the results. There are forms which must be signed by the applicants prior to the background search. With these, you are now able to control any decisions you make when it comes to the hiring process.

An Adverse Action is basically not hiring an applicant because of the results of the background check. This is seen as a harsh decision to do, but in reality, there have been numerous cases of this happening to employees. The FCRA has already set guidelines which protects the applicants from adverse action. Companies need to give applicants an Adverse Action Letter to notify the applicants of your decision and attached to it are the search results. The applicants are given the right to disagree with the search done by the pre-employment background screening company. They can even demand for a recheck if they think that the information attached is inaccurate.

The good thing about the guidelines set by the FCRA is that if the applicant has been proven to have been screened with inaccurate information, they will be given a second chance. The company should run another background check with accurate information and make the decision based on the new set of information found.

Companies must not neglect the importance of the Adverse Action letter since it provides a systematic rejection of the applicant. This will save the company from lawsuits and will ensure that they are following the guidelines set by the FCRA. If you think that you are being unfair when doing background checks, then you may need to think twice. The FCRA has already been made to ensure that there are no unfair decisions made for employees. You will be able to have a basis in making the right decisions. Plus there is a proper procedure in actually rejecting an applicant which makes things a lot easier. This is not solely based on personal opinion. This is a fair way of deciding whether the applicant should be hired or not.