Keeping Background Screenings Timely and Accurate

Background screenings must be both timely and accurate to ensure a smooth hiring process and compliance with relevant laws. An expedient background check can mean the difference between onboarding a talented candidate quickly or losing them to a competing organization. Likewise, inaccuracies in the background screening process – from false identification to missed signs of a criminal record or fabricated credentials – could later lead to negligent hiring lawsuits, productivity issues, or lost opportunities for workforce development.

Employing best practices and leveraging modern tools can help companies achieve efficiency and precision in their screening efforts. Here we’ll explore common background screening issues and the steps you can take to ensure timely pre-employment screening, compliance in hiring, and accurate results that support informed hiring decisions.

Accuracy Concerns

An inaccurate background screening process can lead to local, state or federal non-compliance penalties or even negligent hiring claims. It is also likely to lead to issues with onboarding, productivity, diminished workforce morale, and the subsequent (substantial) costs of replacing an existing employee who was hired based on inaccurate, unverified, or poorly investigated personal, professional, or educational information.

When organizations handle background screening without qualified professional support, it can lead to just some of the following issues:

• False Identification – Receiving results for the wrong person (based on a single letter misspelling, a false “match” with a common name, lack of SSN, etc.)
• Use or consideration of employee criminal information that is prohibited from employer review by local or state law (sealed or expunged records; or arrest records, for instance)
• High rate of candidate disputes due to frequently inaccurate or incomplete results gathered during the background screening process
• Incomplete or significantly delayed educational, employment, license, or reference verifications.
• Post-Hiring Errors – When past criminal behavior, fraudulent credentials, or other issues that should have been identified in the pre-employment screening process surface due to workplace issues, complaints, or legal action. 

Timeline Concerns

Just as employers are concerned with achieving accuracy in the background screening process, most organizations equally prioritize receiving results in a timely way, especially with important and time-sensitive hiring decisions on the line. Whether it’s a county criminal record search, federal criminal record search, employment verification, education verification, professional license verification, or reference check, result timelines can vary, especially when using a manual approach.

In general, most background screenings should be finished (with finalized results delivered) within 24 to 72 hours. Even so, when relying on an in-house approach or using an unqualified provider, some of the following timeline-related issues can occur:

• Delayed county criminal record searches – This is often due to a lack of familiarity with coordinating or requesting clerk-conducted searches of hard-copy files when a “hit” or potential match occurs regarding a candidate.
• Delayed national or federal criminal record searches – Again, this occurs when a researcher must coordinate manual review of a potential hit, navigate redacted personal identifiers (in federal cases), or gather additional verifying information about a candidate.
• Employment or Education Verification Delays – These are often due to issues identifying a credible/verifiable contact within the company or institution and/or disorganization in presenting a formal request for verification from the company, institution, or – in the case of GED requests – state’s Department of Education.
• Delayed reference checks – This can result from a non-systematic approach to completing checks – for instance, using email rather than phone interviews and follow-up calls to promptly discuss a candidate’s skills, character, and job performance.
• Trouble navigating various local, state, and federal regulations that impact the background screening process, or a lack of understanding of institutional or court policies that affect response times.

Solutions and Best Practices for Timely & Accurate Background Checks

To help your organization achieve more accurate and timely checks, we’ve created a list of best practices to support your organization’s background screening process.

Developing Clear Company Protocols

Even if your organization works with a qualified provider, you should develop and articulate internal guidelines for your background screening processes to keep your own HR staff, recruiters, and hiring managers informed. In addition to setting clear expectations regarding which positions require background screening, drug screening, or verifications, you’ll also want to develop self-evaluation processes to ensure your organization’s ongoing compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and other applicable regulations. On a concrete level, we recommend the following additional steps, which are specifically geared to prevent timeline delays during the background screening process:

• Whenever possible, gather the middle name of any applicant, which can help confirm identity during criminal record searches or if case records must be reviewed due to an apparent match.
• Always confirm that an applicant worked directly for a prior organization and did not acquire a past position through a temp agency. If they were employed via a temp agency, confirming this information early on can expedite the employment verification process.
• Confirm that a candidate’s name was the same when they graduated from each educational institution they’ve listed on their resume. This can expedite the education verification process.
• Always work with a provider that can complete a social security number (SSN) trace during the background screening process to identify all known names and addresses linked to an applicant’s SSN. The provider should also be capable of confirming every name & address associated with the SSN during the trace process.

Technology and Transparency

When you work with a qualified background screening provider, they should be capable of helping you integrate screenings into the overall hiring process, including with your applicant tracking system (ATS). Performing these technology integrations can save you time, energy, and labor costs by eliminating the need for redundant double-entry of candidate data while ensuring that candidate information is fully consolidated. Our related article provides a comprehensive overview of the benefits of ATS integrations and how Orsus can help with this process.

A qualified background screening provider will offer services and practices that ensure the timely and accurate receipt of background checks, including verification services and more specialized services like international searches, excluded parties list searches, and much more. You should feel informed at every stage of the collaboration process and aware of the protocols that are in place to support your organization’s vetting and hiring of candidates. With your own clear internal policies, plus professional support and leading-edge tools from a qualified provider, it’s possible to implement consistently efficient, compliant, and accurate background screening practices.

Enjoy Accurate, Expedited, and Compliant Screenings with The Orsus Group

When handled without professional support, background screening can be a complex and multifaceted process that detracts from your core organizational goals and risks the health, safety, and productivity of your organization and employees. Discover how The Orsus Group can streamline your background screening process to provide lasting peace of mind and support informed hiring. Contact us today to learn more about our comprehensive and customized solutions.