How accurate are your background checks? Background checks are essential for verifying that the person you wish to hire is indeed the individual they claim to be. People committing fraud or wishing to hide their criminal histories may claim a common name as their own. A common name refers to a name that is widely used and shared by many individuals within a population.
For example, Ancestry states that there are 38,313 people named James Smith and 34,810 people named Michael Smith. Of course, the individual doesn’t necessarily have to use "Smith" as a surname. There are 32,092 Maria Garcias and 26,850 people named James Johnson.
Businesses should ask themselves: How do you know you have the correct John Smith, James Jones, or Sally White? Let’s take a look at why you need verification accuracy and how you can ensure that accuracy.
Why Verification Accuracy is Important
Verification accuracy helps prevent fraud while ensuring regulatory and legal compliance for businesses.
Fraud Prevention
Unscrupulous individuals may choose common names to create false identities. They might do this to hide their citizenship status, conceal their criminal background or embellish their qualifications. They hope that this will increase their likelihood of getting the job.
Legal Compliance
Employers must ensure that the person they hire is authorized to work in their geographic location and can perform the tasks they say they can.
For example, if you’re hiring John Smith, and he says he doesn’t have a criminal background and can get government clearance to work on a specific project, you need to make sure that this is true. You may be talking to John Smith, born in 1972, who does not have a criminal background and is telling the truth. However, if you pull the information on another John Smith born in 1973, he may have a criminal background, meaning you’d deny the job to John Smith 1972.
Conversely, if you were actually talking to John Smith 1973, he may know that John Smith 1972 has a clean background. Therefore, he could put John Smith 1972’s information on his job application in order to conceal his history. As an employer, it’s your responsibility to ensure you are checking the right name for the correct person to ensure regulatory and legal compliance.
How to Ensure Background Check Accuracy
Ensuring background check accuracy means getting reliable information from your candidate and choosing a background check company that is both transparent and precise.
Information to Collect for Common Names and Data Verification
Getting an accurate background check starts with collecting the correct information. For all applications, make sure that you have the persons:
- Full name, including their middle name and all previous names, like a birth name
- College transcripts
- Current address and all addresses from the last three years
- Date of birth
- Demographic information
- Driver’s license number
- Social Security number
- Work history
It’s important to note that most companies only ask for the person’s name, Social Security number, and birthdate; that’s the minimum amount of information needed to conduct a background check. If you choose to ask for more information, you’ll need to request it from every applicant, not just individuals with common names. This helps provide a fair employee verification process for your new hires.
What a Background Check Verifies and Why It’s Important to Make Sure You’re Checking the Correct Person
Background checks are used to verify the potential employee’s education, professional licenses, references, and employment history. They also check for a criminal record. Some background checks even look at the employee’s credit history, which is essential if they’re applying for a job in finance. Others examine their driving history, which matters in any job that involves operating a vehicle.
When it comes to getting an accurate background check, it’s imperative that the correct person is identified and verified. Accidentally performing a background check on the wrong person could cause you to make an undesirable hiring decision, like rejecting a qualified person or accidentally hiring someone who isn’t qualified, or even legally able to work in the country. For this reason, it’s essential to choose a background check partner that is thorough, transparent, and accurate, like The Orsus Group.
Accurate Background Screening Services from The Orsus Group
When you need accuracy and transparency in your background checks, you can trust our team at The Orsus Group. We offer background screening services, including criminal record searches, criminal database searches, healthcare sanctions, and excluded party searches, occupational health screenings, employment verification, education verification, personal reference checks, and professional license verification. We can even perform verifications for employers who hire international candidates.
Are you interested in improving the accuracy and reliability of your background check verification processes so that you can feel confident in your hiring choices? We can help. To learn more, contact us today.