As you probably know the reason why background checks end up costing quite a bit sometimes is that apart for the fee from the service that is carrying it out, there are some public records that require a certain fee per search. So the more of these records you end up searching, the more the total fee ends up being.

But what some services do is they avoid paying such fees entirely by limiting their check to public records that are freely accessible and have no fee. There are many of these out there and by doing so these services can provide free background checks and earn their money via advertising for other ‘additional’ services.

Unfortunately there are downsides to such services.

The main reason why you shouldn’t rely on any checks that are limited to free public records is that because they are limited to only those sources of information they might leave out some data that could be important. For example if you are searching for information about a potential employee and they were previously employed in Florida but Florida does not have free public records then all those records would be completely absent, leaving you with very little or no information.

Assuming you know for a fact that the only states or counties that you want to look at all have free public records then this isn’t a problem. But if you do not then it could mean that your background check ends up containing incomplete information and making a decision on anything important based on that would be a bad idea.

Furthermore what if the free check ends up with no results? Would you just give up while knowing that there might actually be information out there but it may be contained in sources that require a fee to access?

To cut a long story short, these free background checks may not give you the ‘full picture’. If you’re okay with that then there shouldn’t be much of a problem, but if you’re in a position where you’re relying on the information in question to make important decisions for your business then you might want to look elsewhere.

Whatever the case, now that you know the downsides of free public record background checks you can decide whether or not they are suited to your particular needs.

Essentially what people call ‘background checks’ are really just searches carried out through public records. To some small degree many employers have always carried out some sort of checks on their potential employees, such as checking whether or not their professional qualifications and licenses are legitimate, and so on.

These are all really just standard aspects of employment screening. When a business gets applications in the form of CVs, many of them will check the authenticity of the information that they receive. Verifying the past employment and education of the applicant is part of this process.

With background checks however that employment screening can go a step further and other records such as criminal records, court records, driving records and so on can be checked as well. Some may question whether or not it is necessary to search through all these records for every job – but the fact of the matter is that the option is available.

The relationship between background checks and employment screening lies in how businesses choose to use that option. Some businesses try to find out as much information as they can about their applicants and delve into every source of information possible. Others however opt to be more selective and pick and choose amongst the sources that they feel will be most relevant to the job that the person is applying for.

To be honest there are no hard and fast rules in this regard. Most businesses carry out background checks for two reasons: Firstly, to make sure that the candidate they hire is being honest about what is in their CV and application, and secondly so that they aren’t liable if any harm or damages result in them employing a candidate.

So if you like, you could consider background checks to merely be a tool that businesses use to help them screen potential employees better. That is the role that it occupies as far as employment screening is concerned anyway.

Now that you understand why employment screening and background checks are so interrelated you should be able to appreciate how such checks can help with the screening as well. However you should also note that there are other reasons why a background check may be used that may have nothing to do with employment screening at all – and this is important to remember because that relationship may be very different indeed.

For some, credit checks are a pretty standard part of background checks – but are they really necessary for employment screening?

Why Carry Out a Credit Check?

Think about it: As a business, what reason could you have for wanting to know the state of a potential employee’s credit? What could knowing it tell you?

For some companies the answer is that when they are hiring people into positions that involve financial responsibility, access to highly confidential employee information, senior executive positions, or even any position that gives them access to company property or funds, it is a good idea know the state of their credit to prevent any sort of theft, embezzlement or other criminal activity.

Although it may seem like a bit of a stretch, the truth is that someone who has a clean credit rating is definitely less likely to carry out theft, embezzlement or any other criminal activity. That being said, the link is rather tenuous at best.

Many businesses carry out credit checks just to avoid negligent hiring lawsuits – which may expose them to a risk from another avenue.

Unfair Hiring Practices

The question of whether or not it is unfair to discriminate between applicants based on their credit check is one that varies from state to state. Different states have different laws on the matter and handle it in different ways.

Suffice to say at the end of the day if you are able to show that you at least have some reason to want to only hire someone with a clean credit record then at least you have a case. Some states however prevent businesses from carrying out credit checks as part of employment screening completely.

At the end of the day for most positions within most businesses you’ll find that there is no real necessity to carry out a credit check as part of employment screening. It isn’t really going to tell you much about whether or not a person can carry out their job competently, or anything else related to their job performance for that matter.

All that it can possibly indicate is whether or not a person is having trouble paying off debts, loans, and so on. This may affect highly sensitive positions where there is a possibility of abuse, but in other situations it should not be used as a factor when choosing which applicant a business wants to employ for any given position within the company.

At the end of the day, there is just so much information available through such checks that very often the fact of the matter is that there is too much information and that can be a very big problem indeed.

The problem with having too much information within such checks boils down to the fact that there may be allegations of discrimination if it is found that you chose to hire someone on anything other than information that can be used to predict job performance related issues.

Very often companies find that they are put on the defensive, especially if it is proven that the company was aware of certain non-related information that could be deemed discriminatory. In many cases the company actually then has to prove that it didn’t refuse to hire the person based on that non-related information.

Because of these issues, some businesses opt to only search for information that they feel w/ill be relevant to the job specification. However this too can lead to issues.

When too little information is obtained via background checks it opens up an entirely different can of worms. If an employer fails to utilize widely available resources and inadvertently ends up hiring someone who is incompetent, unqualified, dishonest or even dangerous and it can be shown that information that suggests all of this was available via a simple check then it could make the employer liable in a negligent hiring case if some sort of theft, harm, or other unforeseen event takes place as a result.

As you can see this sort of puts businesses in a Catch 22 situation. If they find out too much they could end up being accused of discrimination but if they find out too little they could end up being accused of negligence.

There is a very fine line to tread to find the ‘ideal’ amount of information that a background check should contain. Ideally you want to show that you have taken all reasonable measures to find out as much relevant information as possible about a potential employee, while at the same time not going so far as to unearth personal information or anything that could be deemed grounds for discrimination.

Of course this is a lot easier said than done.

With so many of us having conversations, posting content, setting up profiles and interacting online there is a huge amount of information that is readily available and viewable by the general public. Needless to say, background checks very often look into this information – which could be a bit of an issue because its authenticity isn’t always reliable.

Online Identity Theft and Computer Twins

The main reason why information collected from social media can be cast in doubt is that there is no guarantee that it is really the person that you’re looking for. For example if you find the Facebook page of a John Adams who lives in New York but has no readily identifiable profile picture – how do you know that is really the John Adams that you’re looking for?

That is what is known as a ‘computer twin’. Most of us have people with similar names that we might end up being mistaken for when online. However, some are unfortunate enough to have ‘computer twins’ that share a lot of details in common and that can end up causing an identity mix-up when sourcing data from social media.

On top of that the even bigger issue nowadays is the fact that there are many cases of online identity theft. Without carrying out further checks, there is no way of knowing whether or not a person has been the victim of an identity theft when gathering information from social media networks.

Cyber Slamming and Smear Campaigns

Another reason why the authenticity of social media sources can be called into question is the fact that there are numerous cyber slamming and smear campaigns against people online.

Let’s just say you notice that people are accusing ‘John Adams’ of stealing something – how do you know it’s true? What if there is no criminal record, or court records that suggest John Adams is a criminal – do you still believe an online accusation that is being thrown at him?

That is where the question of whether or not social media information is reliable or not becomes a rather important one. Frankly speaking without further investigation (and sometimes even with further investigation) it is impossible to tell whether or not allegations that are made online are true or merely fabrications and part of an effort to discredit or malign someone’s reputation.

Considering the doubts that are present regarding the authenticity of social media background checks, you should see why some businesses opt to ignore it completely.

Needless to say this was a big problem, especially considering the frequency with which background checks were being carried out. With big corporations, governments, businesses, and so on all screening people for various reasons, it slowly but surely became apparent that there was a need to provide some sort of accreditation to the services offering these sorts of screening so that potential clients could distinguish between them and get the sort of service they expect.

Before there was any sort of accreditation, businesses were generally left to their own methods of trying to select a background screening service. This meant that they would have to go through the hundreds of different possible services out there and try to pick out the one that they felt would offer them the most reliable information. Often mistakes would be made, and as a result businesses would find that they either ended up with unreliable information, or that the services in question were operating outside the legal boundaries, or even sometimes that incomplete information was provided.

Over the years there have been a number of efforts to come up with a centralized accreditation for background screening, and the one that seems to have stuck is a National Association of Professional Background Screenings (NAPBS) accreditation.

Under it, background screening services are accredited based on their consumer protection, legal compliance, client education, product standards, service standards, and general business practices.

The idea is simple: If you get a background screening from a NAPBS accredited service then you can expect that you’ll get reliable information that is up to the standard that you expect, while also adhering to any state or federal laws that may come into play.

As you can see, that is certainly a good thing. Unfortunately not all background screening services subscribe to the NAPBS accreditation. Some feel that the level of commitment it requires to document polices, practices and have them audited is over the top – but from the standpoint of a consumer it may be necessary.

Whatever the case, you should at least have a good handle on what accredited background screening is all about. When you see that a service is accredited by any source, it might be in your best interests to find out what criteria that accreditation is based on so you know what to expect.

Long story short, this is how you can ‘expect’ certain standards and professionalism when you’re looking for a background screening service.

Essentially what people call ‘background checks’ are really just searches carried out through public records. To some small degree many employers have always carried out some sort of checks on their potential employees, such as checking whether or not their professional qualifications and licenses are legitimate, and so on.

These are all really just standard aspects of employment screening. When a business gets applications in the form of CVs, many of them will check the authenticity of the information that they receive. Verifying the past employment and education of the applicant is part of this process.

With background checks however that employment screening can go a step further and other records such as criminal records, court records, driving records and so on can be checked as well. Some may question whether or not it is necessary to search through all these records for every job – but the fact of the matter is that the option is available.

The relationship between background checks and employment screening lies in how businesses choose to use that option. Some businesses try to find out as much information as they can about their applicants and delve into every source of information possible. Others however opt to be more selective and pick and choose amongst the sources that they feel will be most relevant to the job that the person is applying for.

To be honest there are no hard and fast rules in this regard. Most businesses carry out background checks for two reasons: Firstly, to make sure that the candidate they hire is being honest about what is in their CV and application, and secondly so that they aren’t liable if any harm or damages result in them employing a candidate.

So if you like, you could consider background checks to merely be a tool that businesses use to help them screen potential employees better. That is the role that it occupies as far as employment screening is concerned anyway.

Now that you understand why employment screening and background checks are so interrelated you should be able to appreciate how such checks can help with the screening as well. However you should also note that there are other reasons why a background check may be used that may have nothing to do with employment screening at all – and this is important to remember because that relationship may be very different indeed.

But over the years many have begun to question whether or not credit checks are really vital for employment screening or whether they could be a form of discrimination. After all, what does a credit check really tell an employer about an applicant?

The justification for credit checks as part of employment screening is often that it helps to determine a certain risk of fraud, embezzlement, theft, or other criminal activity. However this link is tenuous in most circumstances unless the job in question involves the applicant being put in a position where they have to deal with the finances of the company, personal details of other employees, and so on.

As a result – many states have actually started restricting the use of credit checks for employment screening. In states such as California, Hawaii, Connecticut, Illinois, Oregon, Maryland, and Washington there are now strict laws that govern whether or not employers can look into the credit information of applicants.

In most cases the guidelines are fairly simple: Do not do it unless there is a very real reason for doing so. Most states make exceptions for applicants to financial institutions, or applicants to jobs that will provide them with access to company finances, personnel information, private data, and so on.

Basically an employer needs a clear ‘business justification’ for wanting to carry out a credit check within these states. Although the specific details vary, that is the general idea behind these new restrictions.

Many other states are also said to be considering such restrictions and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is also looking into restrictions of its own. Over the next few years you can expect that it will slowly but surely become a norm in most states that a clear ‘business justification’ is necessary for a credit check as part of employment screening.

All said and done, this isn’t going to impact most businesses. A lot of businesses out there that are currently using credit checks as part of their employment screening do so purely because it is available and because it may help protect them from negligent hiring lawsuits. With such formalized restrictions and guidelines however, the need for that should disappear and hopefully the end result will be that credit checks are only used when absolutely necessary in employment.

The truth is that there isn’t a very big one.

A background check is basically any sort of check that looks into the background of an individual. It could consist of a criminal records check, verification of academic qualifications, or it could even just be a credit check. It does not have to apply solely to employees of course, and could relate to anyone at all.

On the other hand, employee screening is generally the process that businesses go through when they are hiring employees. Once again, this too could consist of practically anything and it is generally up to the business to determine what they want to check up on when they are hiring potential candidates.

Although both of these terms generally mean the same thing it is worth noting that because they are such broad terms there is a lot of room for misunderstanding. For example, if you were to go online and search for a service to help you with background checks you’d get a lot of results for services that will search through public records but will not carry out verification of academic qualifications, references, and other key areas that should be part and parcel of employee screening.

Increasingly, the term ‘background check’ is being used more and more to describe public records searches, and although it isn’t defined as that, it is worth bearing this in mind when you are looking into such services.

Sometimes the term ‘employee screening’ suffers from the same ambiguity, and so you need to keep an eye open and really and truly determine exactly what sort of screening or checks are being offered before you commit to a service.

To find out whether a particular background check or employee screening service is right for you, you should look closely at exactly what sort of checks they perform and then decide whether or not that is sufficient. Chances are you could even come up with a list of the specific types of checks that you require and then locate a service based on that.

It might take some time to weed through all the different options out there, but at least now you’re getting into it with your eyes wide open and knowing that there is quite a bit of uncertainty surrounding these two terms. Make sure you choose the right service, and it will make your life a whole lot easier in the long run.

When you’re thinking about protecting yourself from negligence lawsuits however, you should keep in mind that the aim is to be able to show that you have taken all reasonable steps to ensure that your employees are not going to cause any damage or harm.

As an employer, this is expected of you – but what you’ll find is that in different types of jobs and roles the exact scope that the employment screening needs to cover is very different. What you need to bear in mind is that you are expected to take reasonable steps to prevent damages and harm, and that is going to be based on the job scope of the person.

For example, someone hired to drive a vehicle or transport goods is going to be on the road and at the wheel or a car, truck, lorry or some other vehicle. Because of that, as the person who is hiring someone for that job it is your responsibility to make sure that them being at the wheel is not going to potentially endanger others.

To this end, for such a job you would normally be expected to look into a person’s driving records if they are available, and possibly court records as well. Any charges of driving under the influence would obviously raise red flags, but too many points on a driver’s license, a tendency to be involved in accidents and so on are also things that you should keep an eye out for.

Another good example is if someone is hired to perform a job where they are going to be given access to people’s houses or property such as a real estate agent, it is crucial that you know they have no prior convictions such as breaking and entry, and so on. After all, you are going to be giving them access to your client’s property and thus you need to ensure that there is no chance that they might cause damages or loss of property.

Are you starting to see what sort of employment screening will help to protect you from negligence lawsuits? Frankly speaking in most situations you don’t need extensive screening techniques, but by focusing on the right areas you can ensure that you have taken reasonable measures to make sure that the person you eventually hire isn’t likely to cause any harm or damage – and that is all that can be expected.