A background check is an important tool for businesses to help mitigate risks, improve their hiring process and protect their reputation. These checks can help employers make informed decisions and increase their chances of reducing the cost of negligent hiring and wrongful termination lawsuits.
It’s also an effective way to identify potential problems, such as fraudulent applications and false claims about credentials or educational backgrounds. It can be a very important part of any recruitment process, particularly for jobs with high levels of responsibility.
The type of background check an employer runs depends on a variety of factors, including the position the person is applying for, the company’s specific policy on assessing criminal convictions and other information and the laws that apply to employment screening in the applicant’s state.
Typical background checks include national, state, federal and county criminal record searches. These searches will return felony and misdemeanor convictions, pending court cases and dismissed charges within seven years.
These records can range from DUIs to assault and theft to sex crimes and more. They can even reveal details of arrests or pre-convictions, which may not have been disclosed previously by a candidate.
A standard background check will also look at a candidate’s address history, as well as a list of previous employers. This will give you an idea of where a potential employee has lived in the past and how they’ve managed their money.
Some companies will use a combination of these types of background checks to get an in-depth view of an applicant’s personality and character. This is especially useful for high-level positions, such as president or director of a nonprofit organization or government agency.
Other types of background checks include education verifications, credit reports and a criminal records search. A good background screening company will be able to perform these checks and provide you with a detailed report about the results.
Credentials and Degree Verification
Education verifications are a critical component of any comprehensive best background check and should be done at every stage of the application process. These verifications will verify whether a candidate has the required certification, license or degree for the job they’re applying for.
The most common types of certifications and degrees are nursing, law enforcement and teaching. These qualifications can be verified by looking at a candidate’s transcripts and other documentation from the college or university that the person attended.
It is very important to work with a provider that can go above and beyond to complete these verifications, as they are a highly sensitive area of the background screening process.
Some states restrict the age of criminal records that are uncovered on background checks, so be sure to check your local laws before running a background check on someone who lives or has lived in your state. Some of these restrictions are as stringent as a 7-year limit on felonies and a 5-year limit on misdemeanors.