Background checks in the corporate realm have become a commonplace practice for many companies, aimed at mitigating legal liabilities and preventing adverse actions within their workforce.
[4] These checks are often used by employers as a means of judging a job candidate's past mistakes, character, and fitness, and to identify potential hiring risks for safety and security reasons.
One study showed that half of all reference checks done on prospective employees differed between what the job applicant provided and what the source reported.
[7] In the United States under the Gun Control Act of 1968, citizens and US residents must be 18 years or older to purchase shotguns, rifles, or ammunition.
Restricted firearms (like machine guns), suppressors, explosives or large quantities of precursor chemicals, and concealed weapons permits also require criminal checks.
[8] Checks are also required for those working in positions with special security concerns, such as trucking, ports of entry, and airports (including airline transportation).
[9] Laws exist to prevent those who do not pass a criminal check from working in careers involving the elderly, disabled, or children.
[12] Restrictions and Laws on Background checks The first Polish research on the issue of pre-employment screening shows that 81% of recruiters have come across the phenomenon of lies in the CVs of candidates for the job.
[12] Restrictions and Laws on Background checks The employer has to treat the personal information from the applicant as confidential.
Services like these will actually perform the checks, supply the company with adverse action letters, and ensure compliance throughout the process.
[25] The construction and property industry showed the lowest level of outsourcing, with 89% of such firms in the sample carrying out checks in-house, making the overall average 16%.
[27] As a general rule, employers may not take adverse action against an applicant or employee (not hiring or terminating them), solely on the basis of results obtained through a database search.
Many websites offer the "instant" background check, which will search a compilation of databases containing public information for a fee.
Past employment and personal reference verifications are moving toward standardization with most companies in order to avoid expensive litigation.
These usually range from simple verbal confirmations of past employment and timeframe to deeper, such as discussions about performance, activities and accomplishments, and relations with others.
[32] A fraudulent SSN may be indicative of identity theft, incorrect claims of citizenship status, or concealment of a "past life".
Background screening firms usually perform a Social Security trace to determine where the applicant or employee has lived.
The hiring of undocumented workers has become an increasing issue for American businesses since the formation of the Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division, as immigration raids have forced employers to consider including legal working status as part of their background screening process.
[citation needed] All employers are required to keep government Form I-9 documents on all employees and some states mandate the use of the federal E-Verify program to research the working status of Social Security numbers.
With increased concern for right-to-work issues, many outsourcing companies are sprouting in the marketplace to help automate and store Form I-9 documentation.
In the case of an arrest that did not lead to a conviction, employment checks can continue including the arrest record for up to seven years, per § 605 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act: Subsection (b) provides for an exception if the report is in connection with "the employment of any individual at an annual salary which equals, or which may reasonably be expected to equal $75,000, or more".
"[38]The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has criticized the federal policy, which denies constitutional rights based on a criminal check only if the subject has been accused of a crime.