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Coaching Clients About Background Checks

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What You Will Learn From This Guide:

  • What Background Services Include
  • Investment Employers Make in New Hires
  • Cost of Background Services
  • List of Primary Background Services
  • The New Component of Today’s Background Checks
  • How to Coach Your Clients on The Subject
  • Videos & Links to Legal Resources to Learn More

Our clients undergo background checks as part of the new-hire process. There’s no way around it.

First of all, hiring companies verify such things as:

  • Education & Credentials
  • Employment History
  • Dates of Service

These are at the top of the list.

Additionally, some employers consider credit scores, civil/criminal history, and driving records.

You might be wondering, What the heck?

Why do employers care about a new employee’s driving record?

Examining credit scores and driving history helps indicate a person’s character.

There are some roles in which this information may be vital as well.

Take commercial truck drivers as an example. A clean (or near-spotless) driving record is required for new hires.

Background checks help identify potentially qualified and disqualified employees.

There’s no surprise that there are “professional rip-off artists” who hop from employer to employer looking for opportunities to file lawsuits and discrimination claims.

Companies spend an estimated $4,129 on new hires, according to a survey conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in 2016.

That’s a substantial investment made when hiring new staff, especially when the employee has not yet done any work. 😉

The cost is less than $100/per hire for basic background services. At that price, you realize that background checks make up only a small slice of the $4,129 mentioned above.

4 Background Checking Services

There are known background checking services, which include:

Checking services don’t always get what they’re after because employers don’t always give employee details beyond the basics, e.g., employment dates and job title.

For example, today’s employers face defamation lawsuits from current/former employees.

Companies sometimes get into hot water over what’s revealed during routine background checks.

Employers can avoid defamation lawsuits by:

  • Getting signed disclosure forms from employees.
  • Training HR and other support staff on not revealing too much (in fact, this is what most employers are doing now)

The keystone of background checks may be reference checking. 

Not all companies do thorough background checks on their employees.

However, more than 80% perform only the minimal reference checks.

References are most often colleagues and supervisors, but may also be friends and acquaintances.

This means that reference-checking services can elicit information beyond job title and employment dates.

For example, they might ask about the reason for job separation, opinion on work ethic and history, and so on.

It’s no surprise, then, as to why reference checking services often “find the dirt.”

What Background Checks NOW Include

Hiring companies troll social media as part of the background process as well.

I mean, why not?

You might immediately be thinking of LinkedIn.

And, you would be right.

Yet, there’s YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and a whole host of others.

What are reference checkers looking for?

They’re looking for forms of digital dirt, of course (i.e., reasons not to hire someone).

For example, has this job candidate…

  • Spoken badly about current/past employers
  • Mentioned online about showing aggression towards colleagues, family, friends, bosses, etc
  • Been unprofessional with others
  • Harassed or stalked someone else
  • Shown signs of having involvement with law enforcement or a credit collection agency

The lesson here?

Your clients should keep their social media accounts free of harmful content.

This can be difficult for those addicted to needing attention. It seems like there’s a growing population of online attention seekers.

We all too often think this is reserved for Millennials.

However, people of all ages are guilty of posting their personal matters and thoughts online in an effort to get positive/negative responses, artificial or genuine sympathy/concern, and so on.

A sad state of affairs IMHO.

How to Coach Your Clients About Background Checks

Advise your clients to consult reliable, professional references. Also, encourage your clients to hire a reference checking service to assess what their references are saying about them.

This may be an odd recommendation.

But, in today’s hiring environment, following Ronald Reagan’s motto of “trust, but verify” has become a necessary step for us all.

Also, coach your clients on the importance of keeping professional social media accounts.

We hear horror stories ALL THE TIME of people who publish SM updates that they later regret.

Videos to Help You Learn More About These Checks

1. HR Basics: Background Checks

2. Employee Reference Checking For New Hires

3. Employee Background Checks – What Contractors Need to Know

Legal Resources

What Job Applicants & Employees Need to Know About Background Checks; https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/publications/background_checks_employees.cfm

Consumer Rights Relating to Employee Background Checks; https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/media/video-0026-employee-background-checks

US Department of Labor, Wage & Hour Division; https://www.dol.gov/whd/contacts/state_of.htm (learn what rights you have regarding wage disclosure)

What Employment Background Screening Companies Need to Know About The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA); https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/what-employment-background-screening-companies-need-know-about