Not all applicants are totally honest about their qualifications and may exaggerate their education history or even make outrageous misrepresentations of their professional backgrounds.
A Background Verification Agency, such as Global Background Screening LLC, offers services that include checking employment histories, educational degrees, and professional licenses. This helps employers ensure that applicants have the qualifications and backgrounds that are required for a certain position.
A background verification will also help avoid the potentially disastrous consequences of hiring someone who does not meet the requirements for the job. An unqualified new hire may not be able to perform necessary job requirements, which could negatively impact individual and organizational performance, not to mention overall revenue for the business.
Finally, the most important aspect about conducting a background verification is to use a well-known and reputable company. If a company does not abide by the FCRA or EEOC guidelines the employer and background verification agency may get sued, sometimes for millions of dollars. Certain procedures must be taken during the background screening process, especially when denying an applicant over a background verification report, called adverse action, or more widely known as a consumer report.
How Are Background Verifications Conducted?
Generally, any background verification agency for employment and tenant screening will begin with a social security trace or sometimes called a social security number trace.
What’s in a Social Security Number Trace (SSN Trace)?
The SSN Trace will utilize numerous databases including Credit Bureaus to verify the counties where you have lived, been arrested, went to school, alias names, the validity of the ssn, and much more.
Here is the main starting point of any background verification.
Next, if you’re wanting to provide an additional security blanket, you should order a National Criminal Database search.
What’s a National Criminal Database Search?
You’ve probably seen a couple of sites like BeenVerified or People Search sites, where you can search a person anonymously?
Well, these people search sites utilize some of those databases.
Background verification agencies have additional access to numerous instant police and public databases. Tracy Shatus, the CEO of Global Background Screening LLC confirms that Global Background Screening LLC currently utilizes 1,800 databases covering almost 900 million records for their national criminal product.
Ok, so now we have conducted an instant nationwide criminal database search.
Now what?
Background Check Companies then verify the counties found on the SSN Trace and any data from the instant nationwide criminal search and order court researchers, sometimes called court runners, to go to the industry standard court houses.
What’s Courts Are Searched On a Typical Background Check?
Industry standard courthouses are generally the courthouses where the background screening community has agreed to search as default. These courts hold the most important misdemeanors and all non-federal felonies. These charges can range from DUIs, Reckless driving to Burglary, Murder, and Rape.
For instance, the industry standard courthouses are the State and Superior courts of each county. In Tennessee, the industry standard courthouses are the General Sessions and Supreme courts. Global background Screening has access to court records in over 3,000 county courts in the United States.
Next, we will explore the next process, which most employers agree upon: Federal Court Searches.
Federal Criminal Background Check The 2 biggest myth about federal background checks from my 12-year experience:
1. Federal and national searches are the same. - WRONG
2. This is a FBI or DOJ search. - WRONG
The Federal court system has three main court levels: district courts, circuit courts and Supreme Court.
How many Federal Courts are there?
There are 94 district courts, 13 circuit courts and one Supreme court in the United States.
What’s the difference between Federal and State Courts?
The main differentiating factor between state courts are the type of cases issued. The state courts are authorized to hear cases involving the laws and citizens of their state or city. In contrast, the federal courts decide lawsuits between citizens of different states, cases against the USA, and cases involving specific federal laws.
The Full Background Check Report
Finally, once you’ve been able to successfully search all possible counties, states, and federal courts, a background verification agency will make sure the data being provided to the employer is FCRA compliant. The employer will then have to make the ultimate decision on hiring the applicant or not based on the consumer report.
Guest Writer:
Carlos Crameri is the Founder & CEO of CuriousCheck, a tech advertising company based out of Atlanta, GA. Carlos has worked in numerous background verification agencies such as SJV Data Solutions, InfoMart, and Thomas Reuters.
If you’re interested in Guest writing for Global Background Screening LLC, please contact info@getgbs.com
Learn more on how Background Verification Agencies work at Global Background Screening LLC.
