Conducting background screens is an important step to minimizing your risks in the hiring process, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that your bases are covered. In addition to the importance of what types of checks are performed and how regularly they are repeated, how the information on a background check is handled (and how it affects the employee’s job) is increasingly critical to an organization’s due diligence.
Current estimates indicate that 90% of all major corporations are performing background checks on incoming employees. Fewer than 45% of non-major corporations (that are not in regulated industries) currently conduct background checks on incoming employees. These non-major corporations generally fall into the “small business” category (according to the General Accounting Office and Department of Commerce). The definition of a “small business” varies slightly by industry but in general is a company with fewer than 500 employees and annual revenue less than $ 7 million.
Since the latest recession, small businesses accounted for 67% of net new jobs, so it is easy to see why their compliance with hiring standards is progressively more scrutinized at the federal, state, and local levels.
Background screening protects businesses, non-profits, and the people that they employ and serve. At the same time, the manner in which screening results are used has a negative impact on the ability of people with criminal, or other questionable, records to secure jobs.
For more information about these laws and practices, and how this and other operational risks can be avoided, contact Benjamin Ventresca, Managing Partner – Brandywine Consulting Group, Inc at 610.696.1905.