You are looking to hire a new employee but you don’t want to pay an outside screening service. You plan to save money by using all those commercial criminal searches you see on the internet. You might want to rethink that decision.
These sites boast quick and thorough results but they don’t search any actual government records. They pull information from several commercially available sources and present you with the findings. Those findings are incomplete and lead to significant mistakes.
Commercial criminal searches risk coming up with a false negative or positive. A candidate with no record and the same name as someone with a record could show an arrest record or vice versa. Many times these searches may find a criminal record where one has been expunged and wrongfully disqualify a candidate.
Commercial criminal search sites don’t always inform the employer of all the legal requirements, such as applicant consent and adverse action notices. A qualified screening firm can make use of these databases as a secondary source to find out of state courts that might not come up in federal databases. With increased scrutiny from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) employers have to be extremely mindful of government regulations.
While these commercial criminal databases may seem to be cheap and quick, they could cost you in the long run. Always use an experienced screening firm to avoid potential lawsuits and government action. At ESS, we abide by all the regulations set forth under the FRCA.
ESS, accredited by the National Association of Professional Background Screeners, is dedicated to protecting companies and their employees through extensive background screenings. ESS combines experience, advanced technology and unparalleled customer service to ensure that an employer’s screening services are fast, affordable and effective. The company also offers drug screening, electronic fingerprinting, third-party exit interviewing, and I-9 processing.
