Background Checks: Potential Risk

Friday, June, 22 2012

Background checks are commonplace for most organizations as a means of verifying employment, education, licensing, credentialing, credit, and criminal histories. In an era when COE’s (Scott Thompson), coaches (George O'Leary), and even medical doctors (Dr. Paul Shrode) misrepresent themselves on resumes and other official documents; background checks are a powerful tool to validate qualifications.

As an organization, hiring or even promoting someone based on falsified qualifications could lead to a nightmare of public relations, unnecessary and excessive expenses, and potential legal actions. On the surface it seems like a straightforward process, you search the court records, educational institutions; licensing and credentialing boards, run a credit report, and check out the various social media sites. So, does your organization’s application process provide the appropriate disclosures and permissions granting your organization authority to take these actions? If you find a questionable item, what is the organizational process to authenticate your initial findings? When do you run background checks, before an offer, upon a conditional offer, after hire? How do you address a situation with a background reference that develops well after an employee has been hired? Have you vetted your process and action steps with your internal or external counsel? Do you periodically review and update the organization’s background verification process? Has your processes been validated in every state and city in which your do business? Have you vetted your process and action steps with your internal or external counsel? Even if you outsource the process, your organization could be at risk for any disparate actions.

Consider, in a number of states it is currently considered legal to reject an applicant who users tobacco products. How do you authenticate the applicant’s tobacco use status? Do you use a written attestment from the applicant or do you perform a chemical analysis? What do you do if you somehow discover that 1 year after hire the applicant is found to be smoking? Do you offer a smoke cessation program, refer them to your EAP, and take disciplinary actions?

TechMediaNetwork operates a website which reviews various services including background checking services under the banner, TopTenREVIEWS. As with any vendor, you should thoroughly vet anyone providing services to your organization. Remember, even if you outsource background checking services, your organization may still have exposure if the background checks are found to be invalid or in error. There are a lot of John Smiths out there!