Your organization’s people are your most important resources. Excellent employees can make a good business great. You’ve got performance management and review processes to track how employees are doing and help them improve, but you’re best off if you avoid hiring those who may not be a good fit for your organization.

The one way to help you achieve that goal: The Employment Background check

What Is Employment Background Verification?

With a highly mobile workforce, employers use background verification for vetting and screening candidates and new hires.

Background verification is the process of vetting employment history, commercial records, financial records, criminal records, and other activities of a person or a company to confirm their authenticity.

The digitization of numerous public records in India, such as the voter ID, driver’s license, PAN card, and academic certificates, police records, and court records, has facilitated prompt screenings of the entities. With so much information available online, some of which are for free and some available for a fee, there is a thin line about the legality of what can be vetted. It can be confusing for both the employer and employee.

When you’re in the process of hiring and sorting through a group of potential candidates, you clearly want to be as thorough and careful as possible. But if your organization is like most, you may not have the resources to dive deeply into each candidate’s background.

Fortunately, you’re not in this alone. You can use a background check service to handle the screening, allowing you to focus your attention on the other attributes of your job candidates. Pick the right platform, and you’ll have a partner who knows how to get the screening done right and is quite familiar with pertinent laws and regulations.

In this article, we’ll talk about the six different background checks for different situations and the legal information for the employer to access.

6 Types of Background Verification for New Hires

1. Candidate History

Employers run background checks to avoid hiring someone who could be a liability to the employer or pose a threat to the workplace. An AuthBridge report revealed that one in every six candidates lie on their resumes.

No wonder the background check discrepancy levels shot to 48% in 2018 from only 10.29% in 2016 in India. An employment background check typically includes the candidate’s work history, educational qualifications, driving record, medical history, and criminal record.

These days, the social media of candidates has also become an authoritative source of screening. SpringRole, for instance, lets individuals create profiles on the platform which are verified using blockchain technology.

They can add meaningful endorsements to the profile, showcase projects in detail, and customize the profile by adding links to other profiles such as Twitter, GitHub, and Quora.

Although employers are allowed to access background information on existing and potential hires, there are strict rules set by United Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that must be followed. They are:

• The candidate has to be notified in writing about the background check. This document is separate from the employment application.
• The applicant must provide written consent for the background check.
• If the pre-employment check is compulsory for hiring, the business must state it clearly in their written policies.
• The employee has the right to be notified about checks being conducted about their reputation, lifestyle, history, or character.

2. Criminal Records

Criminal record checks are one of the most widely used background screening tools, but they also happen to be one of the most complex and misunderstood.

The two main categories of crimes include serious crimes and minor crimes. As an employer, you must define your organization’s values and draw the line when screening employees and making hiring decisions.

An individual’s criminal history affects not only a company’s safety but also job performance and qualification. If you are hiring a stock manager who handles inventory and funds (the job requires a high level of trust), it’s important to see if the individual has ever been charged with theft or fraud.

One thing is certain—criminal record checks are helpful in making more confident, informed hiring decisions.

3. Credit Score

It is also known as a credit report card. It is a standard requirement by banks when applying for a credit card and car or home loan. The credit background screening helps in verifying the record of a person’s credit-to-debt ratio.

For some jobs in the finance industry, where fraud and embezzlement are possible, conduct a credit background screening.

In the USA, as per the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the employer has to obtain written consent before they request the candidate’s credit report. This consent is required in all 50 states.

Further, when a business rejects a candidate based on their credit report, they are required to give an explicit reason, along with the contact details of the credit reporting company that shared this information. This way, in the case of misinformation, the applicant gets a chance to correct it before the hiring decision is made.

4. Gamer Profiles

With 100+ new online games set to enter the Indian gaming ecosystem, the addiction levels will only grow. Fraudsters and scammers will continue to do what they do best. To combat this, gaming companies are deploying fraud detection solutions to authenticate a user in real-time.

SpringVerify, for instance, verifies the KYC details of the gamers to create real customer profiles. When gaming companies have more information about the users, they can screen them before they gamble.

A reliable verification process paves the way for a safer environment for individuals to play and combat gaming-related harm.

5. Personal Background

With access to 200+ million court records across India, many companies have developed their in-house AI and ML-powered search algorithm. The technology is so precise that it can pick a needle from the haystack.

Therefore, to see what employers or banking professionals see when they run a background check, individuals can screen themselves too. This exercise helps them check where they have lived and worked and if their name appears in any public litigation database, both criminal and civil.

Background verification is a great way to address any potential errors and not miss out on any opportunity to bag a job or loan or start a business.

Simultaneously, it is illegal for the employer to ask about age, race, ethnicity, disability, marital status, and pregnancy during an interview or a background check. Protected information cannot be used to influence employment decisions.

6. Professional License

When the job applicant is a doctor, realtor, or accountant, background screening verifies if he possesses a valid license to protect the employer from negligent hiring claims.

The background screening company typically contacts the state licensing board to verify the license hasn’t expired or lapsed and is in good standing. Sectors that majorly run a professional license background check include:

• Home contractors, including electricians, builders, and plumbers
• Education, including college professors and administrators
• Banking and insurance

Before obtaining the records of the profession of the hire, the business has to ask the candidates for permission about:

• Education records – several schools and colleges either reveal these records to the student or the employer with signed proof of the candidate’s approval.
• Military records – as an employer, you require written consent to know about the applicant’s rank, salary, duty assignments, and awards.
• Disability records – To access the medical records, the potential employee requires the candidate’s permission to access the medical records. The Americans with Disabilities Act’s goal is to ensure that the employer’s hiring decision is influenced by the candidate’s ability to perform specific tasks.

Final Words

For an applicant, they should be well aware of the rules the employer must adhere to while conducting a background check. For an employer, being aware of the state and federal laws ensures that they do not run into legal troubles in the future.

The purpose of doing a background check is to gather useful information about an entity to assess whether they are trustworthy, reliable, and credible. Indeed, a person’s past actions don’t predict their future ones.
Ratifys is mainly used for professional services to empower the employer ecosystem and network, and it allows companies to verify and rate their employees. Ratifys allows employers to create profiles and “connect” to each other (employers) on a global platform that may represent real-world professional relationships.