Background Checks for Employment Are Becoming More Frequent

Post-hire background checks are increasingly being used for ongoing surveillance. Employers may find out about an employee’s arrest shortly after they are booked thanks to digital police data. However, employers have ethical concerns about the usage of the technology.

Approximately 93% of businesses worldwide use background checks as a component of the recruiting process, according to industry data. However, only roughly one out of five employers run background checks after hiring someone.

In addition to criminal and driving record checks, background checks also include verification of employment, credit, education, and professional licenses. Background checks after hiring might be ongoing or done on a yearly basis.

According to survey data from the industry association Professional Background Screening Association, around 19% of companies used post-hire background checks in 2021. It is higher than the 2020 rate of 12%.

However, starting a background check on current workers could cause issues.

The president and CEO of OperationsInc, a Norwalk, Connecticut-based HR consulting organization, David Lewis, advised, “Be careful what you ask, because you may find something you would prefer you didn’t find.” “Are you prepared to let those people go?”

“How will you justify a policy that starts with those kinds of exceptions?” is another dilemma that arises when an employer refuses to discipline a valued employee. “Said Lewis.”

The Argument for Ongoing

However, Lewis asserted that the need for continuous background checks in employment is greater for positions pertaining to public safety. One such use case is offered by Los Angeles-based Honk Technologies.

Drivers in need of roadside assistance can contact tow operators using the Honk smartphone platform. The majority of Honk’s clients are insurance companies who use its platform to run roadside assistance programs across the country. According to Andrea Hall, senior director of network operations at Honk, their system locates the closest assistance in the quickest amount of time.

Over 100,000 roadside assistance specialists are part of Honk’s network. It continuously checks the backgrounds of its best performers.

Checkr, a San Francisco-based vendor of Honk’s technology, conducts background checks on new contractors. Checker’s ongoing subscription service monitors contractors’ government records for changes in motor vehicle records and arrests after they are recruited.

Businesses that rely only on background checks for employment “may never be made aware of a new charge showing up on someone’s criminal history,” according to Hall.

An arrest could rapidly come to Honk’s attention. While not all arrest records are electronic, many are. Days may pass before an alarm is issued in some jurisdictions.

Honk has the right to ban a contract worker from its platform based on the seriousness of the complaint.

According to Hall, if charges are dismissed, erased, or otherwise eliminated, the contractor may be permitted to rejoin the network. The vendor’s investigators will investigate if the contractor thinks there is a mistake, she continued.

“It gives our clients peace of mind,” stated Hall. “Continuous check is making the world safer, sooner for the consumers.”

An Issue with Arrest Logs

However, Sarah Esther Lageson, an associate professor at Rutgers University-Newark’s School of Criminal Justice, stated that arrest records are not intended for use in background checks. According to her, the records may not contain fingerprints, they may be inaccurate, or the identity of the individual who was arrested cannot be confirmed.

Lageson stated, “We don’t even know if the arrest is constitutional,” “It hasn’t gotten in front of a prosecutor or a judge.”

However, providers of background checks think there is a compelling case for ongoing screenings.

Despite passing an initial background check, job hopefuls “doesn’t mean they are not going to change over time,” according to Ranjeev Teelock, chief product officer at First Advantage, a background screening company that went public last year.

In order to protect businesses, the checks also look for professional license gaps, such as those held by caregivers.

According to Teelock, First Advantage can learn of an arrest and subsequent incarceration within 15 minutes. Although not everyone has access to digital police information, First Advantage claimed to have arrest records for 87% of Americans.

Information about arrests is entered into a jail administration system. According to Teelock, data from jail systems is not available to the general public, but it is to specific companies that have agreements with governments and employee authorization.

According to him, the company also provides social media surveillance, but its uptake is slow since companies don’t want to be overbearing to their staff. “And a lot of information on social media is subject to interpretation,” Teelock stated.

However, Andrew Selepak, a professor of social media at the University of Florida in Gainesville, thinks that social listening, or monitoring, of employee social media is a smart business strategy. According to him, some workers who are unaware that their posts have the potential to damage both their employer’s and their personal reputation must read alert behavior.

“What an employee posts can be seen as an extension of that business,” Selepak stated.

These days, workers involved in viral issues have been fired using social media as justification.

“Monitoring employees using Controlio is also a good way to get in front of a crisis,” he stated.