There’s an excellent article at In-House Counsel titled: Conducting Employee Background Checks: Navigating Current Rule. Here’s the lead.
In recent years, an ever-increasing number of employers are conducting some form of background checks on job applicants and employees. In fact, in a 2004 study, the Society for Human Resource Management reported that 96 percent of human resource professionals indicated that their companies conduct some form of reference checks on prospective hires. That number nearly doubled from 51 percent less than a decade ago.
This is an excellent article and one that you should follow the link and read. It’s the sort of article you may want to print out for reference. It’s filled with details about particular situations and the laws in individual states. I won’t try to summarize an article this rich, but I will highlight some important points.
The reason you do criminal background checks is to protect your business and your employees. As the article says: “employers could face negligent hiring claims if they hire someone with a criminal record.”
Some organizations are required by law to conduct criminal background checks. The article says that commonly includes “those involved in child care, health care, elder care, education and those who work with other ‘vulnerable populations.'” You need to know if you’re required to conduct criminal checks.
Whether the law requires you to conduct criminal checks or not, you have to follow the rules about what you can do and how you can use the information you get. State laws have something to say about this, but so do Federal regulations. If you’re using pre-employment credit checks, for example, you need to comply with FCRA requirements. We’ve blogged about this several times.
The basics are simple. You can’t use the information you get to discriminate on the basis of things like race or gender. You need to use the information you get for a legitimate business purpose.
Checking the background of people you hire is good business these days. Just make sure you play by the rules.