The Houston Chronicle recently ran an editorial about background checks for taxi drivers in that city. Here’s the gist.
By April, taxi drivers who wish to pick up or drop off passengers at Bush Intercontinental Airport will have to pass a background check by the Transportation Security Administration. The cabbies, 80 percent of whom came here from African nations such as Ethiopia, Nigeria and Somalia, protest that the background checks are redundant and discriminatory. They are right about the redundancy. Houston taxi drivers must undergo an FBI background check before they receive an operator’s license. If that screening is meaningful, there should be little need for another. Federal security officials say they will use databases to confirm drivers’ immigration status, but that has more to do with immigration policy than airport safety.
I’m with the Chronicle. If you do the job right, there should be no need to keep doing it over while you spend more money and time. You want your background check system to be both effective and cost-effective.
But there are times when you want to run more than one check on the same person. Here are a few of them.
When you’re hiring, run both a criminal background check and a pre-employment credit check. They help you spot different kinds of trouble and their value when used together with a conscientious reference check is greater than the sum of the parts.
Run those same checks when you promote someone to a new position. Think of it as a new hire, except from inside your organization.
For people with access to sensitive data or to funds, make a regular background checks a feature of employment. And make it a firing offense not to inform you of a criminal conviction that occurs after hiring.
You don’t need to spend extra time and money to re-check the same things, but when time or circumstances change, another background check is a good idea.
Background checks on these individuals is essential. If I call one of them to pick me up at my home because I am leaving on a trip, they now know that I am out of town. If they have criminal intentions, they know that my wife and kids are home alone. If they act “interested” in me, maybe I tell them how long I will be gone. Not all of these types are criminal but given the opportunity, they have the knowledge necessary to become one. I am involved with a company that provides verifiable background checks. Instead of someone merely saying, “I have a background check” and you relying on their word, you can go online and verify that they in fact have had a background check done. It is great especially for people who work in and around our homes. The article mentions that an additional background check is sometimes a good idea.