Doing background checks without a date of birth
There are times when doing a background check without a date of birth can be useful. If you need to check out a neighbor, for example, you might not happen to know his birthdate. For a casual search like this, with no FCRA implications, it is usually possible to search a criminal database by name only — and we provide this option on our criminal search page. Assuming the name is not incredibly common, and you know roughly where the person lives and their approximate age, you can have a pretty good idea of which criminal records are relevant to them.
But this is not good enough for a pre-employment background check. In that case it is important to get records for the exact person in question, and no-one else. So we need to narrow them down by an additional identifier. The two that are most commonly used are date of birth (DOB) and social security number (SSN).
Employers often ask for a reliable way to do a background check without a date of birth. They are afraid to ask candidates for their date of birth because they are concerned that it will open them up to charges of age discrimination. A natural followup question is, “Can you do background checks by SSN, rather than date of birth?” The answer is, not really…but we do have a workaround for the age discrimination issue.
Criminal records are primarily stored by name and date of […]
Understanding FCRA rules for employment screening
At SentryLink we are often asked about the legal rules and regulations involved in beginning employee background checks. Here we attempt to explain some of the basics involved, in particular the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Disclaimer: We are not lawyers and specific situations may vary. Please consult with your attorney before implementing any screening program.
The federal rules regarding employment screening are contained in the Fair Credit Reporting Act. At a minimum, your screening program must conform to these rules. (State-specific rules may also apply, and we will be covering those in future posts.) The FCRA has two primary goals with respect to employment:
- Ensuring that people are explicitly notified, and agree to, any background checks that are done, and
- Allowing people to correct any misinformation before any decisions are made by the employer.
Job candidates must sign a release form agreeing to permit a background check before it is performed. The most common background checks are criminal record checks, credit reports, and driving records. The release form must provide “clear and conspicuous” disclosure, which is generally interpreted as requiring a separate page rather than burying it in the rest of the job application. Here is a sample background check release form (PDF reader required).
What happens if they are not willing to sign? You cannot perform the background check in that case…but you are not required to hire them, either. It is very important that you have a consistent policy on this to avoid any charges of discrimination.
If you […]