In a country wide initiative to reduce and possibly eliminate discrimination in the employment screening process companies and organizations need to understand new laws and regulations governing the use of criminal background records in the hiring process. Currently ban-the-box legislation has been adopted by cities, counties and states and in itself eliminates the job application question asking if the person has a criminal history.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) goes even a step further than ban-the-box and looks into disparate impact a form of discrimination that on the surface appears non-discriminatory but in the big picture discriminates certain classes of people like minorities. With ban-the-box being adopted all over the country, the EEOC aggressively going after companies and organizations for their discriminatory hiring practices and with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) guiding the use of criminal records and/or consumer reports in the employment screening process it can get very confusing for companies and organizations to remain compliant with all of it.
In this current employment screening arena it is now a good time for companies and organizations to utilize the services provided by professional third party background screening companies. These companies take it upon themselves to be up to date with all laws governing the employment screening arena. They can also assist companies and organizations with staying compliant with all relevant laws and even provide documents to their customers to help make sure they are conducting their employment screening process legally. Such documents include “What Employers Should Know About Federal Laws”, “A Summary of Your Rights Under the FCRA” “Sample Authorization and Employee Release Form” and “Sample Pre-Adverse and Adverse Action Letter”. These documents and others ensure that companies and organizations are using the most up to date documents and forms needed to properly go about the hiring process.
Employment background checks continue to be scrutinized all over the country and it is a two way street where some are onboard with the legal landscape changing in regards to the use of criminal records in the employment screening process while others are not. Many companies and organizations do not want to change the way they go about hiring new employees, and others that don’t mind still find it very confusing as to what is appropriate and what is not. In the end the best practice for companies and organizations is to use a professional third party background screening company to conduct thorough criminal background checks on their behalf as well as educating them on issues concerning employment screening and providing them with up to date legal documents that must be used during the hiring process.
To read more regarding the continuing scrutiny of criminal background records in the pre-employment background screening process read recent CriminalBackgroundRecords.com press release here.