By Francisco Ortega

In order to comply with California requirements, when an employer decides not to hire a candidate based on information contained in a background check:

• The employer must first conduct an individualized assessment.

The goal of the individualized assessment determines if the information being used to make the decision is relevant to the job being hired for.

Once you have completed the individualized assessment and determined that the information is relevant to the job, you must provide the candidate with a Pre-Adverse Action Notice.

• The Pre-Adverse Action Notice must identify the information on the report that is being used to make the decision.

• Include a copy of the completed background check.

• Make sure you include a copy of the federally required “Summary of rights under the FCRA”.

• The notice must inform the candidate that they have five business days to make an initial response disputing the information contained in the report and to provide the employer with evidence of rehabilitation or mitigating circumstances. 

• The candidate then has an additional five business days to provide their response to the employer.

• If the candidate does provide additional information within the timeframe allotted, the employer must consider the new information before making a final decision.

• If the employer has still decided not to hire the candidate based on the information contained in their background check after conducting an individualized assessment and considering any additional information provided to the employer by the candidate, the employer must send the candidate an Adverse Action Notice.

• The employer is then required to notify the candidate of the right to file a complaint with the department of Fair Employment and Housing.

While the process may seem awkward and cumbersome, at iprospectcheck we have tools that can make the delivery of the required documentation easy and consistent.

Our Pre-Adverse and Adverse Action tools allow you to customize each notice to include the relevant information. The notices are then delivered electronically. We work hard to make compliance manageable for you at every stage of the screening process. We recommend that these notifications be created for your company with the guidance of expert legal counsel. We are experienced in working with our legal team to implement fully compliant solutions for our clients.