Background checks are a vital part of the hiring process for your company. Failure to screen a job candidate accurately and properly can result in legal liability for your company as well as serious problems in selecting a poor candidate.
Working with a background check company that abides by all legal requirements and delivers accurate, complete, affordable, and timely background reports is the best way to streamline and optimize your company’s hiring process.
Understanding how to choose a reliable background check service will help you avoid liability for misinformed hiring decisions while minimizing expenses and delays in the screening process.
At iprospectcheck, we are committed to providing the most reliable and efficient background check services for clients of all sizes from a wide range of industries.
Based on our experience providing high-quality service to employers across all industries, we have compiled this guide for your company in choosing the best background check service for employers.
Let’s get started.
An Overview of the Importance of Background Checks
Background checks provide employers with important information about a job candidate, which may include their criminal history, identity verification, past employment verification, sex offender registration, civil judgments, and education verification.
Some regulated industries, such as healthcare, trucking, and childcare services, may require supplemental categories of information in employee background checks like license verifications, driving records, drug screenings, health screenings and reference checks.
Accessing Records Required for a Background Check
The records that must be inspected for an employee background check are stored in multiple locations and should be verified directly from their official source.
Some of the most common sources that a legitimate background check company will consult for an applicant’s relevant records include the following:
- Federal, county, municipal, and state courthouses
- Sex offender registries
- State motor vehicle departments
- Federal, state, and local licensing authorities
- Educational institutions
- Previous employers
Solutions for Conducting Background Checks
All employers must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in pre-employment background checks. Many employers rely on background check vendors for screening services due to their knowledge of the compliance requirements and their access to the research resources necessary to properly collect and review important records.
How to Choose a Reliable Background Check Company
Before selecting a vendor for your company’s background check needs, ensuring that you are working with a trusted and competent provider can make a major difference in your hiring process.
When searching for a reliable and legally compliant background check company, you should consider the following factors.
1. Legal Compliance
Knowledge of the legal compliance landscape is essential when selecting a background check company. A reputable background check vendor will be able to explain their compliance safeguards and help you to avoid the possibility of an FCRA violation in your screening process.
Depending on the jurisdiction where your company is located, there may be additional state and local laws and regulations that you must comply with, such as ban the box laws. Your background check provider should be familiar with all applicable laws and regulations in your specific area to avoid expensive fines and penalties for non-compliance.
Here at iprospectcheck, our FCRA certified experts stay informed on all requirements related to background checks and conduct regular reviews of our screening services to ensure consistent compliance.
2. Accuracy and Completeness of Background Checks
Along with liability issues that can arise from inaccurate background reports, poor-quality or incomplete information in a report can prevent you from making sound hiring decisions.
A reliable background check vendor will have access to the most up-to-date and comprehensive court records from all relevant federal, state, and local jurisdictions.
Additionally, an effective background check company will take all necessary steps to verify the accuracy and completeness of the records retrieved for a job candidate. This helps minimize the time, effort, expense, and liability risk of reinvestigating potential mistakes on a report or corrections from an applicant.
Ask about the background check company’s reinvestigation and correction rates. They should be extremely low if the vendor is thoroughly verifying the information collected.
3. Advanced Technological Resources and Integration
The accuracy and usefulness of background check reports depend on the technology used by the screening company.
Finding a background check company that facilitates the integration of its client platforms for screening and hiring services with your existing systems can streamline and simplify your hiring process.
Our goal is to make the candidate screening process as simple and convenient as possible for you. To that end, iprospectcheck offers integration with many different applicant tracking systems.
4. Fast Turnaround Times
An important aspect of developing an effective screening process for new hires is making sure that waiting excessively long times for the background check results does not slow down your company’s onboarding process.
Working with background check companies that do not have sufficient staff or resources to process the required information quickly and accurately can lead to unreasonable wait times.
One of the consequences of an especially slow hiring process is that you may lose out on qualified employees who accept other positions in the meantime. Your company will also be delayed in onboarding new hires, which can reduce productivity.
Unfortunately, free online background check companies and screening companies that only prioritize instant results are often unable to provide complete background check reports.
You may also find that these unreliable companies cannot guarantee legally compliant background check solutions for your company.
Fortunately, iprospectcheck has the requisite experience and resources to provide accurate background check reports in as little as one day.
5. Familiarity and Experience in Your Industry
There are specific concerns and legal requirements regarding background checks for various industries, such as healthcare and transportation.
For example, if your company hires commercial drivers in the transportation or trucking industry, you are required to comply with the Department of Transportation’s background check requirements.
Before partnering with a background check company, be sure that they have specific experience in your industry. iprospectcheck has extensive experience with serving clients in the healthcare, staffing, retail, technology, transportation, finance, and construction and manufacturing industries.
6. Privacy and Data Security Safeguards
The information collected from a job candidate to perform a background check must be secured at all times. Your company information should also be protected from cyberattacks or hackers.
Know Before You Hire
7. Protecting Personally Identifiable Information
Personally Identifiable Information (PII) includes information connected to an individual’s unique identity, such as an individual’s name, phone number, home address, and social security number. PII is either classified as sensitive or non-sensitive.
Sensitive PII, such as financial account numbers, passport numbers, or license numbers, must be protected against unauthorized access or distribution, including identity theft, because it can result in significant harm to the individual.
This is why it is more important than ever to evaluate the data privacy and safeguards that your background check vendor has in place to protect sensitive PII.
Risks of Offshoring Background Check Services
Many background check companies rely on screening services and data storage outside of the U.S. to try to minimize expenses in staffing.
However, they may not always be transparent about whether and which aspects of their operations are external to the U.S.
Your private information could be at a higher risk of being compromised or hacked when working with background check companies that rely on offshoring to cut costs on their screening services because they do not have to abide by strict regulations on cybersecurity.
Verify that the background company you choose maintains all their background check operations in the U.S. exclusively.
Even if a background check vendor is based out of the U.S., they may still engage offshore workers to perform background check tasks, which involves transmitting and storing sensitive PII offshore.
iprospectcheck takes data security very seriously and protects your data as if it were our own. Although we service clients across the globe, all operations for iprospectcheck are entirely based out of the U.S.
Additionally, iprospectcheck is a member of ConcernedCRAs, a group of employment screening firms dedicated to protecting PII through stringent data security measures and transparent policies about offshoring any PII.
8. Customized Employee Screening Solutions
Some background check companies purport to offer a broad range of screening services, but that may not align with what your company needs.
Find out if the background check vendor provides flexible and service packages that will include only the screening services that you need.
Another important consideration is whether the background check company has experience serving businesses similar in size to your company. Some vendors are equipped to only serve large or small companies and may not be able to efficiently scale their services to fit your needs.
At iprospectcheck, we realize that one size does not fit all when it comes to employee background check needs. That is why we offer customized employee screening solutions to meet the specific needs of your business, including a la carte service options and pricing.
9. Affordable and Flexible Pricing
We make sure to provide effective background screening services at affordable prices by offering volume order discounts as well as a price-match guarantee. When you contact iprospectcheck for a custom quote, you can submit the fees charged by your current or proposed vendor.
We will either match or beat that price so that you can be sure that you are receiving the best value for your investment in compliant and accurate background checks.
10. Reputation and Customer Satisfaction
The reputation of a background check vendor is a strong indicator of its track record of producing accurate and compliant background reports.
In addition to maintaining a professional reputation amongst other companies in the industry, an effective and reliable background check company should also have positive references from satisfied clients.
If you cannot access client testimonials from the background check company’s website, you should ask the vendor to provide you with references from previous clients.
Another consideration in choosing a background check provider is feedback from job applicants about their experience with the screening company. An applicant’s experience in the screening process can influence their perception of your company and may potentially deter them from accepting a position based on a negative interaction.
iprospectcheck is a full-service, customer-first background check company, and we consider ourselves a true partner with clients in optimizing their hiring processes.
We provide a superior candidate experience in all aspects of their interactions with our screening process and representatives.
iprospectcheck: Your Trusted Background Check Provider
Above all, choosing a reliable and efficient background check company is critical for avoiding problems in your company’s hiring process and complying with applicable laws for employee screening.
When you partner with iprospectcheck for your company’s background check needs, you can rest assured that you will receive prompt and helpful responses to your inquiries, accurate background reports, affordable pricing options, top-quality attention to detail throughout the process, and legally compliant employee background checks.
Given our widespread experience serving clients across many different industries, iprospectcheck has the resources and proven track record to provide efficient and thorough background reports no matter your field.
Contact us today to learn how iprospectcheck can assist with your company’s background check needs. Our responsive and helpful background check specialists are available to answer your questions and provide effective background check solutions.
DISCLAIMER: The resources provided here are for educational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Consult your counsel if you have legal questions related to your specific practices and compliance with applicable laws.
