Who Needs to Conduct a Background Check?

While companies constitute the bulk of people who use the services of background checking specialists, others include:

• folks considering business dealings with another company or individual
• landlords screening tenants
• parents screening daycare providers and babysitters
• homeowners hiring landscapers/cleaning personnel/contractors (anyone with access to their homes)
• parents who want to check out Delaney's mom & dad before Friday's slumber party
• singles who want to make sure their partner is who he/she says they are

Just as there are those who think that these screenings aren't necessary, there are just as many who wish they had questioned the background of someone in their life. Criminals are good at lying and deceiving and the average Joe cannot even conceive what's in that criminal's mind. It only takes the restaurant valet a few minutes to make copies of your keys and the address on your vehicle's registration. The teenager who sits on Saturday night may have been convicted for a sexual crime but because he/she is a minor, the case was sealed. What's worse is there may not have been a conviction because of a plea agreement. A parent needs to know either way.

We tend to only consider our safety when crime happens to someone close to us. No one is suggesting paranoia because the likelihood of something bad happening is slim, yet everyone can agree that we need to be more aware and take nothing for granted. You're not being "nosy" or over-stepping your bounds. Protecting yourself and the ones you love is your right and your duty.

Due Diligence & Hiring Mistakes

One out of every three resumes has false information, with 10 percent of these being serious-enough misrepresentations to cause a prospective employer to pass on an applicant. About one in every twelve people lie about their academic degrees. If getting what they're bargaining for is not enough incentive for employers to check out prospective employees thoroughly, then the courts are providing additional motivation. Courts are finding companies negligent in cases where they have failed to perform due diligence on the employees the hired. They're not the only ones being held liable in court: Former employers who fail during a reference check to disclose vital information such as a terminated employee's history of violence are being sued as well.

As a result, most companies today are checking into the background of prospective employees. Some companies have in-house staff who do this work, using databases such as www.knowx.com, www.informus.com, www.advsearch.com, www.digidirt.com, and www.people-wise.com. Others retain a security consultant, private investigator, or a consultant who specializes in background checking. Either way, companies that do not perform due diligence are begging for trouble.

Why I Blog

The reason I blog about background checking is that there are very few people doing it. There are a number of blogs about closely related issues, but few about this specific industry. The ones that are out there are mostly operated by a company that does background checks in an attempt to drum up business (which I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing), and even if they have the best of intentions it’s hard to take the advice of someone who is paid money to write. Here’s an interesting post about this topic.

I’ve worked in the industry for several years and have found that there are a lot of misconceptions about background checking that are held by employers and “consumers,” or individuals on whom a background check is performed. There are also a lot of bad practices on the part of companies that actually do the background checking, and I hope to expose some of these practices and help employers and individuals make better informed decisions. I don’t have any grand notions about holding the industry accountable with this blog, but I do hope that generating more candid discussion on the Internet about the subject of background checking will save at least a few people from unnecessary stress and headaches.