Is Your Background Screening Process Fair and Compliant? Take our Quiz! 

By Julie Henderson

Companies running background checks on potential employees want to ensure they are well-qualified and not a danger to the workplace, the clients, and the brand. However, employers can’t just screen candidates without adhering to the FCRA standards (the entity governing consumer report usage). 

Think your process passes muster? Take our quiz and see if you’re on the right track or heading for disaster!

QUIZ

Award your company 3 points for every “almost always” answer, 2 points for “sometimes” and 1 point for “almost never”. 

1. Our company has and follows a written background screening policy. 
2. Our company decides what type of background checks we pull based on the job position. 
3. We screen every applicant who applies for the same job the same way. 
4. All our applicants must sign an Authorization allowing us to run a background check on them. 
5. Our hiring managers are educated on our policies and are given a written guide during their training. 
6. We always send out Pre-Adverse and Adverse Action letters if we decide to not hire a person based in part or totally on information we find in the background check. 
7. Everyone involved in our hiring process knows and follows the laws in the cities and states we operate in. 
8. Our background screening vendor adjudicates adverse findings to make sure they are accurate before sending them to us. 
9. We screen our top executives in a different way than we screen our lower-level employees. 
10. Our company provides written disclosures to the applicant that a background check may be performed during the screening process. 
11. Our company follows the requirements set forth by the FCRA when using consumer reports.   
12. Our company is aware that the FTC has implemented requirements regarding the proper disposal of confidential consumer information and we follow these requirements. 

Tally up your responses in this section.     SECTION 1 TOTAL: ____

In the second section of this quiz, give yourself 3 points for every “No” and 1 point for every “Yes” answer. 

1. We only screen applicants who we don’t know, or who we have a bad feeling about. 
2. During the interviewing process we ask our applicants about their previous salaries. 
3. We regularly pull a credit report on our applicants, regardless of the job position they are seeking. 
4. Our application has the question “have you ever been convicted of a felony” on it. 
5. We automatically rule out anyone with a felony at the beginning of our hiring process. 
6. If we find bad information in a background check, we avoid asking the applicant about it because it may embarrass him/her.
7. We look at a person’s social media profiles before we hire them, but don’t tell them we are going to do so. 
8. If we find bad information on their background report, we just never contact the applicant again. 
9. We send the Adverse Action notices out less than five days.
10. Our company gets rid of all of our background screening documents after 2 years. 
11. I have sent in background requests on my neighbors and/or friends to see if they have a criminal record. 

Add up your responses in this section.     SECTION 1 TOTAL: ____

Now add both totals for your FINAL SCORE. _____

SCORING RESULTS

Find your section below to see how compliant your background screening process IS or IS NOT. 

69-56 points: Fair and Relevant Rock Star

Your organization puts a top priority on following the current laws and regulations of hiring and it shows. Your background screening process is consistently fair and relevant to your job applicants and your policy is well-documented. Don’t let your team get lax! Make sure you continue educating yourself and your team on how to keep your process fair and relevant so you can maintain your high level of compliant standards. After all, the rules change quite often. 

55-43 points: A Good Start but Not There Yet

Some of your processes are great, but others are lacking. It’s time to delve into how you conduct background screening on your job applicants and plug the holes that are not fair or relevant. Write a detailed policy if you don’t have one already, educate everyone involved in the hiring process about the requirements, and periodically review they are following it. With a little extra effort, you can improve your score and be a rock star of compliant procedures in no time!

42 points and under: Cruising for Some Suing

Unfortunately, your background screening practices are not as thorough, consistent, or streamlined as they should be regarding fairness or relevancy. This sets your company up to get sued for discriminatory and unfair hiring practicing and could cost you dearly. The news is always reporting multi-million dollar awards to job applicants who weren’t fairly screened.

 It’s time to do some serious work on your processes. Write a screening policy for each job position, make sure everyone is following the required authorization and adverse actions requirements, and screen everyone consistently. Becoming more knowledgeable of laws and regulations regarding the hiring process is essential in protecting your company and executing a fair and relevant screening program. 

A compliant background screening process takes dedication and execution because it’s not set it and forget it. Fortunately, with the right amount of training and oversight, you can have peace of mind that your practices stand up to the FCRA requirements and your company is protected from being sued.