Guides on choosing, evaluating, and working with background screening providers, from the All Screeners team.
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Before you reject a candidate over a criminal record, EEOC guidance says you have to actually look at three things: the offense, how long ago it happened, and whether it connects to the job. Here's what that step really involves.
ComplianceA background check policy on paper doesn't stop a manager from skipping a step to move fast, or making a legal judgment call that should have gone through your process. Here's how to actually get it followed: a short checklist, one clear person to call, and spot checks that catch problems before a lawyer does.
ComplianceScreen too little for a foreseeably risky role and you're exposed to a negligent hiring claim. Screen too aggressively, or the wrong way, and you're exposed to an FCRA or EEOC claim instead. The fix isn't more screening or less, it's tying the screening you do to the actual job.
ComplianceLooking at a candidate's public profile is legal. Using what you see there isn't, if it touches religion, disability, pregnancy, age, or national origin. Here is how employers who do this well keep that line from getting crossed.
ComplianceA written "no felons" policy is riskier than one bad individual decision, because a blanket rule can't do what the law actually requires: check if the conviction relates to the job. Here's why disparate impact hits a written policy harder.
ComplianceNo federal law bans running a background check before you make an offer, but most employers wait anyway. Here's the federal-level reasoning behind offer-then-screen, and why it holds up even where no state law requires it.
ComplianceOnly a handful of things on a background check report are real deal-breakers: identity fraud, a conviction that's both severe and directly job-related, and an active disqualifying license. Everything else, an old minor conviction, an explained gap, a common-name mix-up, a thin employment check, deserves a second look before you say no.
ComplianceYes, but not with a blanket "no felons" policy. The EEOC expects an individualized look at the offense, how long ago it happened, and whether it actually relates to the job.
ComplianceGINA bars employers from asking about genetic information or family medical history in hiring, and consent doesn't fix it. Here's where it hides in post-offer exams and wellness paperwork, and the narrow exceptions that actually apply.
ComplianceFCRA governs how you get and use a background check report. Title VII, enforced by the EEOC, governs whether the decision you made with it was discriminatory. Where employers get one right and blow the other.
ComplianceArrests aren't convictions, and the EEOC treats them differently. What you can legally ask, what a background check report can show, and where the two rules diverge.