Background Screening Blog

In 1971, President Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one.” Then, in 1986, President Reagan signed an executive order requiring workplace drug testing for all federal employees. This may have even kicked off a sharp increase in the use of pre-employment drug testing by companies of all sizes. There have been changes to the legal landscape surrounding drug laws since then. Some jurisdictions have adopted more relaxed criminal penalties for drug possession. Others have legalized certain substances. Now some employers face a dilemma. How do they adapt their drug testing policies, or should they even test at all?

Topics: drug testing, cannabis

As a result of the widespread usage of social media, there has been increased interest in recent years regarding the new era of social media screening. Social media screening has become a vital component of the hiring process for businesses everywhere. This helpful tool has the potential to allow companies to see prospective candidates through a new lens, highlighting which people might be an ideal fit for their values and which might not. Screening social media on the front of the funnel may directly impact a company's retention and engagement strategy by capturing potentially concerning content right out of the gate.

Topics: Employment Background Checks, social media screening

Hourly workers make up the majority of employees in the United States. Knowing how best to screen for these positions may be crucial for employers. Oftentimes, these hourly positions — in addition to other categorically similar work like seasonal hires — need to be screened en masse, and quickly. Businesses may want to evaluate their high-volume hiring processes, including how they screen for those roles. It can be a crucial step to make sure they are getting quality candidates in a way that doesn’t make it difficult for candidates or internal hiring teams.

Topics: Bulk Background Checks

When screening new candidates, employers collect a significant amount of private information. With most of this critical data stored digitally, protecting it can be challenging. Especially when compared to the physical paper files of the past. Having an effective data security protocol is key to ensuring that sensitive information does not become available to outside parties. Let's look at what employers may consider keeping data secure.

Topics: Employment Background Checks, data security

Companies love to talk about making “investments for the future.” Whether opening a new sales office or purchasing new equipment, each move is meant to advance the company's long-term goals. The same is true for hiring new employees. Hiring managers hope the person they’re hiring will stay with the organization long-term. More importantly, they hope the hire is a lasting contributor to the company’s success. Achieving strong employee retention is more important than ever in today’s challenging hiring market. In fact, the cost of replacing a departing employee can be up to 200% of the position’s salary.

Topics: Employment Background Checks, Candidate Experience, Reference Checks

A discrepancy is when two pieces of information don’t line up. Where there should be agreement, there’s confusion or ambiguity. In other words, a discrepancy happens when something isn’t quite right. The same is true for background check discrepancies. These could include situations where a piece of information from a candidate’s profile is missing, couldn’t be verified, or a record came back that requires review. Background check discrepancies are not necessarily bad, but they could indicate that something may warrant further attention.

Topics: Employment Background Checks

Screens matter – screen size that is. Most people live on their phones. The average person in the U.S. checks their phone 344 times per day, roughly once every four minutes. For many job applicants, that may be doubly true. They are flipping screen-to-screen, filling out applications, scheduling interviews, and vigilantly watching for updates (and offers!) from HR teams. In 2020, mobile job applications surpassed desktop for the first time. That accounted for nearly 61% of all applications submitted, according to Appcast. As an HR professional, it’s your job to meet candidates where they are. You need to create the type of experiences that help attract and retain top talent. If candidates prefer a mobile experience, why not consider making your screening process as mobile-friendly as possible? Here’s a look at some tools and features that might help you create a positive mobile-first candidate screening experience.

Topics: Employment Background Checks, Candidate Self-Service

Summer is a time for backyard barbecues, going to the beach, and spending time with friends. For many companies, it's also the time for hiring seasonal employees. From amusement parks to resorts, camps to construction companies - the seasonal hiring push begins in earnest as the weather turns warm. For HR professionals, that also means ordering and reviewing background checks for those hires. And potentially a lot of them in a short amount of time. Now may be a good time to evaluate and align background checks with company goals before the hiring wave hits. Here are five questions to help prepare for screening seasonal employees.

Topics: Employment Background Checks, Bulk Background Checks

Criminal history searches have long been among the most popular types of background checks. Based on Verified Credentials’ internal research of its clients’ order history, 94% of all organizations include criminal searches in their employment screening activities. But how do those employers know what criminal history search to get?

Topics: Employment Background Checks, National Criminal Database Search, Federal Criminal History Search, County Criminal History Search, Statewide Criminal History Search

You can learn a lot from social media. Some of it you may not want to know. Like how your uncle’s podiatrist appointment went or what an old coworker thinks of the latest Star Wars movie. Employers can also learn a lot about job candidates from social media. But once you learn something, you can’t unlearn it — and that can potentially create serious issues. Thankfully, there could be a way to extract value from social media and protect your organization. That’s where the social media screening solution from Verified Credentials can help employers. Here’s a look at how these types of solutions work and how they can help your organization meet its hiring goals.

Topics: social media screening