Background Screening Blog

  Verified Credentials has a new partner to add to a growing list of pre-integrated solutions – PageUp. Using an applicant tracking system can help make the lives of HR professionals easier by increasing efficiency and potentially saving time to focus on other tasks. Verified Credentials clients can now recruit qualified candidates, track applicants, and screen them right from PageUp’s dashboard. 

Topics: ATS Integration, Efficiency, Employment Background Checks, Candidate Self-Service, Company News, Technology

Compliance is one of the top human resource issues employers need help to grasp. It’s also one of the most crucial areas for HR to understand. Recently, Verified Credentials sponsored the HR.com State of Legal, Compliance and Employment Law, 2022-23 report. This report shows that most HR pros believe their business is equipped to handle compliance-related issues. On top of that, eight out of ten respondents believe the focus on the area will increase through 2025.

Topics: Compliance, FCRA, Fair Credit Reporting Act

Where and how people work has changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The most modern change may be the increase in the number of remote employees. Estimates suggest that one in every four Americans worked remotely through 2021. Efficiencies, cost savings, and employee demand that remote work provides may continue this upward trend. A recent survey found that “59% of respondents said they would be more likely to choose an employer who offered remote work than those who didn’t.” Hiring remote employees may become a necessity in the years ahead. Is your background screening program prepared for this new reality? This blog will cover some popular solutions that can be useful in conducting background checks for remote candidates and employees:

Topics: Employment Verifications, Academic Verifications

It’s that time of year when many HR managers have begun to check off a host of annual to-do lists. Increasingly, that means conducting annual employee screenings, aka background checks. The practice of periodically rescreening employees continues to rise in popularity. It provides employers with updated employee information, helps maintain a safe workplace, and ensures employees are still qualified for their roles. If it's been a while since you conducted annual background checks, you may want to revisit your rescreening program to ensure it aligns with your vision for 2023 and beyond. Let's look at some changes employers might consider by rebooting annual employee rescreens.

Topics: Recurring Screening

As we look ahead into 2023, it may be a good time to look back and reevaluate your company’s professional verification process. Confirming a candidate’s employment history can be critical in determining whether they are the right fit for a particular role. To make sure your processes are ready for the year ahead, ask yourself these nine questions for a verification tune-up:

Topics: Employment Verifications, Academic Verifications

Clare Horvik, Vice President of Marketing for Verified Credentials, invited Ben Mones, CEO of Fama Technologies, for an interview to discuss a hot topic – social media screening. 

Topics: Employment Background Checks, Candidate Experience, Employment Verifications, social media screening, Employee Experience

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