Why Employee Background Checks?

Those two words have been devastating to many businesses — and they could cost you millions of dollars. Negligent hiring is the failure to check the backgrounds of job applicants before you hire them.

When a pizza deliveryman raped a customer, a jury awarded the victim $6 million of the parent company's money. The firm had failed to do a background check which might have disclosed the man's previous sex-offense record.

A trucking company was ordered to compensate a family when several family members were injured in an accident caused by one of its drivers. The amount awarded was many times what it would have been had the company checked the driver's record before hiring him.

Every day people with criminal records, falsified educational credentials, and other serious liabilities are hired by companies who fail to thoroughly check their backgrounds. The result can be acts leading to expensive negligent hiring lawsuits.

Knowing the backgrounds of the people you hire is absolutely essential because a business can be held liable for accidents and crimes committed by its employees.
To protect your company and minimize risk, get reliable background information about everyone you consider for employment.

Employee Background Check minimizes these problems with its services. You can verify the accuracy and/or completeness of information provided by job applicants — before hiring and training -- and thus reduce the costs incurred by high turnover and reduce your risk of liability.

Technology / Interface Capabilities - To meet each client’s exact specifications, Employment Background Checks are powered by a robust, dynamic, web-based system, which has been designed and built with customer flexibility in mind. For example, the SQL database tool can track custom fields defined by the client such as "requestor", "office code", "department", etc. to allow ease of finding orders as well as customized invoicing.

Ordering Processes - The processing department immediately begins working on new orders. Throughout the entire process, you will have real-time access to the status of each report and follow it through all stages of completion. Should an unexpected delay occur a staff member will enter notes explaining the delay. Once the order reaches "completion" status, the system auto-generates an email to the requestor providing a link to the login page to access the report. At that time, the completed report can be printed or saved electronically by the client.

Description of Services Provided

• Social Security Verification - Conducted on each applicant to aid in Social Security verification (verifies the name matches the number). This also provides an address history from which the county criminal searches are derived.

• State District Court Criminal Searches (county level searches) - Each county found in the social security verification during the preceding seven years would be searched for criminal records (this can also be limited to current county, two most current counties, etc.) Or, the applicant can provide a listing of past residence locations to be searched. Any detail found will be submitted to the client including any convictions and resulting dispositions including sentence, deferred adjudication, probation, etc.

• Federal District Court Criminal Searches - There are between one and four Federal District Courts in each state. In this search, court records of each district court location are searched (as found in the social security verification seven-year history or as provided by the applicant). Types of crimes listed at the federal district are not limited to but may include: embezzlement, Internet child pornography, kidnapping, and many drug and weapons related offenses.

• Education Verification - Dates of attendance and degree(s) or certificates awarded will be verified.

• Employment Verification. Beginning and ending dates of hire and last position held will be verified. Most records are typically available for the past seven years; this will vary depending on the retention requirements of various states.

• Professional Certification Verification - Verification and check of current standings of any kind of license, accreditation, or certification.

• Drug Screenings / Employment Physicals - Drug screening services include custom urinalysis panel (five-panel, 10-panel or other combination) for non-DOT (Department of Transportation) drug screening services as well as DOT approved drug screening services. This includes management of the regular random selection as enforced by DOT. Additional services include hair sample testing, Oral Swabs (saliva swab for drug screening), QED Swabs (saliva swab for alcohol screening), and the Breathalyzer “Breath Tube”. Employment physicals are also provided including DOT Physicals. Both drug screening and physical services are provided nationwide.

• Driving Record - Most states make driving records for the past three years available for employment purposes. Some states require the signed consent of the employee and/or the signature of the employer to release records. Applicable instruments will be made available when necessary.

• Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) Search - This search includes a list of individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, targeted countries. It also lists individuals, groups, and entities, such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers designated under programs that are not country-specific. Collectively, such individuals and companies are called "Specially Designated Nationals" or "SDNs." Their assets are blocked and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from dealing with them.

• Consumer Credit Report - This report will give a credit history of the applicant including any bankruptcies. A copy of the credit report will be attached to the completed report.

• Bankruptcy/Lien Reports - This report will show whether or not an applicant has filed for a bankruptcy (even if the courts denied the request for bankruptcy protection).

• State District Civil Litigation Records - Includes civil litigation records filed at the county level.

• Federal District Civil Litigation Records - Includes civil litigation records filed at the federal level.

• National Database Search - This database search currently encompasses 34 states (criminal records) and 35 sex offender databases. Additional jurisdictions continue to be added.

Customer Satisfaction Metrics

We know that accuracy and speed are the utmost considerations of our clients; therefore, our entire operation has been designed to meet these requirements. Key personnel continuously monitor the status of all orders and weekly meetings are held with departmental representatives to discuss turnaround statistics. We are confident that we are among the leaders in the industry when it comes to rapid turnaround of reports as 90% of our reports are completed within our goal of 48 hours.

We provide volume/turn-around reports to each client on a monthly basis and insure accuracy through extensive quality assurance processes. Turn-around time is measured in business days and reported monthly unless otherwise specified by clients.

Quality Control Methodology

Profiles EBC partner, ISP, has established a “single blind” Quality Assurance Program for researchers conducting research on behalf of the company. Prior to receiving client research requests, a perspective researcher is given a “blind” sample of criminal research requests with “known records” mixed in. The company has a collection of “known records” for nearly every jurisdiction in the United States. The perspective researcher is required to return the “known records” with 100% accuracy and within an acceptable time frame prior to being placed on the approved list of researchers. Once approved, each researcher is secretly tested each quarter with a “known record” sent along with the standard research request lists. Failure to return the “known record” with 100% accuracy results in removal from the approved list of researchers.

The company’s custom software system incorporates a quality assurance capability as well. As orders are received and processed electronically or by fax, a second processor must perform a quality assurance audit of the order. As results are received, trained researchers and results specialists perform the initial data entry into our system. These results are not official and not visible to the client until a second results specialist reviews the entry and marks it as accurate in the database, thus allowing the result to be visible to the client.