Conducting your own employment background checks is not a good idea for multiple reasons. Outside from legality issues, the process is time consuming and takes you away from more important tasks. Additionally, how are you finding out the previous residencies of a candidate or current employee? This information is critical and enables you to find out what locations and counties need further investigation. If you are depending on individuals to be honest, it is an unfortunate truth that people will frequently lie to land a job. Fortunately, by hiring a screening company, you can significantly reduce your risk and ensure that each background check is thorough.

Benefits of Hiring a Screening Company

1. Keeps you compliant. If you are doing employment background checks yourself, it is imperative to stay complaint and up to date with applicable laws. Per the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), any information reported must be complete, up to date, and only contain convictions within the last seven years. If you use a case that was closed ten years ago, as means for adverse action, you would be in violation with the FCRA. The FCRA defines taking adverse action as “a denial of employment or any other decision for employment purposes that adversely affects any current or prospective employee.” In addition to the FCRA, you need to review applicable laws of your state regarding background reports because some states regulate the use of that information for employment determinations.

2. Social Security Trace. By have a screening company conduct a social security trace, you can see where an individual has lived in the past. Individuals submit their nine-digit social security number that is used to discover all locations in which the individual has lived. The information returned from the social trace is derived from utility bills, credit card inquiries, rent bills, and many other forms of reoccurring financial statements that pin point the individual to certain locations. By knowing where the individual has lived, you can proceed with additional searches such as a National Criminal Background Check or County Criminal Search. It is important to have someone who is an experienced judicator of background screening reports because issues with identifying the correct individual can arise.
3. Experienced adjudicators. Screening companies have experienced adjudicators on staff who know how to interpret and analyze easily misunderstood verbiage. Having someone that is experienced with background check results is crucial to finding relevant information. Lastly, adjudicators know how to identify the correct individual when a common name populates an abundance of information.
4. Saves Time. By having a screening company conduct desired background checks, you are ultimately saving time. To the untrained eye background check results can be confusing and difficult to understand, which takes more time to figure out. For experienced personnel, results are clear and take less time to solidify.
5. Graded Background Check Ability. Origin is a screening company who has designed the employment background checking process into a pass or fail grading scale structure. Meaning, you can assign weight to the categories that mean the most to you and less weight to those you find less important. For instance, if you do not wish to see any misdemeanors such as traffic violations, then those can be over looked. This grading system leaves the extensive analyzing process to the experts and allows you to make executive decisions based off your desired criteria.

Origin Can Help.

Ultimately, conducting your own background checks in comparison to having a screening company conduct them is incomparable. When you handle your own background checks, you are not getting a full understanding of who an individual is. You can miss critical information that a screening company would report. Origin has the experienced staff, elite software, and the ability to administer the proper searches consistently. Origin ensures a thorough background check result for every background check requested. Additionally, educational achievements, previous employment, and professional references can be verified through Origin as well. Origin knows what questions to ask to receive the necessary information that helps maintain a high standard of employees.  Most importantly, Origin has orchestrated a system for employers to receive a graded background check based off your customized criterion.

Origin doesn’t believe that one system fits all and that’s why they believe in customization across all workforce verification fronts. Protect your company and hire the employees you are looking for with Origin.