What Are Employment Background Check Services? Interviewing potential hires is a great first step, but when you get serious about an applicant, any human resources (HR) professional will confirm: you need to perform a background check. In fact, you may be better off conducting more than one. The depth and nature of background checks has become more sophisticated even as adoption has gone up. A survey conducted by HR.com on behalf of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) found that 96 percent of responding businesses stated that they conduct one or more types of pre-employment background screening. Meanwhile, a report from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), an organization with a slightly broader focus, found that 69 percent of organizations surveyed conduct criminal background checks on all job applicants. But, while we know that screening is a must, what exactly comprises this screening process is evolving—and that's a trend we're seeing across all six of the employment background check service providers we reviewed in this roundup. An employment background check service is exactly what the name implies: it's typically a web-based service that offers employers, and sometimes consumers, the ability to check a variety of different, public databases for background data on designated individuals. The data these services access is almost always publicly available, so the value they're offering is in convenience, breadth of data access, and ability to parse that data effectively so you can use it to make a hiring decision. All that's offered for a price, which is typically calculated per report, though there are other pricing methods. Finally, most of these services are standalone, meaning you'll need to access them directly whenever you want to run a report. Some, however, are part of a larger HR software framework that simply makes this feature available separately as well. Others specialize mainly in the data portion of the equation and provide an application programming interface (API) that your developers can use to build a background check integration with your own in-house app, some third-party applicant tracking (AT) system or other relevant software. While conducting a screening is usually just a matter of setting up an account with a service and inputting some key data points, HR managers should refrain from simply jumping in and running scans. Employers and third-party companies that provide these services to HR managers must adhere to certain laws, which vary from state to state as well as between counties and even municipalities. This means, before obtaining and reviewing any report for the purpose of hiring new employees, be sure you're clear on the laws for your state and that of any third-party participants, too. If you have a legal department, then it's a good idea to run through this with them before starting your screening process. As an employer, you are required to get an applicant's written consent before getting any reports. Your applicants have the right to all of those records, can dispute inaccuracies, and seek damages from companies that violate their rights or discriminate against them. Good employment background check services provide a means for their clients to comply with this requirement, so verify that before making a decision. The Different Kinds of Background Checks The eager HR manager can choose from several different types of background checks, including credit checks, employment history verification, drug tests, driving and criminal records, and certainly academic history verification. A new development centers on social media searches, and this has become a hotly debated topic among HR professionals and employment background check services. That's primarily because these screening processes tend to wind up containing information about which potential employers aren't allowed to ask an applicant straight out: things such as sexual orientation, political affiliations, and similiar data. Social media checks can also provide a far more candid glimpse into an applicant's personal life than that person may have wished. So it's a fair question to ask if simply scraping this data off the web is akin to invading someone's privacy? This argument is all the more relevant because background checks are considered consumer reports by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This is federal legislation designed to promote accurate, fair, and private background checks as well as other consumer reports. It also sets the standards for employment screening. Additionally, it oversees the collection and use of consumer credit information. For these reasons and more, two of our six vendors do not offer this service. Some companies only background-check certain groups; for example, they check finance, HR, and legal department applicants but don't necessarily check on anyone who seeks to work in creative fields. The reason behind this specialization can be market-driven or be because the software targets resources that verify specific data points for the groups about which they care. This can be attractive to many vertical customers and it's a good way for employment background check services to differentiate themselves. Important Considerations Other employment background check services, however, check everything from soup to nuts, regardless of who its candidates are. For instance, if your organization works for the government and deals with government contracts, then you're almost always required to complete a full background check on everybody coming into the company. This check can often be more in-depth within different agencies, including, for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). But it's important to have a consistent, overall company policy. Most third-party employment background check services deliver historical data going back seven years because that's how long companies are required to keep data and offer different options for customers to initiate the screening process. You basically have two options of initiating an employee background check: You can enter it yourself as an employer, which means you must have that information on hand and permission from the applicant to do so. Or you can send an auto-generated email to the candidate so that they sign and enter that information for themselves. One important consideration you'll need to address offline—and likely with both your IT and legal departments—is what happens to this data after you've taken receipt of a report. What's in these reports is usually considered highly personal data by the subject, so losing it in a data breach or simply through negligence can have significant repercussions in many cases. Additionally, new developments in data privacy, such as the implementation of the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) legislation can place even more responsibility not just on the providers of this data but on those that take delivery of it as well. So remember to sit down with your legal and IT teams to put together a simple workflow that will let you not only access this data efficiently but store and dispose of it properly, too. Differentiating Features After ordering an employment background check report, turnaround time is a major factor since it's critical not only to how quickly an employer can fill seats but also to how quickly a promising candidate can be locked down. All vendors claim fast turnaround times, but in reality, these are estimates because every report is heavily affected by how quickly outside data resources respond to requests. Federal databases are fairly quick, but scans across county databases or municpal court records can take much longer. I found some of the vendors mapped completion to these dates, while others gave a short turnaround estimate and then sent status updates notifying me of delays. Because of the costs involved, companies tend to wait until the candidate is in the final stages, either right before the company tenders an offer or right after they receive an accepted offer back from the individual. In the latter case, the job offer becomes contingent on passing the employee background check. Credit checks require a separate authorization from job candidates and are not usually run unless the role applied for has fiduciary responsibility. The aforementioned NAPBS is an independent organization that provides FCRA educational courses and provides a decent library of general resources for HR professionals and business operators. The NAPBS also accredits business operators in the field, an accreditation that is governed by the Background Screening Credentialing Council (BSCC). It's a good idea to research any employment background check service provider you might be considering to determine whether or not they're a NAPBS-accredited service. You can search for accredited services in the NAPBS Accredited Firms Directory here. Checkr, GoodHire, IntelliCorp, and SterlingOne are NAPBS-accredited services. Out of the six services we reviewed for this roundup, there were only two we could not verify as being NAPBS-accredited services. Those services were Accio Data and A Good Employee.com. Our Winners Checkr, GoodHire, and IntelliCorp earned our Editors' Choice awards because these services' user interfaces (UIs) are clean, well-designed, and make life easiest on HR managers. All three services let users easily order reports, track progress, and communicate with their candidates. They all also deliver a significant number of integrations with other HR applicant tracking (AT) systems and data houses, which makes things easier on HR managers. Price is the other main differentiator in this employment background check service review roundup; our three winners are competitive in this area. Checkr, GoodHire, and IntelliCorp are priced at $35, $29.99, and $27.95 per report, respectively. Plus, they are all transparent when it comes to communicating their pricing prior to engagement; IntelliCorp was the most reasonably priced. Among our other players, A Good Employee.com is another good choice for small to midsize businesses (SMBs) as well as any business that operates in the real estate management industry because the service provides several features that map directly to that vertical. Accio Data offered me a peek inside the back-end side of the Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) industry, as its software platform was full-featured, flexible, and able to be quickly rebranded by their CRA customers.Specifically what data is provided by these companies can vary widely depending on the role, location, regulatory factors, and other needs specific to the customer, which means whoever requests and pays for the report. While a company with a small budget might just check references, those with more resources can employ one of these services to check anything from credit reports to criminal history. Just be aware of how much you're paying, what kinds of data you're requesting, and what happens to that data after you use it. Checkr Review MSRP: $35.00 at Pros: Great, easy-to-use, mobile-ready user interface with cool tools like an Adjudication Matrix and Geos that sort data in clear, understandable ways so employers can make decisions with confidence.Cons: Its report turnaround time estimate was slightly longer than other vendors but was completed within the provided timeline.Bottom Line: Checkr is an Editors' Choice winner because it takes a transparent, human approach to how it conducts business on top of maintaining governmental FCRA compliance. It's built to support companies doing business in a gig economy, with a UI that's modern, mobile, and multilingual.Read Review GoodHire Review MSRP: $29.99 at Pros: Competitively priced. Has a "friendly" vibe similar to Checkr's. Its easy-to-use applicant portal offers an extensive Resources section with a variety of forms and articles that go beyond simple Pre-Adverse and Adverse Action Notice Letters.Cons: The report completion time exceeded the initial estimated time, although it sent new estimate dates that were met. Not multilingual.Bottom Line: GoodHire wins our Editors' Choice award with its excellent feature value that includes a low learning curve and self-checks on top of maintaining FCRA compliance.Read Review IntelliCorp Review MSRP: $27.95 at Pros: Easy-to-navigate user interface. Strong compliancy ethic and commitment to FCRA education. Meets its estimated turnaround times.Cons: It's not multilingual.Bottom Line: IntelliCorp is competitively priced, takes a unique approach to meet estimated turnaround times, meets compliancy requirements, and has a unique setup to facilitate volunteer organization staffing.Read Review Pros: Uses open XML specs, making it easy for this vendor to build integrations for its Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) customers and simultaneously maintain compliance.Cons: User interface somewhat generic. Resources limited to basic documentation and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) disclosures.Bottom Line: A great choice for CRAs, this highly customizable platform can be white-labeled with any company's branding and integrates with the standard data providers.Read Review Pros: Integrates with applicant tracking systems. Good mobile user interface (UI). Branded portals with custom dashboards.Cons: Busy UI. Opaque pricing makes forecasting difficult.Bottom Line: SterlingOne's pre-employment background screening capabilities can be an asset for an HR department that wants employment background check services, although companies may want to go with one of the more comprehensive custom packages instead of the entry-level option.Read Review Pros: Easy to use. Emphasis on compliance, user education, and report turnaround time.Cons: User interface could use a design update that modernizes without sacrificing ease of use. Software is not multilingual.Bottom Line: A Good Employee.com was founded nearly 30 years ago and knows the ropes. Though its roots are in real estate management, the solution also works for corporate HR purposes, with solid customer service and reasonable, a la carte pricing.Read Review

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