FCRA lawsuits are all-too-common in the world of pre-employment background screening. If you want to continue protecting your business with pre-employment background checks but want to mitigate your exposure to FCRA suits, consistency in the following four areas is the answer.
Treat Candidates Consistently
You’ve got to follow consistent screening practices for every applicant for a given position. Different positions can have different screening requirements; it just makes sense that you’d screen differently for a driver than you would an A/P clerk, and those differences are totally fine. But when you have multiple applicants for the identical open driving position, each of those applicants must be screened the same way. If you’re going to run a criminal background check for a position, you’ve got to run the same exact set of searches for each and every applicant. You can’t decide to run a criminal background check on a sketchy-looking young male applicant and skip that screen for the middle-aged female applicant; that’s discrimination and will get you in trouble.
Adjudicate Results Consistently
Have a written policy about how you intend to review and measure background checks and about what constitutes disqualifying activity for each position. It’s all too easy to review results through a subjective lens; having a written policy ensures consistency and that each applicant gets a fair and unbiased look.
If you determine that a criminal record disqualifies an applicant for a given position, every candidate with a criminal record that applies for that position must be disqualified. You can’t pick and choose; your rejection criteria must be written and consistently applied.
Take Adverse Actions Consistently
Follow the same exact process for every applicant when taking adverse actions. Use the same forms and letters and implement the same timing so that every applicant experiences the same consistent process. A professional CRA background screening agency can help you consistently and comply with the adverse action process.
Follow Your Hiring Process Consistently
Define your hiring processes and procedures clearly and in writing, and implement them across your organization so that every hiring manager in every location uses the same process for every hire. If an A/P clerk in California needs to pass a credit check before having access to company funds, then the A/P clerk in your Florida office needs the same. Just be certain to work closely with legal counsel to make sure you’re compliant with local laws and regulations about background checks in all your locations.
Be Consistent
FCRA compliance requires consistency. Work with your screening partner to improve consistency throughout your organization to protect yourself from exposure to costly FCRA lawsuits.
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Company Name: Accura