How To Follow Up Abut Background Check Process And Offficial Offer Letter

Failed Background Cheque Afterward Receiving a Job Offer - What's Side by side?

What to Do If a Candidate Fails a Background Check Subsequently Receiving an Offer

Finding the perfect candidate to fill a job opening can be a significant undertaking. Hiring managers need to notice someone who has the experience, qualifications, and skills to do the chore and whose personality and work style meshes with the company culture of that workplace. Matching a person to a job is hard work, which is why it is a victory to discover the perfect candidate and extend him or her an offering of employment—just what if that candidate failed a background cheque after the job offer?

What Does It Hateful to Fail a Background Check?

In this post, nosotros volition explore how a failed background check subsequently a task offering might prompt an employer to rescind that offer. Before nosotros review the dynamics of pulling an employment offer or disqualifying a candidate based on a background screening, nosotros volition examine another critical question: what does "failing" this check mean?

An employment screening is not a exam or exam at school for which in that location are "correct" or "incorrect" answers and a clear, objective standard for what constitutes "passing" or "failing." A groundwork screening can include a diverseness of information about a candidate's by, including criminal history, civil court history, education and employment history, driving record details, and credit history. Information gleaned in any of these categories could potentially institute a "red flag" depending on the employer and position, and each could potentially be grounds for a failed groundwork assessment.

Some pieces of information are more than likely to be employment carmine flags than others. For example, felony convictions—particularly those for violent crimes or sexual offenses—are likely to cause pause for nigh employers. Other red flags are specific to sure jobs: one example is driving history, which is non relevant to virtually jobs but is highly relevant to positions that involve driving.

Usually, "failing" a screening means that a candidate has something in their by that calls into question their ability to take the position safely and effectively. Regarding criminal history, employers are usually looking for convictions that relate straight to the responsibilities of the job, or crimes that have a loftier likelihood of recurring due to the nature of the job. For example, a bank might rescind a job offering from a candidate after learning that he or she has a conviction for embezzlement, due to the opportunity that the position might provide to commit a like crime in the time to come.

Across criminal history, a candidate might fail their background screening if the check reveals that they lied about their education, work history, or other qualifications; or if reference checks call into question their work ethic and character.

There are many reasons why a candidate fails a background check. Information technology is up to the hiring director and their team to determine whether they feel comfortable hiring someone despite crimson flags.

A Candidate Failed the Groundwork Check: Here's What to Exercise

Imagine that you've found the perfect candidate for an open position with your organisation. This person has a potent resume and impressed you lot throughout the interview process. Y'all made them a job offering, contingent on passing a candidate history bank check. What happens if the investigation turns up 1 or more red flags that force you lot to reconsider your hiring decision? At present that your candidate has failed a background check, what should you practise?

Here's a step-by-footstep guide to help you lot through this difficult (and sometimes legally fraught) part of the pre-employment screening process.

ane. Confirm You Ran the Check on the Correct Person

Background checks are typically run using a person's name, which can sometimes lead to fake positives since many individuals accept relatively mutual names that are shared by others. A cheque can render criminal convictions or records that don't belong to your candidate but rather to someone who happens to share their offset and last name.

These data inaccuracies tin injure task seekers. What if y'all were to rescind a chore offering from your perfect candidate over a criminal record just to learn that the search institute the wrong person, and the criminal record that you discovered doesn't belong to your candidate? You are now casting aspersions on the candidate'southward reputation based on fake information, which in turn reflects poorly on your organization.

For these reasons, it is vital for every employer to brand sure that they are working with a background reporting firm that has a reputation for running thorough, accurate, and high-quality record searches. At backgroundchecks.com, nosotros take significant steps to avoid false positives with our reports, integrating birthdates, locations, Social Security Numbers, and other details into our candidate checks.

These detailed checks not merely help united states to make sure that nosotros are finding the right records for the right individuals merely also add value four our clients. We can offer address history checks, alias checks, and other screenings that tin can aid provide a fuller picture of a candidate'due south past.

2. Carefully Review Your Hiring Policy

Determining whether a candidate fails a background check is an inexact science. What constitutes a failed background check for one employer or chore won't necessarily have the aforementioned effect in a different workplace or position.

Employers can streamline the decision-making process around groundwork checks by establishing a thorough hiring policy complete with a background check protocol. This policy should outline which candidate history searches the employer will run for each candidate (or for each department, blazon of department, or position, if in that location is variance). Information technology should also incorporate a "determination matrix" that identifies the types of criminal convictions or other findings that the employer will consider grounds to say that a candidate failed their background cheque afterwards the job offer.

Having these policies in place delivers several articulate benefits to the employer. The first is legal protection. Post-obit a clear policy for every hiring situation reduces the likelihood that an employer might treat 1 candidate (a person of color, for case) differently from another. Detailed hiring policies can be a protection against discrimination or bias in the hiring process, which reduces legal liability risk.

The second major benefit of such a hiring policy relates to the groundwork history protocol and decision matrix. By identifying the specific crimson flags that a search might uncover—from crimes to resume lies and beyond—this policy gives hiring managers a map that they can apply to determine whether to rescind a job offering or move forrad with employment.

A candidate history search may uncover unforeseen circumstances that are non specifically outlined in the decision matrix, in which case the hiring director and their team will have to decide how to proceed. In most cases, a thorough candidate vetting policy and determination matrix volition save employers from having to ask questions about specific cherry-red flags every time they review a background report.

3. Notify the Candidate with a Pre-Agin Action Notice

In consumer reports, "adverse action" refers to a decision fabricated based on a groundwork study that will have a negative touch on a candidate. In employment screenings, "agin activity" typically means that the employer has decided to rescind the candidate'due south job offer or otherwise disqualify the candidate from employment consideration.

As part of the Off-white Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), an employer in this state of affairs must provide the candidate with a "pre-adverse action notice." This notification is intended to let the candidate know that, due to findings in their background, they will no longer be considered for the chore at hand.

The detect must outline the specific reason for the adverse action—be it issues with criminal history, credit history, or something else—and must include a copy of the groundwork written report that reflects this information. The discover must likewise include a copy of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's summary of rights.

Finally, the employer must await a "reasonable" amount of time—typically interpreted to mean 5 business days or more—to allow the candidate to review the adverse action detect and background check study and reply to them. Before this waiting time has elapsed, the employer cannot finalize any adverse determination based on the candidate's background checks. The employer cannot formally rescind the candidate's job offer or hire someone else until at least v business days have passed.

The "reasonable" waiting period gives the candidate time to dispute the findings of the report, should they believe those findings to exist inaccurate. A candidate would initiate such a dispute directly through the background reporting company, not through the employer making the agin conclusion.

If a candidate does dispute the data that an employer has furnished to them with their pre-adverse advice, the employer must wait to take adverse action until after the dispute is fully resolved.

4. Provide the Candidate with an Agin Action Find

If, after post-obit all the requirements listed above, an employer decides to move forwards with an adverse decision based on a background check report, they must provide the candidate with an adverse activity notice. This document notifies the candidate in writing that the employer has made a terminal decision to rescind their chore offer and disqualify the candidate from employment consideration.

In improver to notifying the candidate in writing of the hiring decision, the agin action find must provide several other pieces of information:

The name, accost, and telephone number of the background check company that conducted the screening and prepared the report
A disclaimer that the groundwork reporting visitor did not make the agin decision
A notification that the candidate has the right to obtain a 2nd complimentary copy of their written report at any time during the 62 days following the adverse decision
A notification that the candidate tin contact the reporting bureau to dispute any data in the study that they deem to be inaccurate, incomplete, or out of date

What Employers Need to Know About the Off-white Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)

The FCRA is a vital text for any employer that vets candidates through a background cheque procedure. Full FCRA compliance allows an employer to avert lawsuits, negative printing, and other significant concerns. This federal law covers everything from how an employer must obtain a candidate's consent to conduct a background investigation to all the adverse activeness steps that an employer must have.

To brand sure that your business organization is following the FCRA to the letter, read the FCRA compliance guide in our Learning Center.

Michael Klazema

About Michael Klazema The author

Michael Klazema is Primary Marketing Technologist at EY-VODW.com and has over two decades of feel in digital consulting, online product management, and technology innovation. He is the lead writer and editor for Dallas-based backgroundchecks.com with a focus on human resource and employment screening developments.