无论您是首次设置公司的背景调查政策，还是更新政策以保持最新状态，确保您的政策公平并符合联邦、州和地方法律非常重要。

我们的最佳实践指南将帮助您确保您的背景审查政策遵循背景调查的“3 C”：全公司范围内、一致且合规。

就业背景调查政策是最重要的审查政策之一，应定期进行，例如每六个月或在政策发生变化时进行。就业筛选可帮助公司聘用合适的人选，并保护您的员工、客户和声誉。

然而，人力资源背景调查政策必须公平实施，并考虑所有适用法律。这在犯罪记录、驾驶记录、药物筛查、就业信用检查、教育和就业验证以及其他适用检查的整个检查中都是如此。

为帮助确保您遵循背景调查最佳实践，我们编制了三个 C 的背景调查政策：全公司范围、一致、合规。编写适当的背景调查政策时应牢记这些特征。

1. 公司范围内

为整个公司创建和应用背景调查政策，甚至针对行政管理人员，并确定您是否希望仅筛选潜在员工、仅当前员工，或两者兼而有之。进行例行的雇佣后背景调查变得越来越普遍，可以帮助您遵守任何行业特定的法规或合同义务，并了解员工在贵公司任职期间可能出现的任何新问题。 

平等就业机会委员会 (EEOC) 建议制定一项政策，规定所有潜在雇员将在提出有条件要约后进行筛选，所有现有雇员将按预定时间间隔进行筛选。这样，所有候选人和员工都会得到公平和一致的对待。

确保您雇用的每个人都具有正确的资格可以节省时间和精力，同时保持公司士气。即使是高层管理人员也伪造了职业细节，这既损害了他们的公司，也让他们的公司难堪。2012 年，雅虎 CEO 离开公司，部分原因是他在简历上美化了自己的教育背景。

公司范围的政策可以（并且应该）针对特定角色。许多雇主会根据求职者在被录用后将扮演的角色来选择不同的报告包。例如，您可以构建策略以要求所有高级管理角色的就业验证和教育验证，而不是某些入门级角色。

同样，您可能会选择要求对高级管理人员或其他可以获得大量资金的职位（如果您的当地法律允许）进行就业信用检查，但对于信用记录不太相关的职位则不需要。  

显然，如果您正在考虑涉及驾驶职位的候选人，检查他们的驾驶历史是有意义的。

2. 一致的

就业前背景筛查也必须一致。疏忽诉讼可能源于应用人力资源政策的不一致。不一致的执法为歧视指控打开了大门，背景审查也不例外。

为贵公司将针对不同员工级别进行的筛选类型设置指南，并在这些级别内的所有候选人中保持此流程的一致性。申请同一职位的两名候选人应该对他们进行相同的背景调查。根据您在每个级别内的既定政策筛选所有潜在候选人有助于确保您公平对待所有候选人并一致地应用政策。

考虑您的犯罪背景调查政策以及犯罪记录如何影响您的招聘决定并保持一致也很重要。EEOC 建议您只考虑与工作职责直接相关的信念。

最安全的方法是避免某些类型的犯罪总是导致拒绝的政策。相反，创建一个策略来考虑返回的所有不利信息以及以下三个因素：

• 所寻求职位的性质

• 罪行的性质

• 自定罪发生以来的时间量

然后让候选人提供可能导致拒绝或终止的不利信息的背景，并考虑他们的陈述。

EEOC 表示，该程序将为歧视索赔建立“业务必要性和工作相关性”辩护。了解故事的双方也是公平和合理的——它可以将合格的候选人留在你的人才库中。

3. 合规

纳入员工背景调查政策的最后一个，也许也是最关键的方面是遵守联邦、州和地方法律。 

雇用新员工时，进行的所有背景调查都必须符合联邦公平信用报告法 (FCRA) 指南以及州和当地的禁售法。 

您的就业筛选政策应概述您何时进行背景调查，这可能因您的需求和偏好而异。根据联邦法律，雇主可以在征得候选人同意后随时进行就业筛选。但是，如果您或您的候选人所在的城市、县和/或州的禁令法律限制了背景调查的时间，您也需要遵守这些规则。 

如果你没有被禁止入内的法律所涵盖，那么只筛选最后几名候选人或只筛选那些收到有条件录取通知的人是有意义的。通过这种方式，您可以在招聘环境中平衡成本与背景调查信息的好处。

FCRA 要求雇主在进行背景调查之前征得候选人的同意，并规定如果背景调查返回的信息会影响招聘决定，雇主必须遵循一系列特定步骤。 

如果您的背景调查政策包括对员工的雇佣后背景调查，您可能希望在背景调查同意表中包含一个“常青条款”，该条款会通知员工并在他们在贵公司的整个雇佣过程中获得定期筛查的同意。

第三方的合规团队确保我们的流程符合 FCRA 和禁令，并为我们的客户提供信息和资源，以帮助他们了解适用于其所在州的法规。此外，每项 GoodHire 背景调查都包括综合不利行动，以帮助指导您完成整个过程。

定期审查和更新您的保单

现实情况是，企业——更不用说政府法规——很少停滞不前。您的筛查需求很有可能随着时间的推移而发生变化。您也有可能是第一次制定就业筛选政策。

我们提供国家犯罪背景调查、州、县和联邦犯罪调查、机动车记录检查、药物筛查、信用报告和持续警报以及许多其他筛查服务，让您可以灵活地定制您的筛查计划对你的行业和你试图填补的特定角色。

如果您需要检查这些记录，您可以轻松地将这些搜索添加到任何 就业筛选包中。如果您对这些搜索不感兴趣，您可以节省自己的费用。

当然，在您更新或创建任何筛选政策之前，请务必与您的法律顾问进行审查。

您已经知道就业筛选可以帮助确保您清楚地了解求职者的情况。现在您知道了如何制定全公司范围的、一致且合规的就业筛选政策。

Our guide to best practices will help you ensure that your background screening policy follows the “3 C’s” of background checks: company-wide, consistent, and compliant.

Employment background check policies are among the most important to review, and should be done on a regular basis, such as every six months or when a change to the policy is made. Employment screening helps companies hire the right person for the job and protect your employees, customers, and reputation.

Yet, a human resources background check policy must be implemented fairly, and with consideration for all applicable laws. This holds true throughout checks of criminal records, driving records, drug screening, employment credit checks, education and employment verification, and other applicable checks.

To help ensure you’re following background check best practices, we’ve compiled the three C’s of background check policies: Company-wide, Consistent, Compliant. Appropriate background check policies should be written with these characteristics in mind.

1. COMPANY-WIDE

Create and apply background check policies across the whole company, even for executive management, and determine whether you want to screen only prospective hires, only current employees, or both. Conducting routine, post-hire background checks is becoming increasingly common and can help you remain compliant with any industry-specific regulations or contractual obligations and aware of any new issues that may develop during the employee’s tenure with your company. 

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recommends a policy that says all prospective employees will be screened after a conditional offer is made and all current employees will be screened at predetermined intervals. That way, all candidates and employees are treated fairly and consistently.

Assuring that every person you hire has the correct qualifications saves time and effort, while preserving company morale. Even high-level executives have falsified career details that both damage and embarrass their companies. In 2012, Yahoo’s CEO left the company due, in part, to revelations that he embellished his education on his resume.

Company-wide policies can (and should) be role specific. Many employers choose different report packages based on the role the job candidate will play once hired. For example, you might construct your policy to require employment verification and education verification for all senior management roles, but not for certain entry-level roles.

Similarly, you might choose to require employment credit checks for senior management or for other positions that have access to significant amounts of money (if allowed by your local laws), but not for positions where credit history is less relevant.  

Obviously, if you’re considering candidates for roles that involve driving, it makes sense to check their driving history.

2. CONSISTENT

Pre-employment background screening must also be consistent. Negligence lawsuits may stem from inconsistency in applying HR policies. Inconsistent enforcement opens the door to discrimination charges, and background screening is no exception.

Set up guidelines for the type of screenings your company will conduct for different employee levels, and keep this process consistent across all candidates within those levels. Two candidates applying for the same position should get the same background checks run on them. Screening all potential candidates according to your established policy within each level can help ensure you’re treating all candidates fairly and applying policies consistently.

It’s also important to consider your criminal background check policy and how criminal records affect your hiring decisions, and be consistent. The EEOC recommends that you consider only convictions that are directly related to the responsibilities of the job.

The safest approach is to avoid policies in which a certain type of crime always leads to rejection. Instead, create a policy to consider all adverse information returned along with these three factors:

• The nature of the position sought

• The nature of the crime

• The amount of time since the conviction occurred

Then allow candidates to provide context about the adverse information that might lead to rejection or termination, and take their statements into consideration.

The EEOC has stated that this process will establish a “business necessity and job relatedness” defense to discrimination claims. It’s also fair and rational to get both sides of the story—and it can keep qualified candidates in your talent pool.

3. COMPLIANT

The final, and perhaps most critical, aspect to incorporate into your employee background check policy is compliance with federal, state, and local laws. 

When hiring a new employee, all background checks conducted must be compliant with federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) guidelines as well as state and local ban-the-box laws. 

Your employment screening policy should outline when you will run background checks, which can vary depending on your needs and preferences. Under federal law, an employer can conduct employment screening at any point after getting the candidate’s consent. However, if you or your candidate is in a city, county, and/or state where a ban-the-box law restricts the timing of a background check, you’ll need to comply with those rules as well. 

If you’re not covered by a ban-the-box law, it makes sense to screen only the final few candidates or only those who have received a conditional offer. This way, you balance the costs with the benefits of background check information in the hiring context.

The FCRA requires that employers get candidates’ consent before running background checks and mandates a specific set of steps employers must follow if the background check returns information that will affect the hiring decision. 

If your background check policy includes post-hire background checks on employees, you may wish to include an “evergreen clause” in the background check consent form that notifies employees and gets consent for periodic screening throughout their employment with your company.

GoodHire’s compliance team ensures that our processes are FCRA and ban-the-box compliant and provides our customers with information and resources to help them understand regulations that apply in their states. Further, each GoodHire background check includes integrated adverse action to help guide you through the process.

Review & Update Your Policy Regularly

The reality is that businesses—not to mention government regulations—rarely stand still. Chances are good that your screening needs have changed over time. It’s also possible that you’re setting up your employment screening policies for the first time.

At GoodHire, we offer national criminal background checks, state, county, and federal criminal checks, motor vehicle records checks, drug screening, credit reports, and ongoing alerts, among many other screening services, to give you the flexibility to customize your screening program to your industry and the specific roles you’re trying to fill.

If you need to check those records, you can easily add these searches to any GoodHire employment screening packages. If you’re not interested in those searches, you can spare yourself the expense.

Of course, before you update or create any screening policy, make sure to review it with your legal counsel.

You already know that employment screening can help make sure you’re seeing a clear picture of your job candidates. Now you know how to create an employment screening policy that is company-wide, consistent, and compliant.