Employment Screening: Be Careful What You Check For

Background checks are increasingly being used to screen applicants in both the public and private sector

By Paul Roberts

September 01, 2003 — CSO — Remember when you were 14 and got caught not inhaling? We know it was just a youthful indiscretion. Even your parents have forgiven you. But imagine having to explain that indiscretion to your boss. Well you may soon have to. Background checks are increasingly being used to screen applicants in both the public and private sector.

But despite the increasing prevalence of such checks, CSOs should tread carefully when initiating them, says Norm Willox, chief privacy officer at LexisNexis. "People are rethinking how they use background screening," he adds. "You need to be smarter about how you screen individuals."

Background checks have long been used to screen people who work in intelligence or on classified government projects, but they are also now used as a preemployment screening tool for a range of positions, including bank tellers and truck drivers hauling hazardous waste. The growth of information technology has given a whole new tier of workers access to sensitive information and tools, Willox says. "Twenty years ago, very few people had access to technology, and that access was controlled," he says. "Today, technology has become far more accessible, and the risk to companies has increased accordingly."

With easy access to both the corporate network and the Internet, disgruntled employees can transfer an organization's intellectual property to competitors. "Employers want to confirm that they're hiring who they thought they were hiring," Willox says.

But laws such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act require organizations to get consent from those who will be screened.

A company that neglects to do its homework and understand its obligations before instituting a background screening program could find itself in legal hot water. And while Willox recommends some kind of screening for any new hire, different levels of scrutiny may be called for, depending on the individual's level of responsibility.

Read more about investigations/forensics in CSOonline's Investigations/Forensics section.

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