They want to be sure that they are selecting the best talents, hence the need to ascertain if what a candidate has written in their resume is true – including their academic qualifications, the institutions attended, and previous work experiences. An organization is also usually keen on ensuring that the candidate’s morals and ethical values match those of the organization, thus necessitating criminal background checks and other related types of pre-employment screening. This post focuses on several issues surrounding background checks on remote IT professionals who have applied for a position in the organization. It seeks to explain the complete background checks process and what happens before, during, and after. It also highlights the legal aspects of performing background checks on remote IT workers. Lastly, it considers the importance of running background checks on remote IT employees.
A Complete Background Check Process
What is a background check? It’s the process of looking at prospective employees’ employment, commercial, criminal, and driving history before hiring them. Depending on the nature of the job an employer intends to fill, the applicants’ financial records might also be scrutinized. Background checks can assist employers in making better-informed hiring decisions, besides protecting the reputation of the brand and the other employees. A company may choose to handle background checks without external help. However, they can outsource the screening process to a professional background screening company or deploy relevant software. Of the utmost importance is to install a consistent policy and procedure for performing background checks on prospective remote IT workers to guarantee a fair process for all applicants.
Are you ready to identify and weed out bad hires from your small, medium, or large organizations? Here are the necessary steps for a thorough and clean background check for remote IT workers.
- Determine The Necessary|Relevant Background Checks
You shouldn’t embark on a background check without determining the important screening areas for an IT worker. Apart from the position, the industry your organization operates will dictate the nature of background checks you will perform on prospective employees. Once you’ve established what you need in the remote IT position you’ll be filling, you may proceed to the next step.
- Ask For Consent
It is illegal to run a background check on a job candidate without informing them and obtaining their consent. If someone isn’t willing to undergo pre-employment screening, the company contact person should inform them that it’s a condition for hire. If a candidate is subjected to the process, they cannot progress to the next stage in recruitment and selection. The Fair Credit Reporting Act dictates that the employer must inform the applicants of their intention to run a background check on them. You cannot proceed without their permission. When seeking the applicant’s consent, ensure to write down the company’s background check intentions and give each applicant a copy, preferably in person. If that’s not possible, send it via email. An applicant will have given their consent if they sign and send back the background check notification document. Remember to keep a copy of every job candidate’s written permission in your company records. You’ll need it if a legal consequence ever arises.
- Ensure The Process’ Legality.
The government is always keen on protecting the rights of its citizens, and one of the rights it protects has to do with pre-employment background checks. Every state has a rule that guides job applicants’ pre-employment background checks, and every enterprise must follow the rules. Many rules forbid running a background check on a candidate’s criminal, employment, and educational history. However, an organization can perform background checks on candidates by ensuring statutory security. For instance, a hiring manager shouldn’t perform a background check on a candidate who hasn’t given consent for the same.
The hiring team should brush up on their legal knowledge of background checks to stay on the safe side of the law. While some states allow employers to perform background checks on a candidate as long as they are authorized, others restrict the process. Some states, such as Arizona, Ohio, and Georgia, prohibit employers from asking candidates about their criminal history on a job application. Therefore, learn as much as possible about the legal issues surrounding performing background checks on potential employees to avoid possible associated problems.
A given state may also have specific laws about background checks, such as reviewing the credit history of a job applicant. For example, if your organization is based in colorado and it isn’t in the banking or financial industry, your background check on candidates shouldn’t include their credit history. However, if your company operates in a different industry – other than banking and finance – and the law requires the report or the credit information of a job applicant is linked to the position, you may perform credit history checks on a candidate. Whatever you do, resist the urge to conduct background checks on potential employees before checking your state for the relevant requirements and laws.
- Ask References
When considering a candidate for an IT remote role, it’s important to ask them for references. Speaking to their former employers, for instance, can help you gather a few facts about their employment history, the company the candidate keeps, and the nature of interactions. Doing so helps an employer trust the information the candidate provides. It helps to ensure that the candidate has a good employment history and confirms the absence of any dangerous records. Basically, references reveal alot about the candidate’s skills and personality. The downside of checking references is that the process takes time, thus requiring the employer to exhibit patience and alot of dedication. Irrespective of the time it takes a hiring manager to speak to the references supplied by a job candidate, it is an essential step in the background check process and shouldn’t be ignored.
Reference checks on a candidate provide the employer with another perspective of the candidate. Consider generating a reference check form to ensure an effective and thorough reference check. It ensures adequate preparation since you have a list of questions to ask. Examples of questions you can ask the references of a job candidate include:
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of X?
- What are the biggest accomplishments of X?
- On a scale of one to ten, how strong are the communication skills of X?
- Do you recommend X for a remote IT role?
When talking to an applicant’s former employer, dont forget to verify employment dates. Be prepared; some employers do not share employment dates since their policy prohibits it. Once you’ve finished talking to a reference contact and are satisfied with the information they’ve shared about a job candidate, thank them for their time and willingness to share the information you needed.
4. Perform Drug Testing
Most private employers aren’t required to test for drugs by law. However, enterprises in particular industries such as defense, safety, transportation, aviation, and transit are required to test job candidates and employees in particular roles for drug and alcohol use. Other industries where job applicants are required to carry out drug testing include universities, schools, and hospitals. Job applicants for the state, federal, and county might be required to submit to drug screening before, and in some cases, in the course of their employment.
In some instances, if the law permits it, an organization may require a job applicant for a remote IT position to undergo drug screening. This employee will be working with no supervision. It is, therefore, only fair for the management to be sure that the new hire will concentrate on the job fully. Drug use can negatively impact an employee’s productivity, and it gets worse if they work from home because the supervisor cannot fully trust them to get the job done. Inform the candidate that the job offer is subject to them undergoing drug testing. If they are okay with it, send them to a specified doctor’s office for the drug test. Alternatively, you may have a certified professional collect a sample from job candidates during office appointments if you have such opportunities.
- Run Background Checks
With the reference checks and the results of the drug tests, you may now run background checks on the remaining job candidates. The hiring manager may decide to perform the background checks personally. However, if you dont want to engage in all the legwork involved, you can outsource the process. You can strike a deal with an accredited background screener to help you complete a thorough background screening on your behalf. One of the benefits of using an external background screener is the speed and accuracy they approach the process with. Additionally, it assures the hiring manager that the professionals will handle all the state, federal and local background regulations. Since this task is taken off your back, you may focus your energy and time on more important tasks.
On the other hand, if an employer decides to do detective work, they can rely on various applications and websites to check things such as employment, criminal and credit records online. While at it, consider looking at the information available on the applicants’ social media accounts to see if it matches what’s available on the resume. Whichever approach you choose, be sure to do extensive research. Spend enough time looking at different websites and firms to ensure they are safe, secure, and reliable.
- Review The Findings
Once you’ve gained access to all the background check documents you were targeting, review them to establish if your job applicants are worth the remote IT role you wish to fill. If you aren’t comfortable with the information the background checks uncover, you can proceed with candidates who may represent your brand better. At the same time, you may offer the candidates whose background checks revealed worrying concerns an opportunity to clear their mistakes and come to terms with their truth. A candidate might find it difficult, to tell the truth, especially when it concerns criminal and harmful records, yet their skills and expertise are extraordinary. People commit mistakes, some deadly, and still, turn around and become good citizens and employees. Depending on the underlying circumstances, hiring managers can allow employees to show up as changed people instead of judging them based on their past behaviors. A candidate with top-notch talent can be offered a job if they accept and promise not to repeat such mistakes in the future.
These are the various steps an employer should take when performing background checks on prospective employees. While every step is crucial in facilitating a good hire, exercising caution on the legality of background checks is perhaps the most important. It’s imperative that the hiring manager gets everything right lest they face legal consequences that could be very expensive for the organization in terms of financial and reputation implications. If an organization is unsure of its legal knowledge associated with running background checks, it should seek more information about the same to be sure of how to proceed.
A commonly asked question revolves around how long it takes to receive the results of a background check. The time it takes to obtain the results depends on the items an employer includes in their background checks, such as credit checks, criminal background checks, etc. As such, it could take between 48 hours and five working days to get ahold of the background screening results.
A job applicant’s background check is said to be clean if it lacks major felonies, misdemeanors, and convictions. It might also be considered clean if the job candidate confirms a past criminal history that doesn’t relate to the remote IT position or the industry.
Legal Aspects Of Remote IT Workers Background Check
Various federal, state and common laws regulate background checks on employees. The employer must ensure compliance with all of them when conducting background checks on potential remote IT professionals. Let’s look at them briefly.
- Federal law
Several federal laws apply to the practice of background checks on employees – explicitly or implicitly. They include:
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulates the utilization of consumer credit reports as well as investigative consumer reports. It applies when a third party performs background checks on behalf of a company. An investigative consumer report comprises character references, personal opinions, and verifications of publicly available records typically present in a basic consumer report. This type of inquiry requires proper written disclosure under the FCRA before the external background screener requests a job applicant’s credit report.
- Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA or FACT Act) amends the FCRA and regulates the secure sharing of consumer credit details.
- Equal employment opportunity laws require employers to ensure that their background checks do not breed discrimination. The EEO laws are based on the belief that reliance on the results of background checks alone may lead to adverse impact discrimination.
- Immigration Reform and Control Act, 1986 (IRCA) prohibits discrimination of prospective employees based on their citizenship or natural origin – apart from undocumented immigrants for employers with four or more workers. The Form 1-9 employment verification originates from IRCA. While this verification happens after hiring, it is imperative to understand that an applicant’s national origin or citizenship shouldn’t be used against them if unearthed before onboarding.
- State Law
It’s not unusual for various state laws to overlap with some relevant federal laws. However, state laws may have more requirements regarding the following:
- Accessing consumer credit report.
- Safeguarding information.
- Controlling illegal immigration
- Searching criminal histories before supplying a candidate with an employment offer.
- Retaining records.
Employers are encouraged to confirm the state laws that apply to their situations for specific compliance information.
- Common Law
An organization that handles background checks inappropriately might face several common law claims. Possible claims include negligent hiring, privacy invasion, defamation, and tortious interference with a present or future employment.
Thankfully, many states have put laws in place that accord people giving employment references some degree of statutory immunity. Organizations should seek legal counsel for compliance information.
The Importance Of Performing Background Checks On It Remote Workers
Over the years, workplace violence, theft, and legal consequences have made background checks on potential employees a common practice in all industries. If you are considering avoiding a background investigation on your prospective remote IT workers, you might miss out on the following advantages.
Not Hiring Is Easier Than Firing.
Conducting a thorough pre-employment screening on an applicant minimizes the odds of experiencing an unfortunate surprise after onboarding the candidate. Suppose a background screening reveals a prospective candidate’s history of criminal records such as violence or theft. In that case, it allows the hiring manager to hire someone else whose background check is clean. On the other hand, if your company doesn’t perform a check and the new hire begins to show warning signs, it will be extremely difficult to terminate their contract legally – and this puts the organization in a very strict situation. Instead of putting the organization in such a pitfall, the HR manager should prioritize background checks during the recruitment and selection process.
A Bad Hire Can Be Costly.
In a time when organizations are looking for areas of cost-cutting to increase profitability and meet their financial obligations, it would be a huge mistake to end up with a bad hire. A bad hire can cost the company a lot of resources – time and money – while also leading to massive reputation damage. 25% of enterprises surveyed by Fast Company said that a bad hire costs them at least $50,000 yearly. The figure takes care of the time the hiring committee spent on recruitment and training and the negative effect the bad hire had on the morale and productivity of employees. Job applicants lie about their qualifications on their applications all the time. They even lie about their personal attributes and character to get the job. A background check weeds out liars, which boosts the chances of hiring quality people for remote IT jobs.
It Enables Employers To Be Compliant.
Organizations are legally obligated to maintain a safe environment for customers and employees. One of the most effective ways of accomplishing this is via background checks on all new potential employees. A research study revealed that a person with a criminal history could create a highly volatile workplace atmosphere and has a higher chance of being fired for gross misconduct. Background screening decreases the risk of hiring a candidate with a history of violent crime, substance abuse, or theft, thus keeping the workplace safe for other employees and the organization. Employees can access critical organizational and client data and information when working in the IT department. As such, ensuring that the person awarded a job offer is honest and trustworthy with a clean behavior history is imperative. Failure to perform comprehensive background checks puts the company at risk of information and data breaches, loss of important clients, or loss of equipment.
Conclusion
Hiring remote employees, especially those handling IT tasks within an organization, is no mean feat. The desperation of finding a job prompts job applicants to lie all the time about their academic qualifications, previous employment experiences, personal attributes and character, and many other areas that recruitment and selection touch on. When hiring remote employees, employers want to be confident that they hire only the best. For instance, they seek people who can work with no supervision, are dependable and are highly qualified to accomplish their roles effectively. A simple resume cannot help an employer decide if a job applicant is fit for the remote IT job. Therefore, a background search on job applicants is an important step in recruitment and selection and shouldn’t be ignored. Its absence may lead to a bad hire that’s very costly to an organization in terms of time and money. An employer may choose to perform a background investigation independently, but if they dread the legwork, they can settle for a reputable background screener. While at it, the employer must comply with all laws governing background checks to avoid possible legal consequences.
References
- https://factohr.com/6-essential-background-check-while-hiring-employees/
- https://www.indeed.com/hire/c/info/background-check-for-employment
- https://www.i-sight.com/resources/8-essential-steps-of-a-background-investigation/
- https://uprighthc.com/blog/complete-guide-of-the-background-check
- https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/conductingbackgroundinvestigations.aspx
- https://in.indeed.com/career-advice/starting-new-job/what-is-a-background-check
- https://www.betterteam.com/employee-background-checks
- https://www.goodhire.com/resources/articles/how-to-do-a-background-check-for-employment/
- https://www.thebalancemoney.com/when-do-employers-drug-test-2060408