Anytime someone completely new enters your professional or personal life, you never know what to expect. Some people might hang around for fleeting moments and you never see them again. But others might become more important and stick around for the long-haul and it’s those that this article talks about.
Whether you are interviewing candidates for a position in a company you own, hiring someone to do some handiwork around your home or office, or even meeting someone from a dating site, you need to gather as much relevant information as you can to know who that person is. And you need to do so quickly before you make any sort of commitment. When you do a background check, a criminal record of a person can show up if it exists.
You want to give people the benefit of the doubt and not assume anything, so it’s important to get your facts right. Maybe you want to help someone out and give them a second crack at a job opening because they were fired before. It’s not enough to know that the person was fired; you have to know why they were fired and base a hiring decision on that.
Here are some things you need to know about background checks and how they work:
Different states, different laws
Laws vary on checking criminal history depending on your state of residence. Some states don’t allow questions about arrests or convictions beyond a certain point in the past. Others only allow consideration of criminal history for certain positions.
Software used
Before software, checking criminal backgrounds were done by hand and through the court systems and still done till now. Clearly, manual searching is very time-consuming and tedious. Luckily, you don’t have to go about it like that anymore as you can click here for the people search lookup at https://www.checkpeople.com which will do the search for you. These records could include: felony records, DUI/DWI records, arrests, mugshots, criminal records, police reports, convictions, speeding tickets, sexual offenses, misdemeanors, active/outstanding warrants, among others. As you can see, some of these types of crimes are truly serious and if you’re an employer, you need to know the facts.
Search all states
How criminal activity is stored and how to find it can be and actually is complicated. When a person commits a misdemeanor, for example, in one state, it doesn’t necessarily get registered in other law enforcement agencies of other states. It depends on the laws of each state. Companies that use sophisticated software surpass this problem because they’re able to search the federal, state, city, and county records for the newest, most accurate data.
Remain in compliance
When it’s for a job, carrying out a background check means employers must follow specific steps to be compliant with state, local and federal laws. If you’re an employer, you should inform the candidate that a background check will be carried out. Since you’re checking for criminal activities, this could include checks on financial records. The check could go back around seven years prior.
Make safety a priority
When receiving the results of a background check, if the person has a criminal record the employer can disqualify them as a job candidate. At the same time, an employer might for any reason see potential in the candidate. Keep in mind that an arrest is not a sign of guilt. You might want to know more, converse with a candidate, and then make a decision. But it should go without saying that keeping yourself and the people around you safe should be a top priority.
