8 Must-Know Tips for Getting a Background Check on Your Work-from-Home Employee
When you’re hiring, you want to consider your applicants’ and employees’ backgrounds, including work history, education, criminal record, financial history, medical history and how they use social media. It’s imperative to require a background check — but in this remote era, it’s more challenging.
More than 80% of company leaders plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the time after reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Gartner.
Forty-seven percent of respondents said they will allow employees to work remotely on a full-time basis, 43% would grant flex days and 42% would provide flex hours — a hybrid workforce, which makes it challenging to get a background check, making it a challenge to maintain corporate culture and check-ins like background checks.
The solution: Use ShareAble, a pre-employment screening tool that enables small business owners to do background checks quickly, easily and effectively.
What Employers Need to Know About Background Checks
You want criminal history, motor vehicle records, employment history verification, reference checks and license verification — here’s what you need to know.
Tip 1: You can still do a good job with background checks during this time.
A few worries about running background checks with remote employees:
Who is actually signing the waiver?
How do you ensure that you’re truly hiring the person signing the waiver?
However, know that you can still do a great job with background checks, even with remote employees. You just might need to change your processes.
Tip 2: Remember that the rules generally stayed the same.
Every state has specific rules about how far back an employer can look, and you’ll find a 7-year limitation in most states, though some states have laws that regulate how far back a criminal background check can go based on the applicant’s salary. Always check the requirements for your state to ensure that you stay compliant.
Tip 3: You can use background check servicers like ShareAble.
Opt for a background check servicer that offers remote identity verification using e-Sign waivers. Background check servicers may require candidates to scan their government-issued IDs and to snap a selfie. That way, you receive data through a barcode instead of allowing a remote worker to fill it out by hand.
ShareAble stays up to date with the latest Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulations, which governs how background checks must be conducted. This means you can make decisions based on the data it provides because it meets FCRA standards for accuracy.
It includes:
Obtaining consent for the background check
Letting the candidate review the results
Not using websites that abide by the FCRA could result in legal action.
Tip 4: Confirm that you’re getting the right type of background checks with your employees.
The most common background check screenings available include:
Social Security number and address validations
Misdemeanor and felony criminal record searches at the county, state and national levels
Sex offender registry searches
Civil records checks
The most common supplemental screenings available verifies candidates’:
Employment history
Education
Professional licenses
Motor vehicle records
References
Military records
Workers’ compensation history
Health care sanction checks
Drug screening
The type of background check you choose may depend on your industry or the candidates’ job type.
Steps to Take to Get a Background Check on Work-from-Home Employees
Once you’ve got tips one through four solidified in your small business, follow the remaining steps.
Tip 5: Get a pre-employment background check.
A pre-employment background check offers information on a job candidate that help you make a decision about whether to hire that person. This screening can help you weed out:
Criminal convictions
Driving violations
A bad credit history
Misrepresentation of work history or educational background
Share pre-employment screening services also give employers and applicants access to the results, as both parties can get the reports.
Tip 6: Get an official reference check.
Seems like a normal part of the process, right? If you’re a smaller company, you might dispense with the official reference check — a mistake. A reference check should be part of your screening program. Follow all applicable laws and compliance best practices, including FCRA and ban-the-box laws. (Ban-the-box laws ban employers from asking questions about an applicant’s criminal history on initial job application forms. Ban-the-box laws and policies try to remove the stigma of previous convictions and give all applicants a fair chance at employment.
Tip 7: Use ShareAble to your full advantage.
ShareAble for Hires works like this:
ShareAble emails a screening request to your applicant.
The applicant enters personal information for authentication.
You get the reports with no setup fees, no subscription and no strings attached.
You pay $25 for the basic fee, $40 for Background Check Plus and $60 for Background Check Pro.
ShareAble for Hires is backed by TransUnion, a trusted name with decades of experience, and you get:
Current and previous addresses
Full name and aliases check
Previous employment information (when available)
Payment history
Derogatory account data, such as charge-offs
ShareAble searches 100 million employment records, information that’s included on credit reports and its enhanced matching logic helps ensure the reports you receive on your job candidate fit the right person.
Tip 8: Continue with each employee.
Implement a strategic plan to use Shareable with every interviewee and employee. Make sure the strategic plan gets shared among all human resources personnel and the exact process gets implemented every time you interview and hire a new employee.
Implement ShareAble into Your Business
You want employees who fit your culture and who you can trust — even during this work-from-home employee environment. Don’t miss out on getting ShareAble’s state-of-the-art technology to deliver comprehensive employment background checks. ShareAble designed its solution specifically for you if you’re a small business owner who needs a solution to implement background checks.
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