More Background Check Compliance Complications for Employers

We know, we know, Covid-19 and its aftermath created a number of challenges for employers and we’re all tired of adapting. We don’t want to bring up further complications but if you’re sticking with a remote or hybrid workforce now and into the future, have you considered the implications for your background checks?

Workforce Trends Affect Hiring Jurisdictions

After investing in virtual communications, online collaboration tools, self-guided learning technologies, and more, many employers are eager to leverage these assets to integrate a geographically dispersed workforce. They see an opportunity to overcome local talent shortages and capture competitive advantage.

What’s more, some workers who enjoyed full-time or partial work-from-home (WFH) policies during the pandemic are being asked to come back to the office. Those unhappy with the change have launched the Great Resignation. They’re looking for jobs anywhere that feature attractive remote work options and countless employers are biting.

These trends have upset the relatively stable territories from which many employers used to recruit. You remember those days—you drew most prospective new employees from around the facility, often within a single county or state. Rarely did you have to adjust your standard pre-employment screening procedures due to legal restrictions elsewhere.

Now that employees might work from anywhere, things are different. A company in Iowa could easily hire remote workers in California, where there are strict “ban the box” regulations, for example. If the team is unaware of the compliance differences, they could run afoul of the law.

Keeping Up with Compliance

HR teams and staffing agencies need to be confident that their efforts to draw from a larger, national applicant pool don’t increase compliance risk. Unfortunately, staying current on various background screening compliance trends and requirements can be difficult for companies that lack the in-house staff to monitor a constantly shifting landscape.

If this describes you, a background screening partner with significant compliance resources can help fill in the knowledge gap so you can better protect yourself against compliance risk. At Asurint, we offer a two-prong solution.

First, there’s our technology. Asurint built a powerful compliance engine into our background check systems. Each and every background report we deliver is automatically vetted to ensure the information provided aligns with legal restrictions impacting what we, as a Consumer Reporting Agency, can report.

We don’t leave such an important topic to the computers, however. We also bring subject matter expertise to bear:

• We maintain a full team of compliance professionals who proactively monitor legislation at the local, state and federal level across the country, to update our system and our clients.
• We engage in extensive client education efforts to push out information when laws, regulations, and agency guidance change. A key example is our 50 State Guide to background check compliance, which is available for free download.
• Our compliance team, up to and including our General Counsel, is available to field client questions. They also conduct webinars and trainings on compliance topics to keep clients in the know.

Asurint does not provide legal advice but we do help raise awareness of legal and regulatory changes affecting employers’ hiring processes. That way our clients can work with counsel to determine appropriate action.

So go ahead and look for talent anywhere. If you partner with Asurint, you can hire across the county with confidence that your processes will remain compliant. Not an Asurint client? Why not talk to us today?

While we make every effort to ensure we also apply laws impacting employers, there are a few we have not accommodated in our redaction logic so we need to reword this messaging.