PBSA's Background Screening Survey: Safety Remains Leading Driver Behind Employment Screens

The Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) recently released its 4^th annual background screening survey in coordination with HR.com. The survey, Background Screening: Trends and Uses in Today’s Global Economy, provides important insights into employer use of background checks. Below are three key trends we learned from the survey. We encourage employers to review the survey in its entirety as well.

Safety Remains Key Driver

With ninety-four percent (94%) of employers noting that their organization conducts one or more types of background screening, its clear that background checks remain as popular of a tool as ever. The “why” behind background checks remained consistent: safety of employees and customers (83%), improving quality of hires (51%) and the checks were mandated by law or regulation (40%). Other reasons behind screening included company reputation concerns and preventing or reducing the chance of theft or embezzlement in the workplace.

Employers Are Expanding Who They Screen

Past surveys have revealed employers focus more on screening full-time employees than other relationship types. However, that trend seems to be shifting in 2020 as the survey revealed a significant rise in employers screening part-time employees (83% in 2020 versus 67% in 2019), contingent, contractors and temporary staff (59% in 2020 versus 27% in 2019) and volunteers/unpaid workers (44% in 2020 versus 18% in 2019).

Employers Are Expanding How They Screen

Not only are employers screening more people, they are focused on conducting more comprehensive background checks. Criminal checks (national database and deeper) and SSN trace remain the top searches in terms of popularity. 2020’s data shows a notable uptick in the use of education and employment verifications (used by 40% and 60% of employers respectively on all candidates) and consistent use of sex offender registry information as well. Lagging in popularity is a credit check which is consistent with trends over time. Additionally, social media checks still have not caught on across the board as 62% of employers reported not using that search in any capacity on their candidates while only 11% of employers reported using social media screens on all candidates.

Takeaways

These results are not surprising as safety has been a key reason why background checks exist in the first place. Often when a workplace incident occurs, one of the first questions is “how could this have been prevented (or predicted)?” Seeing employers expand who they screen as well as the breadth of how they screen individuals also reveals the rising importance of background checks in the employment context.
 
Employers should routinely examine their background screening program to see if the “why” is clear and if the searches used help meet that why. Asurint recommends conducting that exercise in coordination with qualified legal counsel.