Can Adjudication Be Simplified? Yes!

There is a misconception among some human resources professionals that candidate screening and adjudication must be manual processes. This is often due to a misreading of guidance from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The good news, it’s not necessary to burden adjudicators with sifting through individual background reports. Automation can be applied to this process to improve speed, compliance, and results.
 

What EEOC Guidance Really Requires

As we cover in our white paper Evaluating Background Checks: An Individualized Approach, “it was [once] common for employers to have matrices coupled with bright-line disqualification…With the 2012 Equal Opportunity Commission’s Guidance on the use of criminal and arrest records in employment, employers are revisiting the practices in order to mitigate risk.”

And yes, from the standpoint of compliance with EEOC requirements and various local and state fair chance laws, so-called bright-line disqualification can be problematic. It is widely recommended that employers replace those systems with more personalized candidate assessments taking into account such factors as:

• The nature and gravity of an offense surfaced during a background investigation, along any mitigating facts or circumstances
• The time that has passed since the offense and any efforts at rehabilitation
• The type of position being sought and any evidence the individual has worked in a similar capacity since the incident in question

This guidance doesn’t, however, prohibit the use of hiring matrices or eliminate the possibility of automating the tedious, manual processes involved in identifying and flagging possibly disqualifying elements of a background report. To the contrary, using technology systems that apply position-specific adjudication screening templates, deploy them in a uniform manner for all candidates for that position, and automatically flag background issues for further attention can improve the fairness and accuracy of adjudication.

That’s the purpose behind the Candidate Adjudication Assistant. The Candidate Adjudication Assistant is Asurint’s expedited adjudication product and it’s built in to our background screening system.   

Candidate Adjudication Assistant Features and Benefits

The Candidate Adjudication Assistant allows adjudicators to easily upload one or many matrices configured with offenses to be flagged for a particular job type. Users can create as few or as many matrices as needed to reflect the various positions within the organization.

When the user then runs investigations on particular candidates, the system applies the appropriate job matrix to each individual in order to identify offenses that might impact their consideration to fill the opening. These issues—and only these issues—are flagged for attention by the adjudicators.

With the Candidate Adjudication Assistant eliminating the manual checks of standard background reports, adjudicators can spend more time on the issues that matter most. They can immediately identify individuals with clear records and focus on only the relevant criminal issues flagged by the Candidate Adjudication Assistant system, without being distracted by other parts of the background report. This enables them to concentrate on making the individualized assessments required by law and arrive at the right hiring decisions for the organization.

Free Webinar!

If you’ve been looking for ways to save time, eliminate human error, and prioritize candidates for consideration, while staying compliant with EEOC subregulatory guidance, it’s time to consider automating your adjudication processes with the Candidate Adjudication Assistant.

On July 31, 2019, Asurint will be hosting a free webinar to acquaint clients and prospective customers with the Candidate Adjudication Assistant and relate some adjudication best practices. It’s a great no-obligation opportunity to learn more about this topic and a possible technological solution. To sign up, simply sign up here.