The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was enacted so that consumers would have access to their personal information being stored and shared to employers and others.  This information could be false, inaccurate or incomplete and was being used against them.  While background screening is a vital tool to protect your business, FCRA compliance is another necessary protection. Non-compliance could be costly if an applicant were to take legal action. 

Do you know if your business hiring is FCRA compliant?

Performing background checks as an employer or landlord is vital to keeping your business, property, customers or employees safe. Unfortunately, the time and cost of a background check may lead to opting out or choosing to do research online in lieu of working with a professional background screening company. This can be a problem if the results found online aren't accurate or if the new hire or tenant isn't screened thoroughly. Denying employment or housing could cause the applicant to litigate because they weren't given a fair chance. Instead of putting yourself or your business at risk of EEOC or FCRA noncompliance, we have some practical ways to help.

Here are 3 simple ways to lower your company's turnaround times and screening costs. 

"We're very impressed with your skill set and are happy to offer you the job.... pending a background check investigation."

Even to those with nothing to hide, the second part of that sentence can shatter nerves of steel for job seekers. They wonder, "What will they find?" And, "Have I done anything wrong that I can't recall?" Or "What about that one mistake I made in college?"

Your recruiting and hiring staff can help ease these fears when running employment background checks.

The efficiency of your company hiring process is more important than ever. Candidates go to websites like Glassdoor and others to share their experiences with any other potential candidate. Creating a positive candidate experience is crucial to attracting a quality pool of applicants as well as protecting your brand image. For a business that wants to hire the right employees, reducing time-to-hire is one way to improve the hiring experience. It's not necessary to cut corners to reduce the time from placing an ad to hiring an employee. 

How to reduce time-to-hire without putting your business at risk.

In 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Drug-Free Workplace Act requiring employers of federal workers and certain federal contractors to adopt a drug-free workplace policy and create drug-free awareness programs. Today, many employers have chosen to adopt these policies and programs as the norm. If your organization is considering implementing a drug-free workplace or already has one in place, this post will offer what to consider, reasons to adopt the policy, drug screening practices and more.

Read more to learn about screening practices and how to implement a drug-free workplace.

Recruiting new employees doesn't have to be about placing an ad or scouring LinkedIn anymore. These days, hiring managers have their eyes open all the time to find perfect candidates. Once the candidates are found, it's important to create a fair and consistent candidate experience to keep job seekers interested.

If you're curious how businesses recruit and hire their employees, read on.

Feeling swamped by paperwork? As an HR professional, your desk is a bevy of resumes, applications, contracts and interview notes.  You may even have some electronic or online tasks but the process isn't efficient or consistent. Going paperless not only saves trees but may also reduce the time and effort it takes to recruit and hire. 

Here's how paperless hiring can speed up your recruiting, hiring and on boarding process.

Employers hiring recent graduates or first-time job candidates are faced with a different set of challenges during background checks. For one thing, there's not much in the "job history" category.  Younger generations aren't going to be familiar with a hiring process or what it entails. They need patience and understanding - especially if they really enjoyed their youth and got in trouble with the law. 

Here are some considerations during employment background checks for first time job seekers and recent grads.

Employers look to background checks to protect their business, employees and customers.  As a hiring manager doing the interviews, you may feel that you have a good sense of the applicant. Their resume looks spotless and the conversations have been impressive. Screening your impressive employee isn't adding doubt to your instincts - in fact, a background check should be used to validate what you may already know. 

Here are some best practices for running background checks on employees.

Small businesses aren't the only organizations that may be facing litigation for non-compliance or discrimination. As we frequently feature on this blog, large corporations with full human resources departments still make mistakes. This time, Walmart is facing allegations of racial discrimination due to its background check policies regarding criminal background checks. 

Read more to learn how enterprise companies such as Walmart face EEOC lawsuits.