Employment Background is Essential in Hiring

Under many circumstances, a background of a person plays an important role in determining his capabilities, skills, attitude, personality, and outlook on issues and jobs. As the cliché goes, “history repeats itself,” the past of a person can also be a strong determinant of a possible repetition of what had happened or he has done before. This is evident in many records kept by the government particularly in the bureau of prisons whereby a convict that was pardoned or has already served a sentence may have high possibility of repeating the same crime he has been charged of. And because of this premise, many companies seek for aide to determine who these people are that has grim background to determine their capabilities to perform tasks.

Traditionally, employers conduct background check in so many ways to ensure that their pool of employees will not be tainted by unqualified persons or convicted criminals. Though many of the processes that involved a past check is controlled and monitored by the government to assure equality and non-discrimination, many companies still in position to do a process because there is no other way in which they can be sure of a particular applicant.

Depending on which state and their legislation, conducting a background check is limited only to regulation in which the employee or the applicant is protected. One particular protection that is assured by government laws is the right to criminal pardon. The time of the conviction is very important to tell whether a particular person is already qualified to be employed. A crime and conviction that has happened 7 years before and that the person as the subject already served a sentence is already free of any criminal records search. Though his records might still be searchable, companies may no longer ban him or disapprove his application for this reason. Relevance of the crime is also important in conducting an employment background search. A conviction or charge for DUI cannot be a sole basis to disqualify an applicant for a secretarial job. However, if the company requires an applicant to drive, the DUI charge may be considered. But this is sole dependent on how the company would consider the issue under a case to case basis.

Recently, there had been an issue regarding a particular employee named Frank Garcia that was fired from a company with unknown reasons. Garcia was alleged to be part of the shooting that happened last weekend leaving four people dead. Two weeks after he was fired, a hospital hired him without considering the reason why he was previously fired. Though the hospital admitted that the process of employment has been followed and that a check has been conducted, the details of the said process was not been disclosed.

The hospital may have not failed to act in the case of Garcia as background checks would require permission from the employee or the applicant. Crosschecking and validating date of previous employment can only be done after the applicant disclosed the name of the company and the contact person. Other than a confirmation of dates and the previous employment, the former employer cannot give any other information to the present employer.

Despite this strict law, there are still ways in which an employer can be sure of with the applicant. As records are still considered a public document, it can never an issue of discrimination and privacy if gathered information is handled legally and fairly.

Original post by Hilda Carlsen - Public Records