Similar to the way a background investigations’ company screens job candidates prior to their hiring, employers should do their own due diligence before choosing a background investigations partner.
One of the key parts of any such assessment is knowing what to look for. A quick internet search will yield hundreds of companies who offer background search services, and differentiating one from the other can be difficult.
Many employers wrongly assume that each company is providing the same basic offering, so they are likely to prioritize pricing or turnaround time as the key factors in their decision.
However, this approach ignores an important, and largely unknown, capability that can make the difference between a valuable partner and one that misses critical information.
Consumer Reporting Agencies
Companies that conduct background screenings are categorized as Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs). When screening current or prospective employees, CRAs typically run a handful of off-the-shelf searches of large, publicly available databases.
Most of these reports look for information such as an individual’s credit history, documentation of any criminal activity, and education verification.
The results from these searches can have a profound influence on the decisions made by an employer, but beware – they may not always tell the whole story or give an accurate portrayal of the candidate.
While it may not happen regularly, it is not uncommon for these types of searches to turn up results for the right name, but the wrong person. Information can be reported inaccurately, or, as we will see below, critical information can be missed altogether.
These scenarios demonstrate the limitations and potential gaps that exist within many conventional CRAs.
Private Investigative Agencies
