Background Checks

Newly proposed bill targets credit checks in hiring

10/06/2025

Employers increasingly face scrutiny over the use of credit history in hiring—a practice critics argue has little to do with job performance but a lot to do with discrimination. A new proposal in Congress seeks to change that.

Smarter hiring starts with these steps

10/06/2025

Hiring decisions are among the most consequential choices an organization makes. A single mistake can ripple across productivity, morale and even legal compliance.

What to do if you revoked job offer because of erroneous background check

01/13/2025

You probably rely on an outside vendor to run background checks on job applicants. They usually deliver accurate reports that weed out candidates with disqualifying criminal histories—but not always. What should employers do when they discover such a mistake?

Here come the new state employment laws for 2025

12/06/2024

States are emerging as prime sources of new employment-related laws. Here is a sampling of new laws scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025, or soon after.

Employers beware: Negligent hiring concepts still apply

11/13/2024

The concept of negligent hiring—and employers having to pay for the damage that may result—predates modern employment laws. It is based on the legal concept that employers are liable for illegal or negligent acts their employees commit if the employer knew or should have known that hiring the person would put others at risk.

Follow best practices for criminal-conviction screening

05/31/2024

You could wind up facing a discrimination lawsuit even if you had no intention of discriminating against anyone for any reason. How? By using a seemingly neutral and reasonable pre-interview screening question that has a disparate impact on a protected class.

4 metrics for measuring background-screening efficiency

02/21/2024

At least 94% of employers perform some kind of background screening on job applicants before they hire. That doesn’t mean all those checks were conducted efficiently. Let’s look at four metrics that companies can use to measure the performance of their background-screening providers.

$4.35 million lesson: Ensure safety of teenage workers

02/20/2024

Many teens as young as 14 work fast-food and retail jobs. They’re often not aware of their rights in the workplace, what constitutes harassment and where they can turn if they are harassed—or worse.

Case of the Week: Blanket criminal history ban costs employer $2.7 million

03/30/2023

The EEOC has long taken the position that automatically barring those with criminal records from employment may disparately impact certain protected classes and therefore amount to race or national origin discrimination under Title VII. The agency says employers should evaluate each applicant’s record and assess whether the conviction is job related and a hiring ban is for a justifiable business reason.

Would you hire someone with a criminal conviction?

11/22/2022

The City Council of Atlanta amended its antidiscrimination ordinance to include protections for “criminal history status” and “gender expression.” The ordinance is effective immediately.