Inquest Pre Employment Screening - Best Practices for Employee Screening and Employee Background Checks

Inquest Pre Employment Screening is a leader in employee screening because we are dedicated to exceeding industry standards.

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Best Practices in Screening

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Companies in the pre employment screening industry utilize a wide range of sources to perform employee background checks. Not all of these sources are equally accurate and comprehensive. Inquest Pre Employment Screening provides Quality Information to our clients by utilizing industry best practices. We perform County-level criminal records research which results in a more up-to-date and comprehensive employee background check. Inquest can search these "other sources" as well, but we recommend that they be used only as a supplement to County-level Searches.

Inquest's Standard Procedure for Criminal Background Checks

FCRA Compliance
It is important that your company's screening procedures comply with Federal and State regualtions. Consequently, Inquest provides our clients with all of the forms and information necessary to ensure that they are in compliance with the FCRA and similar State laws. For a small fee, Inquest can also handle FCRA Compliant Reporting and the FCRA Adverse Action Process.

Social Security Track – Address History
There are over 3,000 County Courts in the United States. In order to narrow the scope of an employee background check, it is necessary to ascertain the address history of the candidate. Using the information provided by the applicant is one way to gather this information. However, candidates with a criminal record will often omit addresses (and other names used) that they know will lead to derogatory information. Utilizing a Social Security Track can bypass these applicant omissions by:

• Revealing additional names associate with the SSN
• Revealing current and previous residential addresses
• Validating SSN by providing state and date of issue

County Level Criminal Background Check
Subsequent to the Social Security Track, Inquest performs a County Court records search for any Felony and/or Misdemeanor convictions within the last 7 years for all of the relevant Counties and names that show up on the Social Security Track. These searches are conducted via hands-on research and/or direct access to court records. Through our carefully scrutinized network of court researchers, we have the capability to search every County in the Unites States.

Additional Recommendations
In addition to criminal screening, there are also a number of other standard options in employee screening that can provide useful background information on a candidate.

• Education Verification
This check verifies educational institution, start date, end date, major, degree and G.P.A.

• Employment Verification
This report includes start date, end date, position, ending salary, supervisor's reason for leaving and eligibility for rehire.

• Credit Report
This report assists in determining an applicant's responsibility level. It can also alert you to financial situations that may have an impact on the applicant's ethics.

• Motor Vehicle Report
This report warns you about DUI charges and potential substance abuse problems. DMV reports are essential for applicants seeking motor vehicle driving positions.

Other Resources
Inquest offers many other employee screening services that can also be useful:

• Federal Criminal Search
• Federal Civil Search
• County Civil Search
• National/Multi-State Criminal Database Search
• Nationwide Wants and Warrants Search
• Statewide Criminal Search
• International Terrorist Search
• Professional Reference
• Worker’s Comp Background Report
• Business Credit Report
• Fictitious Business Name Search
• National Bankruptcy Index
• Social Security Verification
• Professional Medical License Verification
• UCC Filings

What Are Other Pre Employment Screening Companies Searching
Companies in the pre employment screening industry utilize a wide range of sources in performing employee background checks. Not all of these sources are equally accurate and comprehensive. Below are the most common sources:

1. Criminal Court Records - Felonies
2. Criminal Court Records - Misdemeanors
3. Corrections Records
4. State Criminal Repository Records
5. Aggregated Databases

Many companies use Aggregated Databases, Corrections Records, and Statewide Repository Records as the primary sources of criminal history. These sources can often be accessed instantly and cast a “wide net” geographically. However, the data is often incomplete, irrelevant, and/or out-dated.

Some Screening companies claim to be performing comprehensive county-level searches, while in reality they are only searching for Felonies.

What are Misdemeanors? Why Are They Important? Misdemeanors are generally those offenses that can result in fines of less than $1000 or jail terms of less than one year in a county facility. They include serious offenses such as:

• Petty Theft and Grand Theft
• Assault
• Domestic Abuse
• Under the Influence of Narcotics

Inquest's County-level background checks typically include a search for Misdemeanors. Please review our Scope of Search to see what we search for in any given location.

If you are interested in finding out more about Inquest, please Contact Us or fill out our Quote Request Form. Subsequently, an Inquest representative will contact you by email or phone (whichever you prefer) with a volume-based price quote and more information about our employee screening services.