Pre-employment background checks are not infallible, here’s what you need to know

Background checks are an unavoidable hurdle for countless job applicants as they navigate the often long-winded and intricate process of securing employment. Whether or not a background check will represent a roadblock impeding where you want your career to go depends on, well, your personal background. While it’s tough to escape the truth in any area of life and work, no qualified candidate should miss out on a lucrative job opportunity due to inaccurate, flat-out wrong background check results.

As preposterous as the notion may sound, troubling recent scientific research tells us commercial background checks return faulty information on a more frequent basis than most would assume. Let’s take a look at the study’s findings, as well as touch on a few suggestions on how to handle a faulty background check if it happens to you.

What is a background check?

To start, let’s go over the concept of a background check in general. Employers, landlords, and schools are known to perform background checks on candidates in order to get a better sense of the individual in question. More specifically, the primary aim of most background checks is to identify and call attention to any and all “red flags,” so to speak, from the person’s past.

When it comes to pre-employment background checks, both Federal and State (depending on where you live) laws dictate what employers can and can’t ask about. First and foremost, you always have the right to decline a background check; employers can’t order a background check without the prospective employee’s permission. Of course, keep in mind saying no probably means you will no longer be considered for the position. 

Background check basics

Additionally, while a typical background check covers earlier jobs, criminal, public, and educational records, as well as financial or credit history, employers can not include medical information in a background check prior to offering a job. However, in certain scenarios employers can inquire regarding medical matters after offering the job, or after the employee has already started working. It’s always a good idea to check the specific laws in your local state pertaining to what can and cannot be included in a background check, and at what point in the hiring process. 

In the event that a detail uncovered in a background check motivates an employer to deny an individual either employment in the first place, or a promotion, that organization is legally obligated to provide said individual with the background reporting company’s name, address, and contact information. Rejected candidates on this basis are also legally entitled to a full copy of the background check and a “Summary of Rights” according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Perhaps most importantly, it’s imperative for all job seekers to know that they always have the right to dispute inaccurate or incomplete information in their background check with the company that prepared the report.

Background checks aren’t always accurate 

So, just how common are inaccurate background check results? Shocking research recently published in the scientific journal Criminology reports the commercial background check companies routinely hired by employers to conduct these investigations face little to no oversight, and return faulty information on a troublingly frequent basis.

Study authors explain such faulty findings can work both ways. Ex-cons with criminal records and felony convictions may fall through the screening cracks (false-negative results), while other candidates with no such encounters with the law at all may be flagged for legal offenses they never actually committed (false-positive results). 

Via access to legitimate criminal records (arrests, charges, etc), the research team assessed the criminal backgrounds of 101 individuals from New Jersey, and then ordered two types of background checks for each person (one commercial company, and an unregulated data providing ‘people search’ website). The ensuing results were nothing short of astounding. Over half of all included individuals showed at least one false-positive error on both background reports. Meanwhile, 90% had at least one false-negative mistake.

“These companies and platforms are linking records together based on names, aliases and birth dates rather than fingerprints, which is what the police use to match people to records,” explains Assistant Professor Robert Stewart of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland in a press release. “So these companies end up lumping people together who are not the same person.”

What to do if your background check is inaccurate 

As touched on earlier, if you believe you’ve wrongfully been passed over for a great career opportunity due to a faulty background check, it’s well within your rights to get in touch with the reporting company and get the mistake corrected. Once properly revised, you can ask the background check company to send the updated, correct version to the employer.

To start, sit down and thoroughly read through the background report you believe contains inaccurate data. Identify any and all incorrect pieces of information, and then determine the best means of getting those mistakes corrected. In some cases, the fault will fall on the background screening company itself. For example, noting a prior arrest but failing to add that the incident never resulted in any charges being filed, or a single misdemeanor accidently being listed multiple times.

In many other instances, however, the background screening company is simply reporting inaccurate information provided elsewhere. Depending on the specific subject matter of the error, you may need to contact any number of governmental, educational, or private institutions to get everything straightened out. Examples include prior employers, military matters, the DMV, and credit records.

The key takeaway here is to be proactive. If background check after background check is unfairly sullying your good name in the eyes of employers, it’s up to you to fix those discrepancies and ensure your next background check accurately recounts your relevant personal and professional details.