Employers Requested Fewer Background Checks

There has been much discussion about the use of credit information and background checks to screen job applicants.  Some states banned the use of credit reports for employment purposes, except for jobs in which it is applicable such as handling money and access to confidential information.  The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) surveyed 544 randomly selected human resource professionals, from their Alexandria, Virginia membership, about their use of criminal background checks and credit checks in the hiring process. Their use of this information has decreased overall.

53 percent of employers surveyed in 2012 did not use credit background checks when hiring, compared to 60 percent who did use them in 2010.

The primary reason 28 percent conducted criminal background checks in 2012 was to comply with state laws, compared to 20 percent in 2010 or a  40 percent increase.

45 percent used credit checks to reduce theft and 22 percent to reduce liability for negligent hiring.

80 percent of employers who use credit checks have hired someone who had negative information on their credit check.

64 percent of employers have taken the candidate’s explanation into consideration when making the hiring decision.

6 percent of employers gave equal weight to all years in their history; the more recent information was the most important.

14 percent of employers did not conduct a criminal background check in 2012, compared to 7 percent in 2010 or a 100 percent increase.  69 percent of employers ran criminal background checks for all positions.

52 percent ran criminal background checks to reduce legal liability and 49 percent did so to ensure workplace safety.

96 percent of respondents would not hire someone with a violent felony and 74 percent would not hire someone who was convicted of a non-violent felony.

58 percent of employers consider the candidate’s side of the story into consideration when evaluating whether or not to hire someone with a felony conviction.

Even though the proportion of employers that conduct credit checks and criminal background checks have gone down in the last two years, 47 percent still conduct them.  They must inform you in writing that they will be conducting the check and get your permission in writing. If you have bad credit or a criminal background, don’t lie about it on your application. If you do, you won’t be hired and or if they find out you lied later, you will be fired.  You need to explain before the check is conducted, you may still have a chance.

Credit Reporting Expert, John Ulzheimer, is the President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com, the credit blogger for Mint.com, and a Contributor for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.  He is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft. Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry.  Follow him on Twitter here.

Categorised in: Credit Report, Employment, Money & Identity

This post was written by John Ulzheimer