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Background Checks

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.

Screen your background screener

11/17/2022
Not all background-screening providers are created equal. An employer must confirm their methods and information sources to avoid potentially expensive legal liability if a shoddy background check leads to trouble in the workplace.

Cybervetting: Is it legal?

09/22/2022
Savvy recruiters are increasingly looking for digital footprints to vet prospective candidates. Is it legal?

Support grows for hiring staff with criminal record

11/18/2021
More than two-thirds of 1,100 people surveyed said they’d be comfortable working for an employer if a few of their co-workers had a nonviolent criminal record.