Here is a checklist of items to help employers safeguard the workplace and follow the law!
The 3 P’s
The 3 P’s should be viewed as living documents to be updated as requirements change, or laws affecting tenant selection are updated or amended.
Policy – A policy is a general statement of a principle according to which an organization performs business functions. An organization does not need to maintain policies in order to operate. However, practices and procedures that exist without the underpinnings of a consistent policy are continually in jeopardy of being changed for the wrong reasons, with unintended legal consequences.
Practice – A practice is a general statement of the way the organization implements a policy. Good practices support policy.
Procedure – A procedure documents an established practice. Use of forms is one of the useful ways procedures are documented. For an organization that has a practice of checking past court records for criminal records, the procedures would be the documentation on how it is done, as well as the documents showing it was done.
Role-related risks.
How one company defines risk may be completely different from another. It’s useful to breakdown risks by category. To give each category a clear rating system on the spectrum of low-risk to high-risk, companies may want to develop a score system that ranks each category according to severity of risk. Then you can take those risks and look at them against a particular role. Think about that role’s supervision, public access and visibility to the outside world. By way of example, your senior management team is likely to be scrutinized more closely than an entry-level position with a high degree of supervision and no direct public access.
Whats Positive vs What’s Negative?
Companies that have successfully balanced background screening and risk management are those that take the time to truly understand and define the difference between acceptable and unacceptable results.
Once you have a background report in-hand, you should be able to quickly evaluate the results against pre-set criteria to develop an objective “final score” that is derived from the background check results, the risk tolerance of the organization, and the role-related risk.
Consistency
Consistency can be achieved by following your policies and procedures on every applicant or employee. This will ensure compliance with the FCRA.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/human-resources-articles/how-to-perform-the-background-screening-balancing-act-4184138.html#ixzz1DPUoAkyn
