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Posts Tagged ‘background check’

Background Checks – A Guided Tour

October 4th, 2009

The majority of people believe that to carry out a background check you should probably hire a private investigator or a security firm. In reality, doing a background check all by yourself is a trouble-free process that requires just a small amount of time and effort on your part. Granted you may not be able to find everything as quickly and easily as a trained professional but if you’re up to the task most anyone can find the information they’re looking for.

Background checks are commonly done in business, human relations, media, education, and even in the selection of day care personnel. In several organizations today background checks coupled with psychological tests and screenings have become an essential element of the recruitment process for higher level jobs. You may opt for a free background check to find out rudimentary information about a live-in caregiver or a nanny but will probably want to conduct a full blown background check on the person you decide to actually hire.

In many areas of employment, it’s company policy to perform a background check in order to avoid potential legal action that may arise in future. Background checks have also become more frequent post the tragic September 11, event. For instance, no organization would want to unintentionally recruit a sales manager who has been earlier proved guilty of an illegal act in some other country.

For many recruitment firms and companies, background checks can be as straight forward as procuring a credit report or additional complicated checks such as thorough confirmation of the applicant’s educational qualifications and work experience and past track record. A complete background check could also involve an investigation by a professional investigator of the addresses where a person resided in the recent past years, interviewing members of the applicant’s family, next-door neighbors, and also past spouses if any.

Many a times, a background check covers scrutinizing recommendations or validating employment and career history; some positions demand an inspection of civil or criminal records, a verification of different professional certifications possessed by that person, and occasionally an assessment of credit history which is vital for job openings in the field of finance or precious commodities.

When a hiring company informs you about a background check to be conducted, it should not be taken in the negative sense that the company doubts your credentials. In the majority of cases, a recruitment manager possibly will not even inform them that they need to do a background check. On the other hand, in a lot of cases it is obligatory on the part of the employers to acquire your consent to obtain specific types of information.

Nearly all recruitment professionals are well aware that all the information needed in a free background check is in the public domain and can be accessed without much trouble. Occasionally, though, employers need to pay a charge to obtain supplementary specific information or appoint external professional organizations to do the checks on their behalf. To confirm that everything is all right in your case, they may acquire a copy of your own credit report, a driving record, and, in case you have been involved in court matters in the past, your legal records.

Normally, free background checks have limitations in the sense that there may not be access available to bankruptcy data, which is older than 10 years, or to other civil matters older than seven years. The type of data obtained through free background checks may also differ according to who is carrying out the checks.

By and large, there is no reason to carry out a background check on yourself unless you’re just curious to know what shows up. But still, you may like to do a free background check on yourself for the purpose of confirming that no errors have been committed in recording your history. Today, even you have the capability, because of the Internet to carry out a free background check on yourself if you are really interested in it. This way, you can confirm that your records are perfectly clean so as to remove any kind of apprehension in your mind, and to make you feel extra confident when attempting to bag a valuable contract or a dream job that you always wished for.

Shawn Background Checks , , ,

Top 3 Tips for Successful Background Checks

September 8th, 2009

Have you ever run a background check on yourself? You’d be surprised at what would come up if you did. If negative information is in there, it could cost you a job, a loan, or a relationship. By performing a background check on yourself, you can fix what’s wrong and be aware of what others are seeing.

There is a countless number of commercials constantly reminding you to check your credit, but you shouldn’t stop there. Private investigators frequently discover that their own clients don’t know what’s in their background check.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to save yourself what could be a big surprise. You can start by putting your own name into a Google search. Type your name inside a set of parentheses and see what happens. If your name is really common or someone famous shares your name with you, you might not get helpful results. Otherwise, you should see results. If you see court documents or records of trials, you should look into them further.

The next thing you can do is look on the judicial website for your city, county and state. Most states have user-friendly online searches you can use from home. In Connecticut, you can search by topic like Family and Civil, Housing, Criminal, Small Claims, etc. Look for yourself in these areas to make sure there aren’t outstanding warrants or lawsuits in which you’ve been named.

Tip number three is to subscribe to a service that actively keeps track of your background. There are a lot of companies who do this for a small fee. Some are good, and some aren’t very reputable. These companies keep track of information for a living. They create databases from all kinds of sources. The price they charge for a subscription is usually well worth not having to do all of that legwork yourself. You can usually subscribe to these services annually.

Remember that even though you can find hundreds of these services–not all of them are great. A bad service won’t have access to a lot of information. They won’t be able to get you much information. Look for companies that offer money-back guarantees. If they’re willing to put their money on the line, they’re more likely to provide a good service. Also look for companies that give you their preliminary results right away and have some sort of telephone number for customer service.

Shawn Background Checks , ,

Background Checks: What Job Applicants & Employees Need To Know

April 14th, 2009

Most any job nowadays, whether it’s a cashier at your local market or a senior executive at a large corporation, will require a background check prior to your employment. Even longtime employees aren’t safe as employers are starting to use background checks as a means to get rid of employees they may longer want or have need of. Most businesses will use an outside company to screen their employees so here are some things employers and applicants should know:

Job Applicants

Check prior background reports. If you’ve ever had a background check performed on you then you’re entitle to a copy of the report. Usually there will be a minimum fee involved of $10 or less but there are a few states that will give them to you for free. Just check with you particular state to find out. You will need to know the name of the firm that performed the background check in order to receive a copy. A previous employer can provide this information to you or if you’re applying for a job you can probably find the needed information on the background check request form.

Know who’s checking your past. As mentioned above, the background check request form should provide the name of the company that’s providing the background check. It should also detail the scope of the checks involved with a list of items being checked which may include criminal records, credit history, driving record, or reference interviews. Depending on the job applied for this could be a very extensive list or a very short list.

Act fast if somethings wrong. If you’re turned down for a job solely based on what’s found on your background report the employer must tell you and they must provide a full copy of the report. If the report is inaccurate and you wish to dispute what was found you should do it quickly. Employers required by law to wait up to 5 days for a dispute. After this time they’re free to hire another applicant for the job. Contact the company that performed the background check and demand in writing and by phone a new background check.

Be sure to check out Background Checks: What Employers Need To Know

Shawn Background Checks , , , ,

Background Check Software

March 9th, 2009

I admit it. Constantly digging for information on the Internet can be tedious and time consuming. Even experienced searchers can get bogged down in the repetitive nature of their searches and lose their focus. That’s why many of us use background check software to help “mine for gold” so to speak.

There are many different services and software packages available that allow anyone to perform their own background checks. Many casual users will be hesitant to use these tools and instead opt for the “free” method of searching. But is it really free? I can guarantee that any free background check will take a lot more time and effort than using background check software or services.

What’s your time worth? That’s what it all boils down to isn’t it? If you factor in the time it takes to do all the manual searching necessary for your own background checks that 30 bucks you could have spent on an instant background report suddenly looks cheap!

Granted not everyone is willing to plunk down 30+ dollars to find out basic information about someone but what if the safety of your family or business depended on the timeliness and accuracy of the background check? Thirty bucks doesn’t seem like such a steep price to pay anymore does it?

For those interested in background check software or services, here’s 3 of the most popular:

  1. Instant Background Report
  2. Public Records Pro
  3. Net Detective

Shawn Background Checks, People Search, Public Records , , ,

Background Check Companies – Choosing The Best One

March 7th, 2009

Finding background check companies that meet your needs may not be as simple as you might imagine. Whether you’re checking out your latest online boyfriend to find out if they have a criminal background or a potential employee for a job you have available you can’t afford to take chances.

A quick Internet search will turn up a ton listings for background checks. Some are free and others are pay services but which one is the right match for you? Many people will want to take the free route but remember: “you get what you pay for”. Sure there are many perfectly legitimate background check companies that offer free resources to help with background checks but at some point you’re probably going to pay something to get the really juicy information.

Ideally you should find a company that can do both national and state searches. If you’re doing a background check on someone then you probably don’t have enough background information about them to narrow down your search to one particular area. Heck the information you do have could be bogus, who knows? So you definitely should make sure you can do both state and national searches.

Many of the online companies will offer services which will return immediate results. That’s great but what if you can’t find what your looking for using their service? Most of the online background check services will offer a refund if no results are returned. Be sure to read the fine print before ordering a background report. You don’t want to get stuck paying for something that doesn’t produce results.

Finally, try to find background check companies that will let you do more than just one background check. There are plenty of them out there that charge by the month, year, or lifetime. Be sure to take full advantage of the service you choose.

Shawn Background Checks, Public Records , , , , , ,

NCIC Criminal Background Checks

February 25th, 2009

NCIC criminal background checks are the only true national background checks that can be done. NCIC stands for the National Crime Information Center and is the name of the  database that federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies use along with other criminal justice agencies.

NCIC criminal background checks assist law enforcement and justice agencies in such tasks as apprehending fugitives, locating missing persons, locating and returning stolen property, as well as in the protection of the law enforcement officers encountering the individuals described in the system.

The data inside the system is kept up to date by the FBI, federal,  state,  local and foreign criminal justice agencies, and authorized courts.

Shawn Background Checks , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Do Absolutely Free Background Checks Exist?

February 19th, 2009

You see the term “free background check” thrown around a lot when you start looking for information on doing your own investigations but do absolutely free background checks really exist? Unfortunately, as disappointing as it may be to hear, if you need more than the basic information that most anyone can get from a phone book then you probably will have to pay something at some point.

It’s possible as individuals to gather much of the same information that any detective or private eye could find. The key is knowing where and how to look for it. Police and P.I.’s have an easier time digging up the dirt on people because they have access to specialized databases and resources that the “Average Joe” just doesn’t have. There are many public record resources out there that are accessible by anyone but there’s still going to be some cost involved in attaining them. Conducting absolutely free background checks is near impossible due to this fact alone.

Public records are deemed records that are available for public viewing, meaning anyone can view or access them. Most would think there would be no cost involved to take a look at the records but 99% of the time they’re wrong! In nearly every case the records will need to be printed out or processed, thus incurring an “administrative fee” for the cost of the paper, ink, employee time, etc… While these fees are usually small, there’s still cost involved. It doesn’t matter if you’re doing the research yourself or if someone else is doing it for you, absolutely free background checks don’t exist.

If you’re willing to do the leg work yourself or only need a couple of pieces of information on your subject then a background check can be done at a reasonable cost by anyone. If you need something quick or very detailed your best bet is to use one of the many services on the Internet that offer complete background checks for a fee.

Shawn Background Checks , , , , ,