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Potential Risks of Background Checks

Background checks provide a wealth of information about an employee to the employer, but there are a few loopholes in the process that could potentially harm a candidate’s chances of securing a position with a company. If you are wondering how well privacy laws protect you from the vast number of possible background checks that can be done on you by a potential employer, consider these two very possible risks that you face.

What Information They Get

Federal law prohibits third party, consumer reporting agencies from providing the wrong information about you to the employer that has hired them to do a background check on you. This information includes things like your past records of bankruptcy, civil judgments as well as other judgments filed against you. But, if the employer does not farm out this task to a third party company, they can obtain it on their own. With the use of the internet being widely available to most employers, and the ability to obtain any of this information on their own, employers can access any and all of this information on their own, by simply searching through public records on you.

What They Say

Another risk that you have happens when you are no longer an applicant for the position. For example, if you apply for a position and the employer informs you that you did not get the position because there were other, more qualified candidates, you may think nothing of it. But, if the employer has found negative information about you, even if it is information they legally can not use to determine if you are accepted or not, they can be swayed by it.

Unfortunately, in cases like these, you wouldn’t get a copy of the background check or even realize that was the reason that you were not accepted for the position. Therefore, you could go years and through many interviews feeling like you are an acceptable candidate for the position only to find out that you didn’t get it, again. A potential error on yoru background check could be costing you the position and you would never know it was there. In cases like this, it is increasingly important for you to be well away of the things that are listed against you in background checks. By having your own background checks done, you can potentially safeguard your future and your employment opportunities.