Criminal Background Checks in the Hiring Process

 Speaker:

Janette Levey Frisch is the founder of The EmpLAWyerologist Firm, has over 20 years of legal experience, more than 10 of which she has spent in Employment Law

Area Covered

• Why You Should Conduct Criminal Background Checks.

• What is Negligent Hiring/Retention, Cases of Negligent Hiring/Retention

• What is the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)?

• How do you comply with the FCRA?

• Cases involving the FCRA

• Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA)

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) position on criminal background checks

• EEOC’s pre-2012 guidelines

• EEOC’s 2012 Enforcement Guidance

• EEOC Cases

“Ban the Box” Laws

Other considerations (workplace investigation training safety/violence issues, workers’ comp).

Overview:

Most of your employees are likely to be honest, reliable employees. At the same time, hiring employees always involves at least some risk. Are they honest? Are they reliable? Are you, your employees and the public safe if you hire them? Hopefully your worst hire was simply someone who underperformed or wasn’t a match for your company. What if it’s worse, though? What if an employee unfortunately becomes violent with co-workers or unsuspecting members of the public, or steals from you or others? You can then be liable for negligent hiring or retention of those employees if a criminal background check would have revealed this information. On the other hand, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and many of their state and local counterparts are scrutinizing if, how and when you may conduct and use information you obtain from criminal background checks in the hiring process

Why should you attend

Background checks, used correctly, are an invaluable tool for ensuring a safe, reliable workforce –and avoiding negligent hiring liability. At the same time, the use of criminal background checks in the hiring process is creating an increasing exposure to liability. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is aggressively pursuing this issue to ensure the practice does not have a disparate impact on minority applicants. Plaintiffs' class action attorneys are pursuing employers nationwide for failing to conform their background check process with the dictates and protections of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

Who will Benefit

• Hiring Managers

• HR Executives

• Risk Managers

• HR Supervisors

• Business Owners

• General Managers

• Human Resource Managers / Administration

• Office Managers

• Compliance Officers

• Safety Officers

• Recruiters

This activity has been approved for 1 HR (General) recertification credit hours toward aPHR, PHR, PHRca, SPHR, GPHR, PHRi and SPHRi recertification through HR webinar Institute (HRCI).