With background screening becoming common place in many areas, the need for accurate and timely information becomes paramount.  Background checks including criminal history checks are a part of many background screening areas including employment screening, tenant screening and volunteer screening.  The key factor in each background screening sector is risk mitigation and to protect at-risk populations like children and the elderly.  Recently Melissa Sorenson, executive director of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) said, “Screening was uncommon for employers 30 years ago, but popularity of background checks has risen significantly in the last 15 years”.  She went on to say that “the Internet is a big factor, along with amount and availability of information, decreased costs of screenings and a rising desire among employers for risk mitigation”.  It is clear that risk mitigation is a huge reason for the increased use of background screening, but also very high on the list is to protect at-risk populations.  Criminal history checks help to weed out potentially dangerous people, people that could harm or take advantage of the vulnerable people in our society which would include children, the elderly and the disabled.  However, employers want to mitigate risk by avoiding bad employees and to avoid litigation like negligent hiring lawsuits.  Additionally about half of companies also say they perform background checks to maintain a safe working environment for their employees.

Now that background screening is common place the next big hurdle is providing accurate and timely background reports to sectors like employment screening.  There are many companies and organizations and ways of getting background check data.  However, it is critical to use a professional third party background screening company to work with to help get the background information needed to make a well informed decision either for hiring, renting or to fill that open volunteer position.  Third party professional background screening companies are up to date on background screening laws and take great care of the quality of the data they provide.  These firms can also get the background reports requested back to their customers in a timely fashion.  Whether the need for background reports is for employment screening or tenant screening, one fact remains the same, the reports have to be accurate, thorough, up to date and timely.

To read more about this subject read recent CriminalBackgroundRecords.com press release.