In this episode of “Bella In Your Business”, Bella is joined by Jason Waggoner, Vice President of Acutraq Background Screening. They discuss background checks and how important it is to get the right kind of background check when hiring an employee.
Jason starts off by explaining background checks and why using the quick, inexpensive background checks are ineffective. He emphasizes that these are good tools and a nice place to start but not reliable enough to base your decisions on, as affecting a person’s well being (by hiring or not hiring someone) based on inaccurate information can lead to costly lawsuits.
Jason explains how good professional background check companies like his follow up on hits from “multi-state” databases with checks in the local county for that given hit. This ensures that you have the most up-to-date record from the most accurate source.
Jason also covers the background check application you give to potential employees. There are strict Federal guidelines (via the Federal Credit Reporting Act) on how that information is presented and what information must be included to ensure that applicants know exactly what they are agreeing to and how it will be used. He cautions that failure to do so can be costly as some lawyers have been known to search websites, find non-compliant applications, and attempt to organize class-action suits against the company.
If you would like to contact Jason at ACUTRAQ, he can be reached at 281-727-0019 or at an email address which is mentioned in the podcast.
Transcript:
Welcome to Bella in Your Business where Bella will discuss anything and everything about your pet sitting business to help you land on target. So get ready, Bella’s got your chute. Let’s jump. Welcome everybody. This is Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting and this is Bella in Your Business, a podcast for anyone in the pet industry to help inspire, motivate, and challenge you. Today I have Jason online from Acrobatics.com. Your track—it always is a tongue twister for me. Jason, welcome to the show.
Jason: Thank you for having me.
Bella: Of course. You know, we’ve known each other for a couple years now or so. I actually had to look back and it’s been since 2013.
Jason: No way.
Bella: Sarah Bear introduced me to you.
Jason: For sure.
Bella: The rest has been history. That’s so awesome. And you’ve been so great to our whole industry, really helping to provide education. You’ve helped write a couple of blogs for me, and now I’m so glad to have you on the show today. I titled it, “How to do a pet sitting background check without getting sued.” But in order to understand the answer to that question, I think we have to kind of break it down to what actually a background check is, right?
Jason: Correct. Yeah, background checks are really becoming so much a part of everyday life that I think people don’t really think about where they come from, how the information is stored, and really all the different places there are to get this information.
Bella: So why can’t I just go online, Jason, and do my $9.99 Intellus background check for my newest employee and consider it done?
Jason: That’s one of the big misconceptions. People think, “I’ve seen these searches online. I can just jump on there and pay a quick fee.” We’ve even seen some that charge a yearly fee, so they might charge you $49.95 and let you run an unlimited amount of searches. These are all good tools. So if this is just a tool that you’re using, and you’re not basing your decision off of these databases, then they’re a great place to start. Where these can get people in trouble is those records are not always accurate. We work with a lot of different fields. In the tenant screening realm, these databases are looked at as okay—the landlords, that’s all they have to do. But when we’re talking employment screening, screening a person before they’re actually hired into your company, that’s where it gets a little more stringent. We have to make sure that those records are accurate before you truly affect that person’s wellbeing. This is a job that could pay their bills and help feed their family, and now you’re deciding whether you’re going to hire them or not hire them based on this criminal record. So it better be accurate, because if it’s not, that applicant’s gonna get upset and could go through the proper motions. There have even been cases where people are sued over things like this because of the negligence in reporting accurate records and then they miss the job.
Bella: Wow, that’s crazy. And who else to trust other than you who are in this business? So if I meet someone and I have an awesome interview and I have a good gut feeling about them, is that enough? Why should I do a background check? Should I do one on everybody?
Jason: The gut feeling is something we hear a lot. We hear it all across the board. I’ll share a little story with you. This actually happened last week. One of my clients—they’re my client now—before, we know a lot of people through our associations, and so people constantly say, “Well, I’m going to get with you on this. We’ve got something in place.” This company in particular was running one of those $10 searches online. The employee that they hired showed to not have any criminal history. Well, this person, unknown to them, had previous burglary charges. And this was a female whose character seemed up to par. They’re going in and out of people’s homes. It’s a service-driven profession. Anyway, this person was taking credit card payments and had one of those devices that would snag people’s credit card numbers—everything they needed. They don’t know exactly how long it went on, but she approached one of the other employees and said, “Hey, here’s what I’m doing, check this out.” Luckily that person went and told the owner, “There’s somebody doing something really not good here.” We ran the background through the county that person lived in, and just that alone showed this burglary charge that, had they run it properly—not just using the national databases where records aren’t updated—they would have known right away not to hire that person.
Now, those records will show up on the big national databases, but you just always have to go back to the county to make sure that it’s accurate, to make sure that it wasn’t just an arrest, to make sure that person was actually convicted. If we got mad at each other, we could call the cops on each other and have one another arrested. That doesn’t mean that we did anything that should hinder us from getting a job. We want to look for the conviction; we want to look for the accuracy of those records. And that’s where a lot of people get in trouble—they think they can just jump online, hit that search, hope it’s clear, and hire them. There are procedures laid out, mainly by the federal government, of how background checks are supposed to be used, and accuracy is the biggest guideline.
Bella: Wow, that’s incredible. All right, obviously they fired this person.
Jason: Yeah, they’re in legal, going through all those motions right now. It’s been a mess, but it won’t ever happen again. We always try to educate people before something like that happens.
Bella: Don’t learn the hard way, right?
Jason: Exactly. They may even get in some trouble for hiring this person based on that kind of search. In the courts, it’s not looked at as a search to be used in your hiring decision. It can be a tool, but if that’s all you’re basing your decision on, they can come back and say, “Okay, you could have done more.”
Bella: So it sounds like there’s a difference between a tool and something that’s actually credible and protecting your assets. So all background checks aren’t considered equal?
Jason: That’s exactly right. A good tool, as a background screening provider, is something we use to complement county-level searches. For instance, you get a new applicant who looks great—you want to offer the position and then do the background check. But what if this person has lived all over the country? For budget reasons, you literally cannot go and run every county—they could have lived in many. We have companies that do that, but their average background checks run $200–$300. For budget reasons, there has to be something in place so that you don’t have to go to every county and wait two to three days for results. So what companies have done is scrape records from county courthouses, state records, Departments of Corrections, and other sources, putting them into a massive database—often called “national” or “multi-state.” They’re helpful but not always current or complete.
So say someone lived in Texas but committed an offense while vacationing in Florida—you might never find that without a large multi-state search. These databases give reach but must be verified. Once we find something, we as the CRA (Consumer Reporting Agency) must go to that Florida county to verify the record—was it expunged, sealed, or still active? That verification is what makes a proper background check.
Bella: That’s amazing. Talk to me about the difference between me putting on an application, “Can I do a background check?” as opposed to this three-page document you had me send to these people. Why so many papers?
Jason: Great question. The biggest thing with the federal guidelines is that applicants must understand and know exactly what they’re signing off on. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) lays this out—it actually covers both credit and criminal background checks. You must disclose to the person what you’re doing, through a clear disclosure and authorization. Everything must be stored properly, including IP address and date, so if a dispute arises, you can prove consent.
Bella: And that’s a loophole lawyers could use against an employer?
Jason: Exactly. There are compliance requirements from the FCRA, FTC, and EEOC. If a lawyer finds your disclosure is embedded within an application instead of separate and “clear and conspicuous,” that could become a class-action lawsuit. Big companies like Target can pay fines and move on; smaller companies might not recover.
Bella: They didn’t teach you this in Business 101! I could talk about this all day, but I know people can call you for more info. How can they reach you?
Jason: The best way is [email protected]—that’s A-C-U-T-R-A-Q.com. You can also call 281-727-0019, the direct line to my office.
Bella: Jason, thank you so much for being here for this awesome episode of Bella in Your Business, a podcast by me, Bella Vasta with Jump Consulting, for anyone in the pet industry. Tune in on iTunes or Stitcher—just search “Bella in Your Business.” If you have an iPhone, hit subscribe to get new episodes automatically. Thanks again for listening, and everyone, or as Jason would say, y’all have a great day.
Thanks for jumping with Bella in Your Business. For more information, free articles, free coaching sessions, and more, go to JumpConsulting.net. And remember, Bella’s got your chute.