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When hiring an employee, business owners want to be certain that the potential hire is a responsible, hard-working person. Of course, there is only so much you can figure out about a person from a couple interviews. Further, there are only so many interviews you can make a prospect participate in before they start expecting an offer. Thankfully, there are other means to learn about prospective job candidates. If you want to find out more about employees before you hire them, getting a consumer report can help. Find out what consumer reports are in the human resources field and how they can benefit your business’ hiring process and training plan in this post.
What Is A Consumer Report?
A consumer report is any communication from a consumer reporting agency that informs employers about the backgrounds of potential hires. These consumer reports include information employee prospects’ credit worthiness, mode of living and more. The information enclosed in these potential hire reports is similar to the information found in a typical credit check. Clearly, this is sensitive data to have on potential hires that cannot be sussed out with the typical interview questions. But, it is also incredibly insightful. That is why so many businesses use consumer reports for hiring processes.
FCRA Compliance
Of course, when you choose to use consumer reporting for hiring decisions, you need to be concerned about FCRA compliance. The FCRA is the Fair Credit Reporting Act. It was implemented to protect consumers from potentially damaging or inaccurate information. Thus, it impacts the ways in which you can use consumer credit reports to make hiring decisions. If you are a business owner planning to check consumer reports as part of your hiring process, you absolutely must learn up on employer responsibilities in regards to FCRA compliance.
Written Permission
One of the employer requirements set forth by the FCRA is that you must seek written permission to perform a credit check on potential hires. As an employer, if you seek any type of consumer reports out on an interviewee, whether it is a criminal background check or a credit check, you need to get permission. Otherwise, obtaining these public documents to inform hiring decisions is illegal and non-compliant. If you want to check potential hires credit history and criminal background, make sure to create a standard permission document to use and reuse with interviewees. It will ensure business compliance and streamline the background and credit check hiring process.
Notifying Candidates
The most important stipulation set forth for employers in the Fair Credit Reporting Act is that they must notify individuals if their consumer report contributes to an unfavorable hiring decision. That means that you can indeed base your hiring decisions on whether or not a job candidate has a good credit score. But, you must inform them if their poor credit score is the reason for being passed over. Of course, you can also inform them that their credit history was just one small component of your decision to pursue other other candidates if you should choose. This meets those requirements as well. Just be sure to notify candidates you decide not to pursue that their credit report contributed to your hiring decisions.
Included Information
Consumer reports may also include supplemental information beyond individual credit scores. A consumer report will also include information about potential hires’ driving records. This is invaluable information for employers hiring drivers in particular. It is also a great way to determine prospective employees’ sense of responsibility, maturity and safety. This information will no doubt help you get a better idea of who a job candidate is as a person. That way, you can find the best employees to hire for your business. Consumer reporting solutions will provide you all the information you need to make the most informed hiring decisions possible, including a candidate’s driving record.
Business owners who hire their own employees are tasked with a great responsibility without much human resources expertise. That makes it difficult to identify the best candidates to fill job openings and stay with your company for years to come. Thankfully, there are a number of ways to find out as much as you can about potential job candidates. If you want to know what to bring to an interview to really get to know the individuals you are interviewing, consumer reports are one such tool. Use a consumer report to determine whether or not to hire someone. Just make sure you use this post to help you learn all about consumer reports for hiring employees. That way, you can ensure your business maintains compliance and still finds the absolute best person for the job every single time.
