Is Your Background Screening Provider a Member of Concerned CRA’s?
Background checks and employment screening services offer an insight into an applicant that enable organization’s to make informed hiring decisions. However, pre-employment screenings are only one component of the hiring cycle. They bring an additional cost to the hiring process.
***Regarding additional hiring costs, Mindflash has put together an infographic based on a Career Builder survey on The Staggering Cost of a Bad Hire
With that being said, organizations are continuously looking to cut costs. Some HR departments have moved to background screening providers that have typically low costs. Some of these providers have chosen to outsource a portion or all of their employment screening services to overseas call centers and suppliers.
What is the problem?
When each employment screens, vendors send individuals’ sensitive information. This includes social security numbers, personal identification data and financial account information to off-shore locations. It puts both the applicants and employers at risk. Consumer protection laws, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), may be lax or non-existent and may not protect U.S. applicants or the employers to the same degree as in the United States.
Why am I not protected?
The United States government has passed strict laws that protect personally identifiable information (PII). Such as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and as stated earlier, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Once these screening services have been outsourced overseas they are no longer under the protection of U.S. privacy laws.
How do I verify that a vendor is not sending personal information overseas?
The most important thing is to question your provider about their practices regarding the outsourcing of screening services to international locations. Another resource is an affiliation of like-minded Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) called the “Concerned CRAs”. This group commits itself to several key principles in the performance of background screening and has policies in place to limit the outsourcing of background screening services. When using an employment screening provider that is a member of the Concerned CRAs, you can be assured that any PII will be kept in the United States and will be protected by both state and federal laws. Justifacts is a self-certified member of the Concerned CRAs.
To learn more about this organization, please visit www.concernedcras.com.
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