Many employers feel that requesting a date of birth from an applicant or candidate can be a particularly touchy situation. If you get it and don’t hire someone, are you in violation of any EEOC laws? Can you be charged with age discrimination by this candidate? Why do you even need the date of birth?

There are several reasons that a date of birth is required for background screening. Criminal courts do not file records by social security number. The identifiers on a court index are the full name and the date of birth. If you are trying to verify a high school diploma, the high school will have records by full name attended under and date of birth. Many colleges are now redacting social security numbers on records and going back to name and date of birth for identifiers.

Even with this information, some employers are still uncomfortable with the idea of requesting a date of birth from their candidates. If you are in this situation, talk with your background screening company. Many have hotlines set up that an applicant can call in on an 800 number and leave the information with the background screener. The employer need never has access to the date of birth until a job offer has been made.

BackTrack, Inc