Many companies don't do background screening on new or current employees. Their reasons are endless, but probably one of the reasons that concerns us the most is where they say "we always hire through a temporary agency and they do the background screening before placing someone in our organization". We hear story after story from companies that say their newest contract worker has had recent felony convictions or other problems.

Staffing companies are contracted to provide you with personnel as you call for them. This could mean that you need someone on short notice for short term employment, or you are bringing in someone for a 90 day trial period prior to permanent placement. If you have not communicated to your staffing company what your expectations are for their screening employees, they are going to do what they have to do within time limits and budget constraints. Be aware that a large number of staffing agencies conduct a search of a national criminal database. While this is a good starting point, the information provided is very limited. This search is also usually only conducted under the current name of the job candidate. At minimum, the majority of background screening agencies recommend that you conduct a social security number trace and a county criminal records search in all counties where the applicant has lived in the last 7 years.

The national criminal database is a great addendum to your search in that it will search the national sex offender information database, and will provide you with some information from various states across the country.

It is recommended that these searches be conducted under all names, not just the current name. "Sue Jones" may not have any criminal record but she has been married six months. Prior to that she went by "Sue Smith" and you need to check that name as well.

The most important thing that you can do as a hiring manager or human resource manager is to communicate with your staffing agency or employment contractor. Let them know what your minimum expectation is before you bring their people in to your company. Providing them with a written policy on your expectations is also a very good idea. You can outline what you want as a basic background check, and can even provide individual policies based on the position that the contractor or temporary will be filling (ei - factory worker, accountant, IT, etc).

Keep in mind that with the negligent hiring law suits going on, you are not exempt if a temporary or contract employee causes problems. You can be named in the law suit as well and found to be negligent - particularly if you haven't communicated with your staffing agency what your standards are for hiring.