How long does a background check take?

Background screening is an essential part of any employment process. Those who are in the human resource profession, know that background checking is considered to be the final step towards any employment process. Background checking does not mean that employers don't trust their employees. Rather background checking ensures that the employers succeed in making a firm hiring decision. Without background checking, it is not easy to ensure the right potentiality of a candidate. Also, background checks ensure that the organizations' interests are protected.  

Background Check Importance

There are various reasons for which a company goes to the extent of performing a thorough background screening. Here is a list of reasons for which background checking becomes important for an employer. 

• Competency Check – Often, background checking becomes the only way to ensure that a candidate is making a valid claim about their experience. Because of the scarcity of the desired position, candidates might be tempted to overstate their experience or educational history. In this case, a thorough background check becomes the only way to ensure the proper competency of a candidate. 
• Workplace Safety: Negligence hiring can be a big issue in a workplace. The employers become responsible for their employees, and if they end up hiring someone with dubious background, they may face legal charges. To prevent such events, employers for background screening. 
• Theft: Now, this can be a serious issue. Employers need to ensure that the workplace is safe for the employees and their belongings. To prevent workplace theft, they need to hire candidates with a clean background. Without a thorough checking, the recruiters will not be able to ensure workplace security.
  

Different Types Of Background Checks 

Background screening is a complicated process. Even though everyone wants a quick result, recruiters go through many stages to extract information about a potential candidate. The multi-level checking process sometimes causes a delay in background checking. A detailed background verification encompasses the entire background of a candidate. From criminal records to employment verification, everything comes under the umbrella of a detailed screening process. 

Criminal Background Checking

For some organizations, the term background verification denotes criminal background checking. The criminal background check is one of the most important types of the background verification process. Therefore, most of the time, when someone asks how long it takes for a BGV company to perform a background verification check, they want to know about criminal background verification. 

Some factors play essential roles here. First, the time depends on how many stages of criminal record verification are involved in the background screening. Second, the type of criminal reports that get ordered plays a major role here. Time taken for background verification may extend if an international search is involved. Therefore, one needs to know that different steps play a key role in determining the background screening time. 

Driving Records Checking

It may seem like an easy record to obtain. However, to get a motor vehicle record, one needs to wait for at least 3 days. The time duration depends on the state where the candidate resides. Different states deal differently with record checking. Some states stake weeks to release a vehicle report. Therefore, the state becomes a determining factor in this case. 

Credit History Checking

Sometimes this check does not take a lot of time to process. However, as per the law, an organization needs to become an end-user of the Consumer Credit Report to get this record. In case, the company does not have the approval, it needs to apply for the process to order the report. Usually, it takes around 14 days for a company to get approval to order the credit history report. 

Civil Court Searching

Here the time duration depends on the type of court one is dealing with. A county court may take longer to process a background screening report, while a federal court may process it instantly. Usually, a federal court processes the report within a couple of days. The civil court takes 5 to 7 days to process the same report.  

Federal Background Checking

This background verification process is designed to make sure that the candidates are trustworthy. Federal checking ensures that the companies get to hire only reliable candidates. To obtain this report, an organization needs to go through a screening process itself. Once an organization passes a federal employment background check, it can order the federal background report of an individual. The duration of the process gets determined by the depth of information an organization needs. However, all the positions in the government do not require a federal background screening. The need for federal background checking arises only when the position requires dealing with sensitive government data. The screening process includes several interview sessions with immediate family members, neighbors, and roommates. 

Verification Check

This stage verifies the claims made in the resumes by the candidates. Verification checks are done to verify all the details of the job seekers. These checks include several stages.

Employment history is one of the key factors in background screening. It encompasses past job history, claimed job titles, and employment duration. The checking process also includes candidates' reasons for quitting the job. 

Education record comes second in the list. It includes the degree status, graduation result, and university attendance. 

Professional certificates and licenses are important records of a candidate. Therefore, these also come under screening. It becomes important to check whether the certificates submitted by the candidates are genuine or not. Also, companies attempt to find whether the certificates are valid or not. 

Although it seems like a complicated process, verification checks do not take more than 3 days for a skilled background check company. 

Bankruptcy Checking

A bankruptcy record is easy to obtain. Usually, it takes around 2 days for a background verification company to get a bankruptcy report. 

What Causes Employment Background Check Delays

Duration of employment background checks depends on some probable factors. The background verification team tries to wrap up the verification process as early as possible. However, no one can deny that unforeseen causes play big roles sometimes. These can create delays in the BGV process. 

Weekends are the most common causes of background verification delays. Those who ask for a background check before a weekend, usually get it late. In this case, the weekend will add to the duration of the checking process. 

The closure is another unforeseen event that causes delays. Some institutes, courts, or organizations remain close for some time or work with a minimum number of employees. These are cases that cause delays in background screening because report generating becomes a difficult task with a reduced number of employees.  

Additional stages can add to the duration of the screening process. In case, an employer needs some additional information about a particular candidate, the length of the checking process becomes longer. Steps such as multi-jurisdictional records create delays in any background verification process. Therefore, one must take into account the need for additional information when calculating the duration of the background verification process.  

Need For The Right Background Check Company

There is no doubt that a detailed background screening process adds value to an organization. However, some companies don't understand the need to obtain a thorough candidate report. Yet, it becomes essential for a company to ensure a verified background screening process. For this reason, outsourcing the BGV process becomes necessary. There are several reasons for which a company should hire a professional for this task.

Professionals Are Experts

There are many reasons for which the professionals are still in the market. A simple online search will not be able to extract more than some social media posts. To get legal records, one needs to know which string to pull. Here comes the need to have the experts' assistance. They have their networking and contacts. It is easy for them to order the required records to run a verification check on a person. 

Cost Saving

Cost is another reason for which companies hire professionals for background screening. Hiring a professional service provider is much cheaper than going for individual background checks. If a company conducts individual background checks, it will have to spend more money on the screening process. Instead, hiring a professional service provider will save a lot of expenditure. 

Legal Compliance

Background screening needs legal reports most of the time. However, it is not easy to obtain reports like criminal or vehicle records. To obtain these, a company either needs to possess the right contact, or spend a lot of money. However, professionals are already in this field. They know who to call or where to appeal to get a report. This does not only save money but also saves a lot of time.  

Conclusion 

The success in background screening lies in inefficient data gathering. Each company should focus on the task of genuine data accumulation if they want to hire the right candidate. Ease of information obtaining becomes essential while running a BGV check. To make the process easy, one needs the assistance of professionals. The professionals offer more than just background checks. They submit detailed candidate reports to make the hiring process easy. 

Let Veremark work to deliver you the best candidate experience. Hand us your background check worries so that you can focus on what matters the most - the business.