Criminal background checks built for a modern hiring market | First Advantage
2026-03-01 22:04 Diff
https://fadv.com/blog/criminal-background-checks-built-for-a-modern-hiring-market/

Background Checks| 8 min. read | 8/14/2024

“Employment background check” used to mean one thing: a criminal record check. Today, however, it’s far more comprehensive and can include identity, employment, education verifications, and more, in addition to criminal checks.

Yet, criminal checks remain a focus for employers, candidates, and even legislators—all for different reasons. Here, we examine the enduring importance of criminal checks, where they fit in today’s complicated hiring landscape, and the latest tech-forward strategies that are driving faster, more accurate results.

Criminal checks are all about risk mitigation.

Criminal checks help you better understand candidates with a criminal record history. You can then factor that insight into your larger hiring decisions to help mitigate the potential for future employee-related risk.

The term “risk” applies broadly and can include the risk of physical harm or violence; internal theft, fraud, and other white-collar crimes; litigation related to negligent hiring; and damage to a business’s reputation or brand. In fact, according to our 2024 Annual Trends Report, 46 percent of First Advantage customers believe that managing candidate risk is the most important factor in their background checks.

Indeed, criminal checks are a small but critically important piece of the larger employment background check that can give you a baseline risk assessment for:

  • Your broader workforce. At a bare minimum, performing a quick, cost-effective national database search on every candidate is a simple way to promote across-the-board hiring due diligence. Most employers take the extra step of also performing a county-level search(es) where the candidate lives or has lived.
  • Specific positions. Certain positions are more risk-averse, especially those involving: 1) an element of trust such as fiduciary and financial jobs; 2) those that work with vulnerable populations such as children, the sick, or the elderly; and 3) those with access to sensitive products or information. Criminal background checks can uncover a relevant criminal history that may preclude the candidate from qualifying for these positions, based on the nature of their past crimes.
  • Individual employees. Executive officers and C-suite positions can hold a lot of power, both inside and outside an organization, making it essential that these candidates undergo thorough criminal record screening. Should an offense occur while they’re at the helm, particularly if a related incident has occurred in the past, it could affect the entire organization including its investor relations, stock performance, and brand reputation.

One of the biggest hiring mistakes you can make is to skip the criminal background check. It’s a widely accepted best practice that employers and candidates expect as part of a basic employment background check and the larger hiring process. That’s not to say that criminal checks are infallible or that employers should use them without special care and trusted guidance. Let’s dig deeper.

Complicating factors and challenges.

Today’s hiring market is different than at any other time in recent history, presenting employers with unique criminal background check challenges.

  • Speed and efficiency are more important than ever. In recent months and years, the job market pendulum has swung toward both extremes—in favor of candidates and in favor of employers—making it volatile and unpredictable. Knowing this, employers need a background check strategy that helps them swiftly identify and hire top candidates.
  • On-demand engagement is now table stakes in hiring. Today’s candidates, especially those from younger generations, have much higher expectations for on-demand, digital engagement and a smarter background check process that minimizes their effort level, provides them with real-time updates, and speeds up overall hiring. They have zero patience for manually re-entering their data for a criminal check and lengthy turnaround times that cause unnecessary worry and delays on their part.
  • Legislators are getting involved. Ban-the-box and Fair Chance Hiring laws founded on non-discriminatory hiring practices continue to spread across local jurisdictions and states throughout the country. These laws don’t prevent employers from performing criminal checks; instead, they delay it until later in the hiring process, after a conditional job offer has been extended. This gives employers the chance to learn about the candidate sometimes through individualized assessments when there is a criminal history which allows for the candidates to provide mitigating factors about that history as well as to share their personality, skills, and qualifications—to permit the employer to base their hiring decision on that information.

How to build the best criminal background checks.

Faster turnaround times. More thorough criminal record coverage and results. A better candidate experience. You need all three for the best criminal background checks. At First Advantage, we’re continuously improving our criminal check capabilities to efficiently deliver high-speed and high-quality criminal record insights. This means using our deep experience, and the latest technologies to provide employers with the information they need about their candidates.

  • Strategic and broader scope of criminal records searches— with developed names and addresses. With nearly 3000 courthouses across the US, and no single comprehensive database or way to search each courthouse timely, or cost effectively, employer who want a more thorough search, need to think strategically. Americans move an average of 11 times in their lifetimes. Yet, most only include their most recent address on an employment application, and sometimes, they might intentionally or accidentally omit prior addresses where there may be a criminal history.Or they may have had other names associated with their social security numbers, such as maiden names. This service uses the credit bureaus’ information to identify those names and addresses associated with the candidate’s social security number, to expand the scope of the places and names to be searched. First Advantage offers a “developed names and addresses” capability that automatically expands the scope of your criminal check to include all names and addresses associated with the Social Security Number (SSN) provided by the candidate. According to data revealed in our 2024 Annual Trends Report, our developed names and addresses capability enabled us to:
    • Perform 70 percent more county criminal checks based on the expanded address history.
    • Search an average of three names, including the name provided by the candidate plus additional developed names that were linked to their SSN.
    • Return nearly FOUR times more reportable county criminal records in 2023.

The developed names and addresses capability is available through our National Criminal Record File PLUS (NCRP) database search. In 2023, the NCRP returned 18 percent more reportable criminal records compared to our standard National Criminal Record File (NCRF) database search, which only searches the name and address provided on the application.

  • Expand your criminal record coverage with statewide searches. Employers often combine a national criminal record database search, such as the NCRF, with up to three county-level searches in areas where a candidate has lived.However, a statewide search is also a smart option since local jurisdictions and counties are often required to report their criminal records to a state-level repository. These searches can instantly expand your search from the standard “up to three counties” to include all available counties within a state. County availability varies based on the state repository. Since statewide repositories are sometimes more technology-advanced than county-only searches, the improved connectivity and automation can help speed up the search process. We are continuously driving automation in statewide searches to improve turnaround times and increase value to our customers. In 2023, our statewide searches:
    • Were 15 percent faster than the prior year. Our automated statewide searches in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were 83 percent and 77 percent faster, respectively, than the standard repository search.
    • Returned a 13 percent higher rate of criminal records than all county criminal searches in 2023.
    • Returned a 7 percent higher rate of reported criminal records than all county criminal searches in states where a statewide search is available.
  • Embrace the power of rescreening. Just because an employee passed their pre-hire criminal check does not mean materially significant incidents–crimes, driving violations, etc.–won’t occur after they’ve been hired. This is why it’s important to consider rescreening employees (i.e., performing updated background checks) regularly after they’re hired.It’s a powerful tool that can help differentiate your business, be a part of an overall workplace safety program. Consider these stats. According to rescreening data compiled for our 2024 Annual Trends Report, significant numbers of criminal records are found after the original screening date.
    • 22 percent of all criminal records found have a disposition date within one year of the screening date.
    • 8 percent of all criminal records found have a disposition date within two years of the screening date.
Our team of criminal check experts can help you build a best-practice rescreening program to include the most effective and appropriate criminal checks to use, and the ideal rescreening frequency based on your business needs and industry.

Today, it’s practically understood that when you apply for a job, the employer will run a criminal record check. In fact, candidates expect it. Yet they also expect your criminal check process to be modern, fast, and candidate-friendly. Consider reviewing your current criminal background checks to look for areas you can enhance with a focus on improving your search scope, accuracy, turnaround time, and process efficiency and transparency.

At First Advantage, we’re here to help. please contact us if you have questions on how and when to initiate the right criminal checks at the right time in the hiring process, so that we can help you hire smarter and onboard faster.

Check out the First Advantage 2024 Annual Trends Report here: VIEW NOW.

Know your peopleTM

This content is offered for informational purposes only. First Advantage is not a law firm, and this content does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. Information in this may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information.

Readers of this content should contact their own legal advisors concerning for their particular circumstance. No reader, or user of this content, should act or refrain from acting on the basis of information in this content. Only your individual attorney or legal advisor can provide assurances that the information contained herein – and your interpretation of it – is applicable or appropriate to your particular situation. Use of, and access to, this content does not create an attorney-client relationship between the reader, or user of this presentation and First Advantage.