Lately, there has been quite a bit of discourse on the topic of background screening in the news. Between the EEOC suing Dollar General and BMW over their alleged discriminatory screening practices, the Philadelphia building collapse in June,and the Snowden/NSA information leaking case, there’s certainly plenty to discuss. But what exactly is a background check?

The unfortunate, and potentially dangerous, trend we see developing is one where organization leaders believe that background checking is an instantaneous process performed via online database searches — or worse, via social media. The reality though is that database searches, while “quick and cheap”, tend to give “quick and cheap” results that alone are not meant to be used for making hiring decisions, and can even turn up shamefully erroneous information.

The best way to protect your organization from potentially dangerous or unsuitable employees while keeping your organization protected from lawsuits is to hire a company that provides responsible, accurate and timely results, and while dedicated to investigating and vetting each applicant and employee thoroughly. Database searches alone are not really background checks, and the harmful belief that they are is why we have developed a new infographic — The Anatomy of a Background Check – to fully demonstrate what goes on in the screening process.

Click image to enlarge: