Every business knows background checks are a valuable tool when making hiring decisions and vetting prospective employees. They help screen for candidates with red flags in their past and help companies find the right people to staff their company. But what about when your company works with a temporary staffing firm to find temporary workers or contractors?
Here’s what you need to know about protecting your company’s interests when working with non-full-time employees.
Why Are Background Checks Important for Temporary Workers and Contractors?
Background checks give companies and hiring managers an extra level of confidence when hiring permanent, full-time staff. But companies often don’t undergo the same process when hiring contractors and temp workers. Typically, the temp agency or staffing firm is responsible for running background checks on contractors and temp workers before placing them in a company and letting them start work.
The problem arises when these agencies agree to complete background checks but don’t run background checks as thoroughly as the company would run for their regular employees. To save time and money, sometimes staffing agencies run simple internet-based background checks. While better than nothing, these types of reviews aren’t nearly as thorough as the kind of background checks run by professionals. This leaves your company open to risk since your temp workers and contractors may not have been as thoroughly vetted as you think they have.
This is a problem because temporary workers and contractors interact with your business just as much as full-time workers do. Running thorough background checks for temporary workers and contractors gives your hiring managers the peace of mind that comes from knowing you’re making the best hiring decisions based on the most complete information possible. It also provides the permanent, full-time employees in your company the peace of mind of knowing everyone they work with within all capacities has been thoroughly vetted.
How to Solve the Problem
When negotiating agreements with staffing firms and suppliers, insert language in contracts requiring the staffing firm and contractor to run professional background checks instead of DIY checks. Define the level of detail needed for these background checks so you know they’re as reliable as the checks you’d run on any other employee. When you can, specify which agency will run the background checks and require the agency to prove that a professional background check has been conducted on each new worker.
If that’s not a possibility, consider supplementing the staffing agency’s background checks or the contractor’s screening process with your own from a trusted agency like First Contact HR.
How to Stay Compliant
Running background checks for temporary workers and contractors involves similar legal requirements as for full-time employees. Your best bet is to require your staffing agency and contractor to use a trusted professional service to cover your bases. In addition to running thorough searches, make sure your staffing agency and contractor follow these requirements during the process.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act
The Fair Credit Reporting Act regulates company use of background checks. It applies to companies running background checks and consumer reports on prospective employees for “employment purposes.” It also applies to running these same reports for temporary workers and independent contractors.
Employers (and staffing agencies) must make sure they use the information found via the background check to evaluate the candidate based on job function. That means the level and type of scrutiny applied to the background check results should be consistent with the kind of work the prospective worker will be doing.
Hiring entities are responsible for putting equitable policies in place and applying these policies consistently to all employees, job candidates, independent contractors, consultants, etc. This protects the company from landing in legal hot water.
Still, have questions about how to make sure your staffing agency or supplier uses thorough background checks on temp workers and contractors before placing them at your company? Reach out to First Contact HR today. Prefer to run your background checks on prospective temps and contractors to keep your bases covered? Contact us for a free quote.