Employers revamp background checks to help fight labor shortage

[pipedreams]

"Driving the news: Typically, employers will conduct a seven-year look-back into an applicant's background — but now some are switching to a one-year look, said Ranjeev Teelock, chief product officer at First Advantage, which conducts checks for employers.

Why it matters: Market forces may be prompting employers to do what civil rights advocates have wanted for years. They've long argued that background checks screen out perfectly good candidates with records that are long behind them.

• Widening the pool of potential employees helps address the ongoing labor shortage — and could also help employers keep a lid on wage growth.

State of play: "Suddenly employers are faced with a choice of raising wages to attract workers or attempting to increase hiring of people with records to keep wages low," said Beth Avery, a senior staff attorney at the National Employment Law Project."

https://www.axios.com/background-check-labor-shortage-c83adbac-4646-4a0f-ac91-8255603ced21.html

"What to watch: Instead of long look-backs, employers are doing something called "continuous monitoring," regularly checking court records to see if workers were arrested or charged with new infractions, said Teelock.

• Over the past year, there's been a 12% increase in the number of workers who are being continuously monitored, according to Appriss Insights, which works with companies on these checks."

[Batesmotel]

My wife works in software. Another deep background check issue she sees when trying to hire people is that military service shows up as a long period of unemployment. Disqualifying many good candidates.

The services that do the checks suck. The metrics they use are designed to eliminate people. Not find good people.

The guys who get through are not the best candidates. They are the ones that are so middle of the road dull that nothing triggers a flag.