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If you are beginning to apply for a job, you may wonder what exactly an employment background check is. In actuality, it is not just each separate business that sets their own standards for employment screening. There is an Act which oversees employment screening standards known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). This Fair Credit Reporting Act considers a background check as a consumer report. Even before an employer can receive a consumer report for the purposes of employment screening, the employer needs to have written authorization from the subject. For simpler inquiries, the employer should still seek your consent. You have the right to withdraw application for the position if you do not want information disclosed. This gives you, as a potential employee, a right to decide for yourself if a certain position or job is worth the disclosure of particular information about yourself.

It is your right to dispute any errors in data in a report!

Once the employer receives the report and chooses not to hire you due to information in it, the employer is required to provide you with a pre-adverse action disclosure which contains your rights and a report copy. After this they must inform you that they are not hiring you and include the address and name of the Consumer Reporting Agency which provided the data because you have a right to dispute any errors in data if there be.

At the very least, an employment background check includes social security number verification. More detailed employment background checks may even contain a work history analysis, complete credit report, and names of references. Criminal history, driving records, and payment of credit records may also be included. But still, the inquiries made ought to be connected with the nature of the job applied for. If you are applying to work as a cashier, trying to figure out if you were convicted in the past for stealing is not a far stretch of information that an employer may want to know.

But take note there is also information which may not, in any case, be part of a background check. There are states which do not permit inquiries concerning certain convictions or arrests before a particular period of time. Other states will not allow inquiries regarding criminal history for particular positions. Also, as an applicant you should be aware that employers are not allowed to base their hiring choices on a potential employee’s disabilities, which is why they may not ask for medical records. Your capability to perform the tasks for a particular position is what they may ask about.

If you are an applicant, you should be aware of your own information. Why not do a background check on yourself? It may sound strange, but it is actually a very smart thing to do. Before others, you should know exactly who you are- on record. This is for your safety as well, because you do not want any errors on record.