HRemploymentScreening.com by Screening Intelligence LLC is a consumer reporting agency (CRA) and you must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) when using our services. Whenever you use 
consumer reports to make employment decisions, including hiring, retention, promotion or reassignment, you must comply with the FCRA. State laws may impose additional requirements, and you should consult with attorneys in the states in which you operate and in which your applicants/employees reside in order to determine whether any such additional requirements apply. We are not able to provide consumers with legal advice on background checks, but we are able to provide the following guidelines.
These guidelines apply to consumer reports, as defined in the FCRA. At this time, we do not conduct investigative consumer reports, which include information about a consumer’s character, general reputation, personal characteristics, and mode of living obtained through personal interviews conducted by a CRA.
Disclosure and Authorization
Before you request a report from us, you must do the following:
- Make a clear and conspicuous disclosure to the applicant or employee, in a document containing only the disclosure (not in the employment application or in any other document), that you are requesting the report and that you might use information in their consumer report for decisions related to their employment. A sample disclosure (“Sample Employee Release”) can be requested by sending an email to service@HRemp.com.
- Obtain written authorization for the request from the applicant/employee.
- Sign our Employer Certification form.
Summary of Consumer’s Rights
When you request authorization from applicants/employees, you must also provide them a summary of the consumer’s rights under the FCRA (if you have not done so already). A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act PDF is attached for your reference.
Adverse Action
Federal law defines an adverse action as the denial of employment or any other decision for employment purposes adversely affecting any current or prospective employee. If an adverse action is based at least in part on information contained in a consumer report, including the reports that we provide to you, the following rules apply:
Before You Take an Adverse Action
- a notice that includes a copy of the consumer report you relied on to make your decision; and
- a summary of consumer’s rights under the FCRA (even if previously provided)
Giving the applicant/employee the notice in advance gives them the opportunity to review the report and tell you if it is correct. If the applicant/employee does not respond, proceed with the decision. If he or she responds, you should consider the response carefully in reaching your decision.
Click here to download a PDF of our Pre-Adverse Action Letter and Adverse Action Letter.
After You Take an Adverse Action
After the adverse action has been taken, you must notify the applicant/employee of the adverse action, either in writing, orally, or by electronic means. An adverse action notice tells the applicant/employee about their rights to see information being reported about them and to correct inaccurate information. The notice must include the following:
- The name, address, and telephone number of the consumer reporting agency that supplied the report.
- A statement that the consumer reporting agency did not make the adverse decision and cannot give specific reasons why the decision was made.
- A statement setting forth the applicant/employee’s right to dispute directly with the CRA the accuracy or completeness of any information the CRA furnished.
- A statement setting forth the applicant/employee’s right to obtain an additional free report of their file from the CRA if they makes a request within 60 days.
Disposal of Consumer Reports
When you’re done using a consumer report, you must securely dispose of the report and any information you gathered from it. That can include burning, pulverizing, or shredding paper documents and disposing of electronic information so that it can’t be read or reconstructed. For more information, see Disposal Rule (Disposal of Consumer Report Information and Records)
FCRA and FACT Act
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act or FACTA) of 2003 amended the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). These guidelines that apply to consumer reports, as defined in the FCRA, can be found on the Federal Trade Commission’s website: http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus08-using-consumer-reports-what-employers-need-know
Please be sure to read our Terms of Use: https://screeningintelligence.com/terms-of-use-screening-intelligence/
