Thinking back to March 2020 and the challenges we faced, it’s incredible to see how far we have come to getting back to “normal.” A new normal perhaps, but much closer to the way things were before everything shut down.
A large part of our business is background checks. At the start of the pandemic, we saw a precipitous decline in employment screening. People were firing, not hiring. Litigation support also plummeted: courts were closed, cases were postponed.
It was difficult to conduct background checks, as court closures often meant we could not get the information we needed. As I noted in HR Dive, even online court records could not solve all the issues; some just aren’t the equivalent of an in-person search.
This was particularly problematic for employment screening, which is governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and requires that reported findings be complete and up to date. When the courts finally reopened, the backlog caused residual delays that lasted for months. The closing of companies and educational institutions also made employment and degree verifications difficult.
There was almost a physical sense of relief as things got back to normal. For us, people started hiring again, and we saw our business levels increase from pre-pandemic levels. We also saw the number of remote workers increase, driven by the realization that remote work was not only possible, but also, in some cases, preferable.
Ultimately, the bullish economy and the surge in off-site work also led to what has been called the Great Resignation, where droves of people quit their jobs to go elsewhere or to start their own businesses. This development has led to staffing and training issues for many organizations, both public and private.
While we have not experienced the same overwhelming problems that occurred at the beginning of the pandemic, new COVID waves and ongoing staffing issues due to mass resignations bring new restrictions and delays.
Court Searches
In-Person Searches. Searching for criminal and civil records on the state/county level may be done in person by going into the courts and using a public access terminal (PAT) to conduct the search.
COVID/Great Resignation Issues: New COVID spikes can restrict access to the court. Either a limited number of people are allowed into the building at one time, and/or appointments are required. With staffing shortages, these times can be limited to only a few days or hours per week. This bottleneck can cause serious delays when demand is high.
Mercy of Court Jurisdictions. Some courts do not allow the public to conduct their own searches on a PAT. Or they allow the search, but to get any level of detailed information on a record, such as date of birth or the events of the case, the researcher must submit a request to the court clerk. In either situation, the court clerk runs the search for the researcher.
COVID/Great Resignation Issues: Again, limited hours due to COVID restrictions or staffing shortages can cause significant delays. In addition to these factors, as mentioned in a previous post, date of birth redactions in California further burdened court staff. As you can imagine, the delays are often severe.
Employment Verifications
Some employers use automated services, such as The Work Number, for verifications of employment (VOE). The company will provide employment data, including title and dates of employment to the third party, so that background check companies and prospective employers can quickly access VOE information by paying a fee and retrieving the information online. The process can save a lot of time if the information provided by the third-party company matches what the applicant disclosed. However, in our experience, the information isn’t always correct and doesn’t always match. In those cases, or when an employer does not use a VOE service, we try to contact the employer for the information. While some employers using a VOE service will state that they only allow VOEs through the third-party service, many will try to assist.
COVID/Great Resignation Issues: Remote work due to COVID has made it more difficult to contact someone who has access to employment records, particularly with smaller companies. Additionally, staffing shortages can further prolong response times. Sometimes we never receive a response because most organizations consider these requests low priority.
Education Verifications
As with employment verifications, many higher-level educational institutions use third-party services, such as the National Student Clearinghouse, for enrollment and degree verifications. Some high schools also use these services, but that is not as common. Similar to employment verifications, discrepancies require contacting the institution directly. Luckily, almost all will try to assist their former students.
COVID/Great Resignation Issues: Some schools have decided to embrace a virtual learning environment due to COVID. And staffing issues have affected schools, like many other employers. Response times have increased as a result.
International Searches and Verifications
These examples are just a few of the domestic issues facing the background screening industry. While the Great Resignation is not a global issue, COVID is. As bad as the closures were in the United States, some countries shut down for even longer. And with new increases in COVID rates, some countries are quicker than others to impose severe restrictions. This is an ever-changing issue and needs to be addressed on a country-by-country basis.
In conclusion, the pandemic and subsequent workforce shift have created a one-two punch with a concrete impact on background check turnaround times. It is important to partner with a vendor that is knowledgeable about the impact on searches. This will help you to plan ahead and manage stakeholder expectations.
