Myths of Background Screening: Debunked!

No organization can afford to cut corners when it comes to background screening. The people you hire are the future of your organization. The right ones can take it to new heights; however, the wrong ones can bring it to new lows in today’s litigious landscape. You can’t risk the safety of your employees, customers and products with a bad hire who brings liability risks. However, there is lots of misinformation in the area of background screening, so we set out to debunk the top myths we hear every day. 

MYTH 1
We are 100% covered!
REALITY
Nope. Sorry. No screening is 100% foolproof.

MYTH 2
We ordered a multi-state search, so you know, we’re good.
REALITY
A multi-state search is a great enhancement to a solid screening program, which starts with a county criminal search in the county where the candidate resides. The multi-state search is NOT designed to be the sole basis of a responsible background search. The multi-state database of convictions is a patchwork of data from multiple jurisdictions, and the quality of the data can vary from state to state, and even county by county. In some jurisdictions, actual court records may be fed into the database providing a very comprehensive criminal search, while in other jurisdictions there may be no records or only a small subset of the possible criminal records that may be available in a more traditional county criminal search. Another point: to reveal a hit in the multi-state database, you need the exact name and date of birth match. Any deviation from that name won’t turn up records.

MYTH 3
Fingerprinting is foolproof.
REALITY
See Myth #1. While many people think fingerprinting is the gold standard, it has several limitations. First, all fingerprints go through the FBI lab, which can sometimes see backlogs as long as 6 months. If your candidate commits a crime and applies for a job before those prints are processed, they will get a clean report. Second, the FBI will not accept fingerprints on all criminal charges. For example, solicitation of a prostitute is a charge for which the FBI will not accept fingerprints. You have to
decide if this is relevant to your business. Third, and this one usually comes as a surprise, not every person that gets convicted of a crime gets arrested by the police. Police officers are not the only people that can charge an individual with a crime. In many jurisdictions, if the police officer did not actually witness the crime then the ordinary citizen that witnessed the crime can go before a judge or a magistrate and swear out criminal charges. In these cases, the defendant may not ever be arrested, but rather they may simply get a notice to appear in the mail. The defendant may go to court and be convicted without ever having interfaced with a law enforcement officer. Thus, there is a conviction without fingerprints.

MYTH 4
We ran a total nationwide search, so we are covered.
REALITY
There is no such thing. Screeners are just piecing together the best data available from discrete jurisdictions. There is no “magic bullet” screen that covers the whole country.

MYTH 5
Corrections department data is sufficient for a search.
REALITY
Many multi-state database type searches will contain records from various state departments of correction. Corrections department records are another good tool to use in your screening program, but not a comprehensive one. A potential new hire can commit hundreds of crimes that will never show up in corrections data. In order to show up in a department of corrections database, a defendant would normally need to be sentenced to a prison term. It is possible to have many convictions without ever receiving a prison term– but that doesn’t mean you don’t want to know about them.

MYTH 6
We don’t need to check for different names. One should be plenty!
REALITY
There are lots of reasons people go by different names during their lives, and that’s why it’s important to run checks on “AKAs” or “Also Known As” names. From name changes resulting from marriage to nicknames to data entry or “Fat finger” errors, it’s important to run a thorough search. For example, records for “Jonathan” might be filed under “John” and Suzy Smith could have
been Suzy Jones before she was married. Find out if other names hold the key to previous criminal convictions.

MYTH 7
We’ve consolidated paperwork and included our Disclosure and Authorization for screening in our offer letter to our candidates. Only one form to be signed by the candidate accepts the job offer and meets our FCRA requirements!
REALITY
Actually, you’re in violation of one of the clearest sections of FCRA. The Disclosure for background screening MUST be a document that consists solely of the Disclosure. It should only communicate a single message – that the candidate is being asked to consent to a background screen. Under the FCRA, the Authorization by the candidate to the background screen may be made on the Disclosure document.

MYTH 8
We don’t need to run a separate sex offender search, as a county or multi-state search will catch any sex offenses.
REALITY
A sex offender search is a very inexpensive way to get a little peace of mind. Sex offenders can be a very transient population. They commit a crime in one state and get convicted, then move to another state. Sex offender data is also the easiest data for the general public to pull for themselves. No business owner wants to find out from their clients that they hired a sex offender. Protect your employees, protect your clients and protect your business by ensuring that you are running a sex offender search on each and every applicant.

MYTH 9
We want our screening history to go back in time as far as possible to be extra careful!
REALITY
The EEOC is tasked with making sure that employers are using fair practices when it comes to hiring, and that screening data is relevant to the hiring decision. We all know that a driving under the influence conviction is relevant to your delivery driver but maybe not for your accountant. So how relevant is that 30 year old shoplifting conviction your candidate had when she was 18? Maybe not so much. We don’t recommend making a hiring decision based on data that old. That’s why we cut it off at 10 years. Increasing litigation in this area indicates this is a smart call.

TRUE STORY:
A global distribution and delivery company hired an employee in their distribution center. They ordered a minimal background screening, which checked state databases for any relevant convictions. It returned no flags, and the employee started work, having access to the company distribution channels. Less than a month into his employment, officers came to arrest the employee for a parole violation, place him in handcuffs and escorted him out.

The employer went back to the screening company to see why the conviction never appeared on the report. The answer: the employee had been convicted of a federal crime – sending explosive devices through the mail. This very serious conviction would not appear in a search of state courts. The employer was extremely lucky – the cost of a federal search is pretty slim next to the potential liability associated with this employee committing a similar crime through his employer’s distribution channels.

Employee Background Checks: What's Legal, What's Not

When hiring new employees, it's better to be safe than sorry.

More and more businesses are using background checks during the hiring process to help ensure they aren't bringing someone into the workplace who is dangerous or dishonest. Recent research from the Society for Human Resource Management found that nearly 70 percent of employers conduct criminal background checks on all of their job candidates, while 47 percent conduct credit checks.

Lester Rosen, founder and CEO of Employment Screening Resources, said businesses that don't use background checks when hiring are putting their business at risk. He said when a new employee who hasn't been properly vetted is hired, employers are basically welcoming a stranger into their business.

"That stranger has access to your customers, your cash, your IT, everything," Rosen told Business News Daily. "It would make as much sense to do that as it would to walk down the street and give the keys to the front door of your home to a total stranger."

Employment background checks generally include three main aspects: criminal record checks, employment history and education verification.

When it comes to criminal records, Rosen said employers are looking for convictions of serious crimes that would affect the candidate's ability to do the job. He said just having a criminal record, under new federal laws, isn't enough of a reason to disqualify the candidate from consideration.

"You can't automatically throw away the application from someone with a criminal record just because of their criminal record," Rosen said.

He said the law mandates that employers learn more about the criminal conviction to determine if it would have an impact on the job and in the workplace.

Attorney Mark Briggs of the Arizona-based Briggs Law Group said the new law forces employers to have a clear connection for why someone's criminal record makes them unfit for the job they are applying for.

"For example, having five speeding tickets in the past two years may be a valid reason to not hire a delivery driver, but their misdemeanor vandalism conviction 10 years ago probably is not," Briggs said. "If the employer has inappropriately relied on something like an arrest report to deny an applicant a job, they can be in big trouble."

When it comes to employment and education history, employers are confirming that what the candidate wrote on their application is, in fact, true, said Mike Aitken, vice president of government affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management.

"You contact previous employers to verify the candidate did work there," Aitken said. "You are going to contact the educational institution to ensure they did graduate."

Not only will this help confirm if the candidate has the right skills and background for the job, Aitken said it will also tell an employer if the candidate has a penchant for lying.

"It can be a red flag to the employer if the person is being less than honest," he said.

Other things Rosen said employers can look at in a background check include sex offender status, driving records and Social Security traces, which show past addresses of the candidate and if any aliases were used.

Credit is another area that some employers check during a background screening. Aitken said they are used to get an overall financial picture of the candidate.

"They aren't trying to play gotcha and say 'they fell behind once or twice on their credit card payment or have an outstanding student loan debt,'" Aitken said. "It is to check their overall ability to meet their financial obligations."

Aitken said credit checks should be taken into consideration only in situations where a candidate is applying for a job handling large amounts of money or assets, such as a chief financial officer.

"If you are hiring someone to be an administrative assistant or work in government affairs at a lobbying firm, and they have a little bit of a sketchy credit report, it may not matter whatsoever," he said.
Rosen also stressed that conducting credit checks on candidates not involved with a company's money is risky.

"A credit report generally is only something that should be run in a situation where there is a clear connection between credit information and the nature of the job," Rosen said. "That should be very few jobs."

Briggs said one new area where employers should be very careful is when checking out applicants social media accounts. While they might be able to learn a lot about a person's judgment and character from their Facebook or Twitter accounts, there is some risk to viewing those.

"An employer might learn from a person's Facebook page that they belong to a particular religious group or have a disability that is not visually apparent," he said. "Knowing that information can open up an employer to liability, because they are not allowed to ask about those things in an application or interview for a job, and once you know something, you can be accused of considering that information illegally when making the hiring decision."

The key to a successful background check for employers is ensuring they are following the letter of the law. Rosen said employers who don't conduct background checks properly run a serious risk of being sued by a candidate.

"You have to make sure you dot your i's and cross your t's," because it is heavily legally regulated," he said.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act mandates that employers must get written authorization from job applicants before conducting a background check and once it's completed let the candidate know if anything harmful was found in their search.

"They are required to get the permission of the employee first," Aitken said. "The employer is then required, at the end of (the background check), to share with that employee any information that came up that had an adverse impact on their hiring."

Briggs said not following background check laws can cause employers some serious grief.

"The two biggest negative consequences are being sued by a job applicant or employee, and being investigated and possibly fined by a government agency such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or National Labor Relations Board," Briggs said. "Defending against a government investigation or lawsuit is time-consuming and expensive."

To avoid lawsuits and government investigations, Briggs offers employers several tips:
Use a background check services vendor with a good reputation that provides you with clear, accurate and complete written reports. Many do-it-yourself Internet background search engines produce reports that are filled with duplicate and irrelevant information, which can be worse than having no background check at all. Also, if something with the hiring decision goes awry in the future, you will want to show exactly what information you reviewed and when. Getting a solid written report from a professional background check company is a great way to do that.
Have specific reasons for wanting to know certain information to make a hiring decision, which should be tailored for each type of job, and limit the scope of the background check to only that information. For example, you would want to know if a delivery driver candidate has a lot of speeding tickets, and you would want to confirm whether a person applying for a lawyer job graduated from college and law school, but you should not be checking every job-seeker's driving record or educational background. With the robust databases out there today, you can find out whether a person voted in the last presidential election and what magazines they subscribe to, but do you need that information to make a good hiring decision? Probably not.
Background check reports contain a lot of personal and potentially embarrassing information, so you should keep them in a secure place at your company and limit who can read them. Like most circumstances in life, you should treat others as you would like to be treated. Even if you have no empathy for the job candidates, you should keep background check reports close to the vest because your potential liability increases with each person who reads them.

In the end, Rosen said even though there is some cost associated with conducting background checks, it is a lot cheaper than hiring an employee who steals or hurts somebody.

"Most of the time, most of the people pass the background check," Rosen said. "But if you get someone who has a problem, the employer will be very happy they dodged the bullet and didn't bring someone into the workplace who is dangerous, unfit, dishonest or unqualified."

Originally published on Business News Daily.

Why You Need An FCRA Compliant Business For Employment Background Checks

Understanding the difference between public records sites and FCRA compliant businesses.

Hiring new employees is one of the most important and difficult responsibilities for any business. It is essential to find candidates who can excel in the position, and become reliable, trustworthy team members.

To accomplish this task, most companies send applicants through a multi-layered process. This includes submitting a resume, attending multiple interviews, filling out paperwork and a pre-employment background screening.

What You Need To Know About Pre-Employment Background Screening

Background screenings are among the most decisive factors in the hiring process. They provide a wealth of information that empowers hiring managers to conclude whether or not a candidate will be offered employment.

There are several key guidelines employers must follow when establishing a background screening process. It is crucial for hiring managers to understand the legal requirements they must adhere to when screening any applicant. First and foremost, employers must obtain background reports from an FCRA compliant business. The FCRA, or Fair Credit Reporting Act regulates the collection and usage of consumer information.

Only an FCRA compliant business, also known as a consumer reporting agency, is legally allowed to provide data that helps employers make hiring decisions. Businesses that do not utilize a compliant consumer reporting agency may be subjected to legal action. If an applicant is turned down based on the results of a background screen not conducted by a compliant business, that person has the right to sue their prospective employer.

When screening applicants, many companies turn to public records sites that promise to provide information about “anyone in the United States.” What these companies may not realize is that a public records, or people search website, is not a consumer reporting agency.

The Difference Between A Public Records Provider And A Consumer Reporting Agency

Public records websites provide information that is collected from a variety of sources, such as magazine subscription cards and voter registration forms. Although they can provide valuable information, these sites are not legally obligated to ensure that they have current or accurate data. These sites all post disclaimers stating that they provide information for reference purposes only. They cannot verify that the data is correct. Information provided by these sites may not legally be used to make hiring decisions.

Consumer reporting agencies are legally bound to provide current and accurate information. They provide authoritative and verified data about an individual’s work history, criminal records, drug testing and other relevant details. This information may be used to make hiring decisions.

Another differentiator between public records sites and consumer reporting agencies involves legal compliance with an FCRA regulation. Applicants must agree to a background check, and be informed in writing before a screening begins. If this does not happen, the applicant has the right to take legal action against the company that initiated a background check.

Consumer reporting agencies manage these mandatory steps. Public records sites, however, do not require any sort of notice for background checks. These sites provide basic background information, such as address histories and possible criminal records. They do not, however, confirm that any of this information is current, accurate or even attributed to the right person. Anyone can use a public records site to run a background check on another person.

Applicants do have the right to refuse a background screening. When this happens, the potential employer is likely to ignore that person’s bid for a job. If however, the applicant agrees to the screening, the potential employer must adhere to all rules specified by the FCRA and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Guidelines For A Pre-Employment Background Screening

Aside from being notified about a screening, applicants must also be told how they can get a copy of their own background report. If a company refuses to hire an individual based on the results of a background check, then they must follow specific guidelines. First the applicant must receive a pre-adverse action disclosure along with a copy of their consumer report and a FTC document called “A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.” After the candidate is formally informed of an adverse action (such as being denied a job) against them, they must also receive an adverse action notice.

All of these steps are managed by consumer reporting agencies, such as MacData Background Screening. Companies that choose not to utilize an FCRA compliant business may be subjected to a lawsuit. When the person who files the suit wins, they may also be entitled to request court costs and other legal fees.

State And Industry Regulations

Consumer reporting agencies, unlike public records sites, are also obligated to keep up with all state, federal and industry regulations. Many states have different laws regarding background screening practices for recruitment. Some industries, especially the trucking industry, also have unique guidelines. An FCRA compliant company will be aware of these regulations, and work with their clients to ensure they remain compliant at all times. Public records sites are under no obligation to be aware of or follow the same regulations. Therefore, companies that use public records sites for background screening purposes take the risk and responsibility of not collecting data properly upon themselves.

Before You Start Screening

FCRA compliant businesses provide a very different service than public records websites. Public records sites sell contact information and other basic details about individuals. These sites are not authorized to provide employment screening services.

FCRA compliant businesses may legally provide pre-employment background checks. They are authorized to conduct drug screening tests, provide identity, criminal records and verification reports, and offer related employment screening services.

Before you screen an applicant, make sure you’re dealing with an FCRA compliant consumer reporting agency. Otherwise you may be subjected to lawsuits based on regulations that were created to protect the privacy of individuals and ensure that applicants are not denied employment due to inaccurate or outdated information.

Misconceptions Preventing Small Businesses from utilizing Background Screens for Pre-employment

Experts say that about 80 percent of HR professionals use pre-employment background screening. The background screening market is estimated to be worth between two and three billion dollars. Yet many small businesses are still relying on old-fashioned screening techniques such as asking for and following up with references rather than conducting a professional employment background screen. This approach is unfortunately quite outdated and could be potentially hazardous for a small medium business.

The question is why are so many small businesses not doing pre-employment background screens. Most small businesses are thinking that this will cost them an arm and a leg, and see cost as being a major inhibitor. In reality, however, the notion that expert employment background checks are too costly for small businesses is a misperception. If you are willing to outsource your pre-employment background screening it is actually quite affordable, usually no more than $50 per applicant.

Another misconception small business owners may have is that they don’t have the internal expertise to do background checks. Lack of knowledge surrounding background screening is another reason why many small businesses often fail to run employment background checks. Certainly, there is plenty to learn about screening. It could very well take an in-house employee moths to research how to best run background checks. This is why the outsourcing neatly solves this problem. If you’d rather not pay one of you workers to figure out how to screen applicants, you can simply hire a professional pre-employment background screening company to do it quickly and professionally for you. Many of the experts are such screening companies have spent their entire careers learning the best ways to research candidate’s a backgrounds.

Lastly, many small businesses are asking, “What is the big deal? We've never had a problem with hiring new employees before?” Lack of concern from small businesses is a major factor. Some small business owners see background checks as something that only certain fields must carry out. And indeed, until the last decade or so, health care, law enforcement and education professionals were by and large the only workers that were subjected to employment background screens. Today, however, private companies have plenty of reasons to consistently carry out pre-employment background screens such as hiring dangerous individuals, root our lies on candidate’s applications and avoid any legal snafus. Additionally background screens in the long run can end up cutting costs and actually speed up the hiring process.

As you can see there are many different reasons why a small to medium business owner should arrange extensive employment background checks. Instead of trying to do employee screening internally, the wise small business owner will outsource this specialized work to a third party pre-employment background screening company.

How To Read Your Credit Report

Your credit report contains a wealth of information about your financial actions. If you have credit or loan accounts, those accounts, and how you pay them, are included in your credit report. It’s important to review your credit report at least once a year so you know what your creditors are saying about you.

Understanding your credit report can be confusing, especially if you’re reading it for the first time. Here is a breakdown of the types information contained in your report.
PERSONAL INFORMATION ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT
Personal information including your name, address, and place of employment is used to identify you. Previous addresses and places of employment might also be included.

It’s not uncommon to have variations or misspellings of your name. Most credit reporting agencies leave these variations to maintain the link between your identity and the credit information. Having different variations of your name and old addresses won't hurt your credit score as long as it's actually your information. Make sure personal information is identifying you and not someone else.

CREDIT SUMMARY
The credit summary section of your credit report summarizes information about the different types of accounts you have. This section lists the total number, balance, number current, and number of delinquent accounts. It will include the following account types:

· Real estate accounts, any mortgages that you have
· Revolving accounts, like credit cards and lines of credit
· Installment accounts, like loans
· Other accounts
· Collection accounts
· Your credit summary will also summarize the number of accounts you have open, closed, in public records, and the number of inquiries made against your credit within the past two years.

ACCOUNT HISTORY
The account history section of your credit report contains the bulk of the information. This section includes each of your credit accounts and details about how you've paid. Your account history will be very detailed, but it's important that you read through to make sure the information is being reported correctly.

Each account will contain the several pieces of information.
· Creditor name of the institution reporting the information.
· Account number associated with the account. The account number may be scrambled or shortened for privacy purposes.
· Account Type, i.e. revolving account, education loan, auto loan.
· Responsibility. This indicates whether you have individual, joint, or authorized user responsibility for the account.
· Monthly payment is the minimum amount you are required to pay on the account each month.
· Date opened. The month and year the account was established.
· Date reported is the last date the creditor updated the account information with the credit bureau.
· Balance. The amount owed on the account at the time data was reported.
· Credit limit or loan amount.
· High balance or high credit is the highest amount ever charged on the credit card. For installment loans, high credit is the original loan amount.
· Past due. Amount past due at the time the data was reported.
· Remarks are comments made by the creditor about your account.
· Payment status. Indicates the status of the account, i.e. current, past due, charge-off. Even if your account is current, it might contain information about previous delinquencies.
· Payment history. Indicates your monthly payment status since the time your account was established.
· Collection accounts may appear as part of the account history or in a separate section. Where it appears depends on the company providing your credit report.

PUBLIC RECORDS
Public records include information like bankruptcies, judgments, tax liens, state and country court records, and, in some states, overdue child support. Depending on the type of account, a public record can remain on your credit report between 7-10 years. Only severe financial blunders appear in this section, not criminal arrests or convictions. Because public records can severely damage your credit, it's best to keep this section clear.

CREDIT INQUIRIES
Credit inquiries list all parties who have accessed your credit report within the past two years. While your version of the credit report lists several credit inquiries, not all of these appear on the lenders' and creditors' versions. Only "hard" inquiries are shown to lenders. These are inquiries made when a lender checks your credit report to approve your credit application. Your version will also include "soft" inquiries consisting of inquiries made by lenders for promotional purposes.

Deciphering a Background Check: What to Look For

A background check involves investigating a person's employment, criminal and financial history. Although most employers typically want to cut to the chase and see a job candidate's criminal and driving record, there are some practical limitations to these searches.

Fair Credit Reporting Act

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) has been the law of the land in the United States for over four decades.

The FCRA gives employers and HR departments guidelines for navigating background checks, especially as these checks relate to adverse hiring decisions and notifying the job applicant about sensitive aspects of the background check.

How Deep Should a Background Check Be?

That said, the type of job and its attendant responsibilities will usually dictate the scope of the background check that the employer decides on.

In other words, a job at Best Buy will usually require less stringent or deep background checks than a job working with the CIA. Some jobs require a sweeping check of the candidate's credit history, for example, while others do not.

Types of Background Checks

When you go through a third-party background check agency to find out more about a job candidate, you could run into problems with poor record keeping or only a partial collection of the candidate's relevant information.

Background check websites look into the candidate's possible criminal history through courthouse searches, state repositories or nationally aggregated databases. In addition to criminal records, background check services can also provide Driving Records, Employment Verification, Education Verification, Professional References, Drug Testing and more. Most of these background check services have access to many databases that house public information about the individual you want to check out.

What Should You Be Looking For?

Some job applicants can hide things from their potential employers or exaggerate certain aspects of their lives, such as the college they went to.

To keep a handle on all of these applicants, background check agencies conduct as many as 10,000 background checks per day at a cost of around $30 per background check to keep job applicants honest.

Misdemeanor and Felony Charges

Typically a job candidate's possible misdemeanor and felony charges would be something that all employers should inquire about. These records are normally held by the county or state in which the job applicant is from. A full criminal history as part of a background check should be mandatory for most jobs. It’s important however that the employer clearly defines their screen policy. Having a background screening decision matrix that clearly defines acceptable and non-acceptable offenses will help avoid confusion down the road. .

Credit Reports and Bankruptcy Filings

If the position that the employer is considering for a given candidate depends on the employee being especially responsible and good with money, then a background check that includes a full credit history and any bankruptcy filings would be helpful. Many background check agencies only offer this information for a small fee, which might be well worth the cost depending on the position.

Drug Test Results

Approximately a quarter of background checks contracted out to thirty-party background check agencies will conduct a drug test as part of their report.

The drug test is usually carried out in conjunction with a local medical center or clinic. Employers might want to really consider this option.

There are some drawbacks to asking that the background check include a drug test - drug tests can be expensive and might only be relevant for jobs that require operating heavy machinery or complete mental precision.

Driving Record

Any DUI charges or license suspensions would be very relevant information for an employer to take a look at, especially if the job requires operating a vehicle.

What happens on a pre-employment background check?

When you receive a job offer there is often a line in the offer letter that says, "This offer is contingent upon completion of a successful background check." Just what is involved in that? What can you expect to be uncovered?

Many people are concerned that if they leave a short term job off their resume or neglect to mention the job where they were fired, it will show up in a background check. This is unlikely, as it's not like an FBI investigation into your life. Remember that resumes are marketing documents and you're not required to put anything negative on them, but if asked to list all positions, you should, since you can be fired for dishonesty if you don't. But, it's not likely to show up in a background check.

But what can you expect? Attorney Johanna Harris allowed me a sneak peak at her new book Use Protection: An Employee's Guide to Advancement in the Workplace, to explain just what to expect in a background check.

Criminal records. This is usually a first stop for employers. How far back and what crimes employers can consider largely depends on state laws. If you have a criminal record, Harris advises you put together a document that explains exactly what happened and is supported by the evidence. That is, don't just write up your version of events, include court documents. The EEOC has been cracking down on employers that place to much emphasis on criminal backgrounds, so expect employers to be less strict.

Credit checks. This is another area the EEOC is concerned about -- for the same reason as criminal records -- it has a disparate impact on African American job candidates. Not every company uses credit checks and even among those that do, they generally don't check every job candidate's records. But, if they do, what are they looking for? Harris writes: "It is unlikely that an employer would hold a late credit card payment against you." But if it's gone to collection or court, employers may not be willing to overlook it. Student loan defaults, she says, are also something employers look at. However, if your debt is due to medical bills or other emergencies, employers tend to not be as harsh, she says. One thing about credit checks -- you have to authorize them to do so. Best bet? Run your own credit before applying for a job.

Education, certification and licenses. If you lie about that degree -- even if you were only 6 credits short, your potential employer will find about about it. Didn't pay that final library fine at your university? Harris cautions that your school may claim you never received your degree. Clear all those things up before applying for a new job. Most certifications and licences are public records and are easy to verify. Bottom line, Harris says, don't lie about your education or try to hide a disciplinary history. It's easy to find.

References. Many people are under the impression that employers can only confirm dates of service and titles. This is false, false and false! Company policy may prohibit managers from speaking out, but most do anyway. Which means, don't burn bridges and always work hard. Harris also cautions that employers can and do search your "electronic trail." Things like tweets, videos, blogs and anything that hits the internet are easy to find. Clean up your trail (the best you can) before applying.

Military records. Harris states that employers are pretty limited in what they can find out about -- just rank, salary, duties and awards. She reminds that "it is illegal for an employer to deny you a job because you might be called up to active duty."

Bankruptcy. These records are publicly available, but, according to Harris, employers cannot hold a bankruptcy against you.

Driving records. These are also public records and subject to employer discretion. Bottom line? That DUI may prevent you from getting a job.

Medical records. These are off limits in a background check. Employers may ask you if you can perform the duties of a job, and you can answer yes, or no. If you answer yes, they have to take your word for it. There is an exception, though, according to Harris. As long as they require everyone who works in this or a similar job to undergo a medical exam, they can make that a requirement for the job. That is, if you come in limping, they can't require a medical exam unless they require everyone to have a medical exam.

Drug testing. Pre-employment drug testing is legal. Period. If you're taking a prescription for something normally caught in a drug test (like prescription pain killers or medication for ADHD), you will be required to provide proof that it's a legal prescription. This can be as easy as showing your prescription bottle with the proper information attached.

So, if your job offer has the background contingency as part of it, this is what you can expect. If you're going to have any problem with any of these sections, start working now to clean up your record. Even old convictions can be expunged in many cases.

Research more at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-happens-on-a-pre-employment-background-check/