Brenna Belen

Single, work at home mother of three young adults. I work doing background checks for large and small employers as well as property managers. My employer BCS Background Screening allows me the flexibility to work from home and make a comfortable income doing so. I also do sales and marketing for them as an additional line of income.

When performing employment background checks on job applicants, these are the Golden Rules that all employers should abide by:

1. Verify true identity by means of matching an official photo ID to the employment candidate. Otherwise, you would be searching for a friend or relative with a clean record. In addition, there seems to be a trend whereby applicants use someone else social security number in order to continue collecting unemployment benefits on their own social security.
2. Have them sign a background check authorization release form.
3. Make sure you perform the same type of background checks on all applicants applying for the same job opening position. In other words, do not do a more comprehensive background search on one and a more simpler screening on another. You could find yourself in trouble with the EEOC for job discrimination.
4. If doing a criminal background check based on databases, do follow up any findings with an onsite county court criminal search.
5. If you decide not to hire applicant based on any of your background check findings, you must send them a copy of their background check report along with a copy of the FCRAs summary of consumer's rights in order to offer the job applicant an opportunity to dispute any errors.

Although there is much more to properly and legally conducting a background check, follow these basic rules and you should be OK.