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Are Background Check Hit Ratios Reliable?
February 01, 2012 posted by Steve Brownstein
by Steven Brownstein
Where in the world do criminal record hit ratios come from in the background screening business and how reliable are they?
You might be interested to know that if your company does 100 searches ( a hypothetical number used for this report) and you do work in two counties, find 8 records in one county and 2 records in the other your hit ratio might not be 10%.
It is more like 8%.
But I could see why you want it as 10%.
Suppose you did 98 searches in the one county and found 8 records.
In the other county you did 2 searches and found both had records.
That' a no brainer.
I could advertise the hit ratio in my ad: "Some Counties Report Back 100% Hit Ratio!"
And without proper use of statistics or at least basic arithmetic skills fudging might be the only way to sell a product such as criminal records for background screening.
That means that decisions are made without careful consideration of the facts.
And it is really scary if the guy sitting next you scratches his head and goes"Huh?"
Can you believe you've got to compete against that?
Why complicate things with other factors such as volume?
Math is a necessary skill, maybe not thought of highly anymore because why learn when all you have to do is press a button on the keyboard?
But at least learn which software to use. (Maybe?)
The more skills you have the more likely you will succeed.
It used to be like that once upon a time.
Of course that was before success was measured by how well and quickly you can use your thumbs for texting.
