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National Association of Professional Background Screeners Study Affirms Accuracy of Background Check
July 01, 2012 posted by Steve Brownstein
by Tom Ahearn
The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) has announced that a recent study of background screening companies affirms the accuracy of background checks and refutes a report recently issued by the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) that accused background screeners of routinely making mistakes.
The NAPBS report, scheduled to be released later this summer, found that 98 percent of background screening providers surveyed encountered consumer disputes less than 5 percent of the time out of millions of background checks performed annually, and more than 95 percent of those disputed background check reports were ultimately found to be accurate.
The NAPBS study, validated by market research agency Mathew Greenwald & Associates in Washington D.C., is a response to a report from the NCLC released in April 2012, "Broken Records: How Errors by Criminal Background Checking Companies Harm Workers and Businesses," that examined the accuracy of background checks.
The NCLC report claimed that 65 million Americans with criminal records were "forever tarnished and unemployable as a result of background checks."
While the NCLC report portrayed the background screening industry as indifferent to the accuracy of data by stating "evidence indicates that professional background screening companies routinely make mistakes with grave consequences for job seekers" the report also noted that "actual accuracy rates are not possible to obtain."
Meanwhile, the NAPBS states that the report included "several inaccurate points" and that the NCLC fails "to offer critical empirical data to back up its findings."
According to NAPBS, the NCLC allegation that criminal background checks make it more difficult for workers to obtain employment is not supported by the facts since the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) "has stepped up enforcement against employers who discriminate based on criminal history."
Furthermore, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) mandates that a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) another name for a background screening company that prepares "consumer reports" must follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information in a background check report.
While the NCLC report contends that the FCRA "fails to adequately protect consumers when it comes to employment screening," the NAPBS believes the report "ignores existing law that requires background screening organizations to provide the consumer with a free copy of their consumer report" and also mandates that consumer disputed reports "must be re-investigated within 30 days."
In addition, employers using background screening firms "must follow specific adverse action procedures spelled out in the FCRA" that give job applicants a fair chance to dispute the finding in the report and protect them from being denied employment based on inaccurate or incomplete background check information.
"Given the complexities of background checks, the NAPBS study reveals an astoundingly high accuracy rate that shows how incredibly inaccurate the NCLC report was," commented Attorney Lester Rosen, Founder and CEO of Employment Screening Resources (ESR) and author of "The Safe Hiring Manual."
Also, even the few inaccurate reports could be beyond the control of background screening firms due to courts not updating records or identity theft.
