A background check is one of the most crucial pre-employment screening steps that are necessary for small businesses and companies before making a decision to hire. As a small business owner, running a background check on any potential employee should be taken seriously. This is because it helps protect your establishment from numerous potential risks which could cost you a fortune and productivity in the days ahead.
While resumes might look decorated and appealing, small business owners shouldn’t just assume that their potential employees are telling the truth. If you want to get the right person for the job, going that extra mile is necessary as it could help unearth any information likely to be concealed during resume writing.
South Carolina’s New Expungement Law Could Increase Applicant Pool
In an effort to increase the state’s potential workforce, the South Carolina General Assembly passed legislation last week that will expand the state’s current expungement law and allow individuals to more easily remove criminal convictions from their records. The hope is that prospective employees with low-level crimes on their records will no longer be discouraged from applying for jobs; this, then, should make it easier for employers to recruit qualified workers. What do South Carolina employers need to know about this new law? While South Carolina does not have a ban-the-box law, the state legislature has instead taken it one step further: the new law will make it easier for persons to erase certain convictions from their records. Current law permits persons to expunge a first-offense, low-level crime carrying a sentence of 30 days or less from their record following a period of good behavior. The new law removes the “first-offense” requirement and also allows persons to erase multiple convictions arising out of the same sentencing hearing if they are “closely connected.” Significantly, the law also allows offenders to expunge first-offense simple drug possession and possession of drugs with intent to distribute crimes. The law applies retroactively to those offenses committed prior to the law’s passage.
Certificate Of Relief: Reducing Employer Exposure For Hiring Employees With Certain Criminal Convictions
Recently, the North Carolina General Assembly enacted “An Act to Amend the Law Regarding a Certificate of Relief For Criminal Convictions” (the “Act”). The Act will become effective on December 1, 2018, and applies to petitions for relief filed on or after that date. Legislators contemplated the Act would assist individuals convicted of certain crimes during their reintegration into society—particularly with regard to employment options. Essentially, when an individual obtains a certificate of relief, which is a court order, many collateral consequences associated with criminal convictions will be eliminated. In addition, the Act provides a defense for employers who may be concerned about negligent hiring/retention claims. In a lawsuit or administrative proceeding alleging negligence (such as negligent hiring or retention claims), a certificate of relief will bar any action alleging lack of due care in hiring, retaining, licensing, leasing to, admitting to a school or program, or otherwise doing business with or engaging in activity with an individual whom a certificate of relief was issued. The key to this defense, however, is that the employer must show that it relied on the certificate of relief at the time of the alleged negligent act. If the employer did not know about the certificate of relief at the time of the alleged negligent act, this defense will not be helpful.
California Will Dramatically Change Management of State Sex Offender Registry System in 2021
In October 2017, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 384 (SB 384) – also known as the “Sex Offender Registration Act” – which will dramatically change how the state manages the California Sex Offender Registry when the law eventually takes effect on January 1, 2021. Existing California law requires persons convicted of specified sex offenses to register with local law enforcement agencies while residing in the state or while attending school or working in the state. Willful failure to register is a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the underlying offense. Starting on January 1, 2021, SB 384 will instead create of a new three-tiered system of sex offender registration, and California will organize registered offenders into three tiers based on their offense and risk of re-offending instead of treating all registerable sex offenses the same.
From Discrimination to Invasions of Privacy: The Dangers of Social Media Background Checks
State laws do not bar employers from using social media for any form of background check, but they do make it more difficult. Left to their own devices, employers must use social network search functions to find their candidates on LinkedIn (usually pretty easy), Facebook (more difficult), and Twitter (next to impossible).
This added challenge brings to light issues with the consistency and verifiability of social media background checks. Employers can rarely be sure if they’ve found the correct social media profile for a candidate. Since many candidates are difficult to find on social media — whether because they don’t have active accounts or have activated robust privacy settings — there is no consistency to the social media background check process.
Someone who is very active on Facebook could have a disadvantage compared to a candidate who doesn’t have a profile. With any background check, consistency in procedures from one applicant to the next is paramount. That consistency cannot be achieved with social media background checks.
Employers and job seekers alike should be aware of the rocky implications of social media background checks. More traditional background checks — from criminal history searches to educational verifications to reference checks — are considerably more effective and less legally or ethically treacherous. Even though more and more employers are using social media to vet their candidates, there are countless reasons that the practice is time-consuming at best and extremely risky at worst.
