Name: The Part of Background Screening Compliance That Falls on You - AssureHire
Uploaded: 2026-10-13T17:10:05.376Z
Duration: 54 min 8 s
Description: The Part of Background Screening Compliance That Falls on You - AssureHire

Transcript for "The Part of Background Screening Compliance That Falls on You - AssureHire": Welcome, everyone, and thanks for being here. The title of today's session is the part of background screening compliance that falls on you. And believe me, that framing is intentional. Most conversations about background screening focus on what your CRA does. This one is about what you're responsible for, where your exposure actually lives, and what to do about it. If your organization runs background checks as part of hiring, whether you manage that in house or through a screening partner, there are always obligations on your side of that process that are frequently misunderstood, underestimated, or simply not mapped. Today, we're going to change that. If you give us the next hour and you'll... You will leave with a, precise picture of your compliance obligations where those gaps tend to appear and a practical path to closing them. So let's get into it. So background screening compliance is more complex than most employers realize, and the gaps rarely surface during normal operations. They show up when something goes wrong. A lawsuit, a re... Regulatory inquiry, a candidate dispute, but, unfortunately, by then, the damage is done. Today, we're going to show you exactly where those gaps are, where they originate, what's driving them right now, and what's defensible... What a defensible process actually looks like. You'll leave, today with a clear picture of your real exposure and what to do about it. So today's agenda, here's what we're covering. We'll start with employer side compliance obligations. Most organizations haven't fully mapped. Then we'll go deep on adverse action exposure, where it originates, and what defensible process actually looks like. We'll be specific about where your CRA's responsibility ends and yours begins because, you know, that line is frequently misunderstood and that misunderstanding can unfortunately be expensive. We'll look at what's reshaping the regulatory landscape right now and close with a practical path forward. Questions are welcome throughout. We encourage you to use the q and a, tab, and you'll find it in the top right of the screen. Okay. Let's keep moving along here. So what this session is and is not... Before we go further, here's what you're getting today. A clear picture of where adverse action exposure originates, an honest look at the regulatory forces reshaping employer obligations, an understanding of where your CRA responsibility ends, and a real... Realistic view of the compliance burden your team is carrying with a... What we hope is a practical path forward to reducing it. What this is not, legal advice, jurisdiction specific counsel, a product demo, or a theoretical overview. If you need, jurisdiction specific legal guidance, we encourage you to talk to your legal counsel. We're here to give you the operational and compliance picture. And, I promise we're gonna get to the meat of the presentation here pretty soon. Just got a couple quick housekeeping announcements. The recording will be sent out after the session. Please use the q and a, as I mentioned, panel for questions. We'll work through them throughout the session to try and answer as many as we can live. We'll run four short polls. Your responsible... Your responses help shape the conversation, of this, presentation. So we encourage you to participate. And we'll have a brief survey at the end, when you exit about ten minutes prior to the close of the webinar. So we appreciate you filling it out. We really, value your feedback. And, before we wrap up today, we'll share links for two upcoming sessions. We have an I nine focused webinar on June 20, excuse me, June 24, and our next background screening webinar just announced on July 22. Okay. So who we are? A quick word about who's bringing you this session today. Meetra Tech serves more than 20,000 organizations across legal, GRC, and HR solutions. The HR solution side of our business is focused on helping employers manage the full employment life cycle from hiring through retention. We work in two ways, directly with employers who need expert tools and compliance guidance and also through partners, working with leading health insurance carriers, HCM platforms, and benefits brokers to bring those same solutions to their clients. The areas we cover include HR compliance and guidance, employment eligibility, I nine background screening, and performance and talent management. So today, we're focused squarely on the background screening side. So let's meet today's speaker. Today's session is led by Mark Glasscock. He's a senior director of operations here at Meetra Tech. Mark leads operational strategy across our HR compliance and background screening solutions. He brings deep expertise in HR and screening program management and approaches this material as a practitioner. He's seen how these compliance gaps play out in the real world, not just in the regulatory text. And with that, I am gonna hand it over to Mark. Mark, welcome. Hey, Brian. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. And, welcome everyone to this next session. So this is a topic that really kind of falls to the wayside when, going through the flurry of onboarding, or when you're running through your annual or whatever your cadence compliance review is, is what really is the part of the background screening that falls on you as the employer. So, you know, you've done the background check. You've gotten all the documents collected. You've made your hiring decision. You feel like you've got everything in place. But, you know, that kinda gives... Lends to a false sense of security. And the false sense of security comes from if you're using a CRA or if you're doing screening in house. You know, a lot of people get stuck in that set it and forget it thing where you just like, oh, the the CRA's got this. We're good to go. But that's really not the case. So this is why employers are still facing issues with adverse action, disputes, FCA scrutiny and compliance failures that they didn't see coming. You know, these are things that, we really have to keep in mind. It's not just the screening itself. It's what you do before to set up for your program, how you handle it after your decisioning, ensuring that your decisioning is fair and across the board. And, you know, the... Some of the costs of finding out too late are, sanctions, you know, loss of, have action lawsuits. You've gotta be prepared for these things. It's it's... It is happening. Alright. So this brings us to our first poll question. So which part of the background screening process keeps you up at night? The disclosure and authorization process, administering adverse action correctly, keeping up with state and local requirements, vendor and CRA oversight, or honestly, all of it? Ken, over on the poll there. Sorry. I, have a little connectivity issue, but, really appreciate that. And so what I will do, is launch the poll now. And so you can participate in this poll. You should find a poll tab has, opened up where you would, see the chat in the q and a. So if you just click on that poll tab, you should be able to participate. And I think we're starting to see some votes come in here. And as Mark said, which part of the background screening process keeps you up at night? Disclosure and authorization process, administering adverse action correctly, keeping up with state and local requirements, vendor, and CRA oversight, or, you know, honestly, just all of it. And, we'll give you another few seconds to go ahead and fill out, this poll. And... Alright, three, two, one. We're gonna close it out. Thank you for participating in that. And let's share out our results here. And which part of the background screening process keeps you up at night? Well, looks like we got 2% coming in on disclosure and authorization, administering adverse action, 30%, keeping up with state and local requirements, 22, and vendor and CRA oversight, a low of 5%. And, honestly, all of it. So that's a pretty realistic, honest answer, and so that'll be at 41%. With that, I'm gonna turn the presentation back to, Mark. Yeah. And, you know, a lot of those results aren't surprising. I find myself on, you know, calls with clients, all the time, questions regarding, you know, jurisdictional specifics on adverse action. So, you are not alone, and we're gonna go through, you know, a lot of these and give some guidance, on these topics as we go. So really the shifting of regulatory landscape, and this really lends to the discomfort of, you you know, making sure that you're doing adverse action properly, knowing what you can and can't do in certain jurisdictions, especially if you're an employer who has locations across the country. You know, you're left to know what to do where is very, very large. So some of the things that are, you know, are changing, we've addressed this in, somewhat in the last, webinar, but, state specific assessment notices, making sure that if you have individuals in certain states that they're getting the right notifications and assessments, when you're going through the hiring process. Ban the Box continues to grow, a multitude of states. And I think across the board, pretty much everyone just decides not to ask those questions on the, the application. But for those people who do, really knowing where and when you can ask those things, not only is expanding across the country, but, the types of questions and when you can ask is changing as well. ICRA and c r... And CCRA in California, they have their own disclosure copy report requirements. You know, this... And where I think a lot of people get caught up or lost in the assumption is that if they're doing something in a state, but there's other requirements, they feel that that requirement covers the other, but many times these are layers. So not only do you have to do one or the other, sometimes you have to do multiple, you know, to take in consideration when you're doing adverse action. Growing continuous and post hire monitoring, you know, jobs reports have come out where people are staying at their jobs longer, and there seems to be this move into ongoing monitoring, of employees because they're ten years longer, and they wanna make sure that they know what these employees are doing post that once, that one time look, at them preemployment. But if you are doing continuous monitoring, there are other disclosures that you have to do. And those, obligations that you do in the preemployment also exist, with the monitoring. So if you're getting a a monitoring results, you you have to do adverse action. All these other processes, you have to make sure that not only are you aware of these things, but they are part of your screening policy so they can be applied evenly and correctly. And drug screening. Everyone knows that drug screening is changing and how it's viewed across the country. Many states have legalized marijuana. There are certain jurisdictions, even, localities in cities, and suburbs that have different rules for when and when you can't test, what you can take into consideration. So all of these, you know, piled together really lend to a very complex, very confusing, list of items for you as the employer to know that you have to follow. And this is where you wanna make sure that you're leaning on to your legal counsel, getting guidance, and, you know, really trying to stay ahead and connected with your localities of your organizations. So the big question is where does the line actually fall? And, you know, the... Some some organizations are very, very clear of what they own and what they don't, but it's something that I think needs to be restated quite often. So a CRA... If you're using a CRA, the CRA is basically responsible for preparing and furnishing reports under the FCRA and then providing administrative documents, copy of the report, and summary rights and templates. And that's really it. What you are responsible for as an employer is you're responsible for all employment decisions. The CRA cannot make those decisions on your behalf. That has to be through you. There's an individual assessment. There are rules to follow, and the employer is responsible. You're also responsible for administering the full adverse action process. Thankfully, there's many CRAs out there who can assist with this and offer tools and documentation to help with the adverse action flow. But the end of the day, the employer is still responsible for the type of documents that go out, the communication cadence, and the decisioning, for that. And then also to determine whether report findings impact the hiring decision. So you have to have your plan in place to know what you will accept to hire someone, what will preclude someone from being hired, and and applying those rules in the same way over and over again to the same role. So... And a quick point here is the tools and templates that CRAs provide, they are administrative support. They do not transfer legal responsibility from you to the CRA just because they're providing average action letters and notices, just because that they are the ones sending out the final completed report on your behalf. You are responsible for the language in those documents. You're responsible for the timing and that they go out. Thankfully, a lot of the CRAs out there are very, very well, versed in this and is a really good tool to help you. But we really need to make sure that you're... Since you're responsible, you're reviewing those documents as part of your annual or quarterly or whatever your compliance review cadence is to make sure that they meet the standards of what you are, responsible for in your... There as you operate. Okay. So the compliance timing during, before, and after. So before the report, when you are inviting someone to do the background check, stand alone, disclosure and consent forms are critical. This is one area where a lot of, clients find that they're seeing risk, seeing issues because they have to be very conspicuous. Conspicuous consent and the conspicuous authorization. They can't be part of of the, application for employment or any other type of language. They have to be very specific and separate from everything else. So adding these things extraneous language that really muddles the waters, it has to be very clear and conspicuous. I'm gonna say that multiple times because it's a a a key point that we have to make to make sure that not only is the CRA doing it properly, but you... If you were handling that portion, you are doing it properly as well. During the report generation, ensure that the candidate PII is submitted. So when you're ordering the background check, make sure that the names are spelled correctly, the date of birth as much correct clear information you can provide into whatever stores you're using to conduct the background check through the CRA. More and more of the court records are held in databases and more and more are they very character specific. So if you flip two digits on a date of birth or the applicant does that, it could generate a false negative, and then you're not getting the information that you need. So really ensuring that the PII, the quality of the data that's going into the report is very clear and very correct. And then after the port, when the report is done and, completed and provided to you, make sure that the... If you are having an adverse, action on an individual, make sure the notices are going out. You have to allow for the reasonable dispute time across the country depending on the jurisdiction. This is another, you know, question that comes up on the adverse action process, between five and ten days. Some states allow for five. California is a ten day state. Most, CRAs kind of land in the middle to make sure that they're covering all their bases. But, again, in the end, that cadence, that timing is the responsibility of the employer. That gives the individual time if there is something inaccurate on the report to reach out to the CRA or whoever furnished that report and, ask to dispute information that they feel is inaccurate, or incorrectly applies to them. And then if there's no dispute and that final passes, make sure you're taking that final step and that final adverse action is going out. This is the documented... Legal document that states, because of something that was located in your background check, we are not moving forward with unemployment offer. That is key in closing out the process, and it also covers you to say, we did an individual assessment. We gave you an opportunity to dispute the information provided, and nothing has changed. We are continuing with our original decision, and we are not moving forward. All incredibly critical to get right, and repeat, the same over and over again. So time for another poll, and I'm gonna open this up in the tab, to your right. So click on the poll tab. It has a little red star above it. Click on that and then, complete your answer. So how would you rate your organization's current adverse action process? We have a document, a documented automated process entire... Where we're we're we're pretty confident in it. So that'd be answer a. Answer b, we have a process, but it hasn't been formally reviewed. Answer c, we follow our CRA's templates and assume that covers us. And, Mark, when you come back on, we've got a couple questions. If you could just, break down the CRA acronym for the folks, they would love that. And then, Dee, honestly, we're not sure in our... What our process looks like. And so we'll give people a few minutes to go ahead and answer the poll. We appreciate you, engaging with us here on this question. This is a great material that we can then share, on social media with folks and drive the further understanding of background screening. So with that, I'm gonna close it out here in three, two, one. So we're gonna close that poll out. And now I'm gonna share the results for review. So how would you rate your organization's current process? 20% of folks have a documented audit process that they're confident in, which is amazing. We... 24%, we have a process, but it hasn't been formally reviewed. We feel your pain there. 26%, we follow our CRA's templates and assume that covers us, and that kinda gets to the heart of why we're here today. And then 30%, honestly, we're not sure what our process looks like. And for those folks, we have, a poll at the end if you would like to to raise your hand. We do have a readiness work work... Walk through, excuse me, that you can participate in with one of our experts and pressure tense... Pressure test your current system. But I'll get into that more. And with that, I'm gonna turn it back. Alright. Thank you. Yes. And to go back, a CRA is a consumer reporting agency, and the the CRA is defined as... And any organization that prepares and provides a background screening report or a consumer report. And so that would be... CRA and background screening company are synonymous. There are different types of CRAs, whether it's a credit report, etcetera, but it's an organization that delivers consumer report. And so the... It's it's not surprising again to see a very kind of even broken up across the polls. You know, individuals or organizations that have been screening for a long time tend to have a a very mature, screening process and compliance process to review that. The good news is there's a lot of great information out there, but be very specific and picky about who you have guide you, on the needs, for your compliance. And, again, touching base on, the percentage that says the templates, the CRA's templates, We assume it's good. Make sure that you're reviewing those documents. Make sure that that CRA, the background screening company, is correctly sending the right documents on your behalf. Don't set it and forget it. Okay. Important. So where compliance actually breaks down, there's lots of places throughout the background screening process that there could be issues introduced, risk introduced, you know, from your end as an end user, from the CRA, the background screening company, and even some of the subcontractors. So inaccurate vendor data. So when a background check is being run, there are a multitude of sources that are used to compile a background check. Criminal county searches, statewide police databases, you know, ad hoc databases of of information looking for arrests, etcetera. The background check is only as good as that data is and data freshness. Data is considered fresh for a period of thirty days so that when you run a background check, that information, in in essence, is considered live and fresh for thirty days. But these third party subcontractors to CRAs or other people that you go to to do background checks on your behalf, you know, there can be errors there. Clerks make data entry errors entering information into the court PATs, public access access terminals, and, you know, making sure that whoever is doing these searches on your behalf has a process in place to vet and monitor those subcontractors, that's how you can have a a little bit better reassurance that the data is fresh, that the data is accurate, and also, which which reduces the amount of times that you will have to go through, or should reduce the amount of times that you'll have to go through a dispute, or reinvestigation process. A cleared report pitfall and, I'm specifically calling out this one because, it seems to be a growing item that we're seeing, hearing from clients, in many, many different verticals is, a false clear. So information was either researched incorrectly, it was poor PII, there was, a change in the result in flight, and that updated result didn't get back in time before adverse action was started. Again, being very knowledgeable of your CRA's processes, of your own processes for background screening helps remove some of that risk in ensuring that there's enough time that if there is an update to a search, whether it's like... An example here is, someone took a drug test. It originally came back as a positive. They provided prescription, information to the MRO, the medical review officer. The medical review officer signs off this. It says, yes. You were supposed to have these in your system and then overturns the, the positive drug screening into a negative drug screen. A lot of times, background screening companies or other organizations, a lot of these services are automated. You know, they wanna get things through the system as quickly as possible. So if if the user who ordered this gets that result and sees that it's positive and they make an adverse, decision based on that information, but in the meantime, it's reversed and flipped to a clear, you know, there could be an issue there. You you can stop adverse action and update that, but just having visibility into that really helps mitigate that that risk. Misreading scoring. This one, I think, really lends to having a very clear and concise, background screening program, that's reviewed on a... An... On a normal cadence and that everyone who is a decision maker is very aware of, has access to these documents at every time. Because you are supposed to give an individual assessment for every applicant, and simply because if you're using a CRA and you get the copy of the report back and there's things that they point out are as areas that you need to review, that doesn't necessarily mean this is something you should not hire them for. It's something that is... You know, there are clear reports where there's absolutely no no information to review, nothing exists whatsoever on the individual. But sometimes, those information that comes back, that could be potentially... You know, it could be a criminal record. It could be, information on a license. It could be any number of things that needs just an additional look because it's not simply clear. So having sort of a, blanket decision on, those types of things is a really bad idea, individual assessment, and work with your CRA to learn what their scoring means so that you are understanding it so that your team can apply those, correctly. Big point, to go over right now, hot topic for a lot of people. Everyone is hearing AI every time you turn on the news, every website you open, and that is something that is becoming part of new legislation, as it emerges and gets into more industries. And there may be a time, and now's a good time to start looking into it. Do we need to put, handling in place to ensure that there's no, AI bias entered into the process, whether it's your process or your screener's process or anyone who's using that to provide and create these reports. You know, there are a lot of, New York and California seem to always be leading, on these types of, statutes and legislation, basically saying how there may be new disclosures to say, in this process, AI was used here. Please be aware. And so, decision making, don't ever let AI make decisions for you. The tool is great. It can save a lot of time, but it's a great way to elevate information so that you can make a decision faster. But really talk to your legal counsel about when and where that type of, technology should be used. Data privacy, GDPR, CCPA, and all the other acronym acronyms that are out there. Basically, they're state and federal privacy laws that really expand the coverage into the screening data for an individual. Just like the FCRA is there to ensure that they know what their rights are, that they can contest the information if they feel it's inaccurate, there are other individual states that have further obligations for the for the candidate to reach out and have information amended at a data source or, you know, just expanded coverage to really ensure that the individual's data privacy is covered. And there's a lot of, obligations there for employers to make sure that they are using the information properly, housing it properly, making sure it's not being exposed, etcetera. And then CRA vendor oversight. So this is something I kinda touched on earlier. So employers carry the oversight obligation that is not really operationalized until there's an issue. Talk to your CRA. If you're using a CRA for background checks, ask them what their process is, not only for vetting, who they're using and sending your information to, but what safeties, and security protocols they have in place. This is your data. This is your candidate's data. Make sure that the CRA has everything in place to protect that candidate's information, and then as they go through the process, these are questions you have every right to ask. These are questions that you should ask. You know, a lot of times only at onboarding when you're looking at going to a new CRA. But if if you do have a cadence compliance review, you know, you have every right to ask those questions of your CRA. Alright. So a practical path forward. Lots of scary topics, lots of things to to to think about and consider, especially if you're an organization, again, who has locations across the country. Some of these things that you should just have on your checklist. Audit your FCR disclosure forms. Is it stand alone and free of extraneous language? If you're using a CRA, I'm gonna double down, review those documents. Make sure that they are properly representing the f c a... FCA rules, with your candidates. In the end, again, the responsibility is yours as the employer. So if the CRA is not using the appropriate forms in appropriate format, that could fall on you as the employer, not the CRA. Map your full adverse action timeline against, your state specific overlays. So really dig into those areas that you feel or you discover have additional work in adverse action. If you're hiring in New York, if you're hiring in California, those two states have very implicit directions on questions you need to ask, things you need to take into consider, giving the the candidate an opportunity to, provide a, a letter of explanation about the topic or something that may have happened. But have those things clearly defined in a document that all of your decision makers have access to, Routinely review it. Routinely send the team through it for training. Make sure you're staying EEO compliant and applying the same rules across the board for the same positions. Keep an inventory of state and local notices that apply to your hiring footprint. Again, if you're using a CRA, they should have all of these documents in place. You have the right and you should be asking them, are you sending out the appropriate notices? This is this is where I function. This is where I operate. Are you sending out these letters in Minnesota? Are you sending out California, Washington? You know, so work with the CRA, find out what the information they have, have your legal team look at it, verify everything's good to go so that your bases are covered. Review your contract, and the data sources, their SLAs, any sort of indemnities and audit rights. You know, again, this is your information. You're responsible for it, and you have every right to ask your CRA whether... What processes they have in place not only to protect it, but, what kind of auditing do they do, not only of their internal processes, but also, their suppliers and subcontractors, even employees. Like, how are they ensuring that employees are continually trained on what they can and can't do? You know, that... That's all a great topic of discussion to know, especially if you're moving into a relationship with a new CRA or into us working with the CRA for the first time. And then identify any AI or other algorithmic, automations that are in place and used in the process. You know, there are... The laws around this are new. A lot of the... A lot of it is so new. There are no laws. But really taking consideration with the the vast boom right now in AI, if you are leveraging a CRA or other entity to do any sort of background screen, ask the question, hey. Do you use AI in your processes? If you do, where? It's important to know that there's a big difference if they're... If AI is being utilized in a support or information sharing motion or if it's actually in doing some of the work in compiling the background check. It's important to know because that may change how you document or react or decision, on a background screening report. Something that is kind of a cool tip, and I've I've I've heard a lot of organizations moving to this as part of that, background screening program, is really put together an adjudication matrix, for your team. Make it very clear what types of things will preclude someone from being hired. A lot of regulatory... Regulated industries, the state tells you what a person can and can't have. But if you're not one of those organizations, you really should have it documented. These are the 50, 60, 10 things that we will not accept in our organization. And make sure everyone who... Again, all decision makers who are making decisions on background checks have access to that information. They can easily see the stack of of rules that you have in place, to deny, employment based on the background check. And then also, there's always gonna be kind of those subjective gray areas in that adjudication matrix, but that's also a good place to have it documented. So, like, if you have someone who happens to have a DUI, come up in their background check, but it's not a dis... A driving position, that may fall in a column that says, this is not a driving role. Review deeper. And so then you can have a a deeper discussion with other decision makers if that's something you wanna move forward with. The the idea is to have it very clearly documented so that it can be repeated over and over again, with accuracy, and that really helps protect you, in these situations where you're, having to make decisions across different geographies that have different rules. And then that lens right into, the other piece of the document you're mapping that says, okay. We've gone through this. The person, is going to be adverse. We know the steps that we have to do in this state. And that way, again, the team feels confident in their decision making, and that really protects you and reduces the risk of not following the rules and regulations for those specific geographies. Alright. Thank you, Brian. Yeah. Absolutely. So that was a great presentation, Mark, and we're gonna jump into some questions and answer in a little bit. Just, you know, wanted to share with folks that, you know, obviously, clarity is the answer when complexity rears its ugly head. And, this is a great slide because it identifies, you know, back... Background screening, and what's, what's, knowing exactly what the CRA's responsibility, where it ends and yours begins, mapping your adverse action timeline, identifying the tools, all the things that we talked about, in this presentation. And if it's something that you'd like to discuss with an expert, we make available a background screening readiness walk through. It's a thirty minute guided conversation designed to help you kinda clearly articulate what you have going on in your current background screening process, identify where operational complexity, maybe requires stronger structure, and then align hiring velocity with client's confidence. And I'm gonna go ahead and launch a poll right now. Move to the next slide. Launch a poll now. And if you would like, to raise your hand, to either, request a thirty minute background screening, walk through, or you'd like to find out a little bit more information, we'll make that available to you now. So I'm gonna go ahead and open up the poll. And if you go to the tab in the right top corner, you'll see poll, appear there with a red star above it, and you can go ahead and, raise your hand if you like or, say you'd like some more information or say, you know, thanks but no thanks, which is always a valid answer. But, when I send out the presentation, at the, after the... Tomorrow, you'll receive an email with a recording link to the presentation. We'll also make the slides available. There'll be a link in there, and you can click on that if you, you know, decide that you'd like to explore that in a little a little bit more detail. Right. So we're gonna go ahead... Looks like we've achieved a threshold there. We're gonna go ahead and close that out, and we appreciate everyone participating in that. We also have another poll available. If you're in the audience today and you've liked the information that you've heard and like to potentially explore a partnership with NutriTech, to deliver this solution or other HR and compliance solutions with... To your book of business, your client base, and you'd like to explore that and have a conversation, we'll make a poll available right now. You can answer yes. Please have someone reach out to me directly, interested in exploring a partnership with MetroTech. Possibly, I'd like more information. Or no. Not at this time. And we'll just make that poll available for a couple minutes longer, and then we're gonna jump into the q and a. Lot of great questions on the q and a right now. So gonna go ahead and close that out. And you can always reach out to me at [email protected] if you have any further questions, and you'll be receiving an email from me with all of these links that you can, take advantage of in the future. Just a quick, note. We have an I nine, webinar coming up on June 24, remote hiring, real risk, getting the DHS alternative procedure right with Brian Egan. I will be hosting that along with Brian Egan, and I put the registration link in the chat, and I'll post that out, and make that available in the follow-up email. And if you enjoyed your time with Mark today, don't worry. He's got a new episode coming up July 22. You have a screening process, but do you have a program? So that sounds like a lot of fun and, very informative. And with that, Mark, you wanna dive into some questions? I'll take that as a yes. You're on mute, buddy, I think. Yeah. I'll I'll go ahead and start diving through some of these. So, there are a couple questions specifically about, assuring that they're applying the correct rules in terms of the results. And that really goes back to, you know, working with your internal internal counsel or whatever counsel you have access to, looking at each job description and what your categories of risk are for each individual. It does take time, but if you take the time and get it right, you end up with a really good set of rules and instructions, that your team can follow. There are so many, you know, variations of things to consider. Just really be cautious of any sort of, like, blanket statements, like, we will not hire any felons or we will not hire any whatever. But as long as you have those rules clearly defined and documented, someplace that all of the decision makers have access to, you're really going to reduce your risk of any sort of EEO issue or hiring. You also remove a lot of the, being unsure, a lot of confusion from those hiring people like, well, this guy has this thing or this person has this thing, and I'm not really sure if that meets, you know, these criteria. But if you've got it documented in that policy, it really makes that decisioning, that much easier. But it is it is... It can be a lift to get there. And a lot of people, what they do is they just kind of historically, tribally know, well, we know we don't want this in our organization. You know, it's time to take that tribal information, that tribal knowledge, document it, put it down on paper. That way, it's, it's available and ready and easy to review. Alright. Let's see what else we have here. So when hits come back, it's often hard to interpret them given acronyms of unfamiliarity. Agreed. There are, you know, so many courts with so many acronyms. If you are getting report from a CRA, utilize that CRA. Ask those questions of them. What does this mean? Explain this to me. That is what they're there for. It's better to reach out and be certain of what those acronyms mean than assume, because there are, you know you know, a DUI and a OWI. So one is operating while intoxicated, one is driving under intoxication. Is it different? Someone argued yes, someone argued no. But rather than guessing, always ask, always the clarity. That's what your screener is there for. If you're not using a screener, spend some time, do some research, ask the source. If you're getting it directly from a court, if you can get hold of a clerk, call them up and ask them. But definitely don't guess. You don't wanna get on that bus. The company does not work with a CRA. Where can we find resources on disclosure? That's a great question. There are a lot of organizations out there who, can assist you with that. If you reach out to Brian, I know that we have some, information that we can share with you to help with that piece. But, if you're... You know, the Internet is an amazing and also dangerous place. If you are looking for these documents, it would be best to engage some sort of legal counsel to make sure that you're getting the right thing rather than just simply pulling them off the web or be... Or providing something that says... From maybe another organization that says, this is what we use. Here you go. Use this. Because it is not a one size fit all cookie cutter type thing. So, I would recommend partnering with a good, you know, employment law or legal counsel organization or another agency that offers that type of information, and because you don't wanna get that piece wrong. Alright. Next question. Is there a way to find out if a CRA has commonly provided misinformation leading to faulty faulty adverse results? So, CRAs, I mean, you you basically are paying them for a service, ask those questions. Reach out to your CRAs and ask them what there's... What their dispute rate is, what is their error rate. That is information that a good CRA who is very proud of their processes, is happy to share with you. So, again, if if you're... If if you have any questions of the CRA and what they're doing, reach out to your contact there and ask that question. Alright. Let's see what else we got. So mentioning having a hiring plan in place, does there have to be a written plan, acceptance, rejection process? There doesn't have to be, but I would highly, highly recommend it be a documented process. Because if something ever happens and it goes to litigation, you have a document that is tracked, monitored, updated frequently, and is going to be a great tool in helping you. If... When the question comes up, why did you make the decision, you could at least lend to this document that says, well, all of our decision makers have access to this, policy, this hiring plan, and these are our rules and regulations. And as you could see, based on this plan, we move forward with adverse action because of line 37 and line 42. It's really about reducing your risk. It's really about making sure that you're covered in the event something happens. You know, just like with anything else in the world, you know, be very cautious of thinking it'll never happen to me. It will happen, and it'll be... If it does happen, you wanna be prepared. Okay. If a candidate comes back with an infraction that is not a problem for hiring, do we still have to send a pre adverse and adverse action letter? It's a great conversation to have with your CRA. The the rule of thumb really is, if you wanna hire someone, even if adverse information is reported, you can do that. If someone comes back as a convicted felon or has any sort of driving thing or whatever, it's your choice to say, you know what? I'm okay with that, and I can move forward and hire them, and then you can bypass the adverse action process. The adverse action process only has to be run if you are making an adverse decision based on the information pry... Provided in the background check report. And then just also understand that that candidate has the right to review that report and dispute any information on that report if it's considered inaccurate or they feel it's not up to date. So, it's your choice. You can choose to move forward with the candidate if they've got a laundry list of of of adverse items on their background check or not. That's up to you. Just make sure you've got those process documented so that if it comes into question or something happens and you hired someone that did have something adverse, you're covered because you were following your policy. Alright. If you have a box that, has a checkbox... Wait. If you have any box to check-in the employment application that says, I consent to a background check, does that suffice? Ask the question of legal counsel. There's gotta be clear and concise, disclosure and, consent and disclosure steps. Cannot be part of the... Of an application, cannot be included with any other wording. There are great examples that you can find, you know, through your CRA, if you're using a CRA, or again, reach out to legal counsel, find a good employment lawyer, but they have to be clear and clear and conspicuous consent and disclosure. And I think that's it for the questions. Okay. Excellent. Well, fantastic job, Mark. We really appreciate your time today sharing this information with us. And a big thank you to all of our attendees. We appreciate you joining us for this webinar. And with that, we will close it out. Please look for more information from NatureTech regarding this webinar, the recording, the slide presentation, and a lot of helpful links if you want to, you know, connect with us further. And do, look out for our webinars on the twenty fourth for I nine verification and, additional webinar here in July... Coming in July, July 22 with Mark, regarding background screening. If you have a screening process... You have a screening process, but do you have a program? And with that, I wish everyone a great day. Goodbye.