Best Practices for Conducting Background Checks for Remote Candidates
Allowing employees to work remotely may increase your company’s candidate pool while also helping to increase worker productivity and satisfaction. However, it’s important to do your due diligence prior to making a hiring decision regardless of where this person is working from.
Know the Law
Generally speaking, remote workers are covered by the employment laws in the state where they are actually performing tasks. Furthermore, they are also covered by federal laws if they are classified as employees. Therefore, you may not be able to ask about a candidate’s criminal history or ask for certain financial or other personal records until after an offer of employment has been made.
How Far Should You Dig?
Even if you have a legal right to ask for social media passwords or other data, doing so may only annoy a candidate and cause that person to seek employment elsewhere. Ideally, you will only seek data that is relevant to whether a person can do the job effectively. For instance, it may be worthwhile to ask to run a credit check on those applying for a job in accounting or a job that requires them to handle money transfers.
You may also need to run a criminal background check on anyone who may be interacting with minors during the course of their working days. This might apply to applicants who are looking to work with foreign students who are learning English or applicants who may be seeking work providing telehealth services for teens.
If you are looking to find the best fit for your company’s existing job openings, consider partnering with Private Eyes. We offer a variety of screening tools that can help you find workers who will help your company grow and be an ideal representation of what your business and its brand stand for.
Have questions? Speak to a Private Eyes expert for more information.