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The Pros and Cons of Ongoing Background Screening
Earlier this week, Patrick Rogan, founder and managing director of IgnitionHR, an agency offering HR services, leadership, and risk audits, joined S2Verify for another episode of America Back to Work: Expert Interview Series.
An expert in helping organizations minimize employee risk–from hiring risk to compliance risk to compensation and beyond—Rogan is noticing a major trend developing amongst his clients: employee background screening that continues regularly past the hiring stage.
The Emergence of Ongoing Background Screening
Employee background screening during the hiring process and before employment has become standard practice for many organizations across the country—especially in the face of hybrid work (which makes it more difficult to screen candidates effectively).
In fact, many candidates now expect and accept it as an extra hoop to jump through when applying for jobs, with more than 70% of employers conducting background checks of some kind.
What candidates might not expect when applying for the job, however, is to be continuously screened throughout their tenure, post-hire.
Ongoing background screening monitors employee records in real-time to flag internal threats and safety concerns. It’s a risk management exercise designed to maintain workplace safety and automates other HR-related risk management tasks.
Companies like Lyft and Uber recently went public with their plans to conduct ongoing background screening for their gig workers, looking for regular updates on drivers’ records, including new criminal violations and license suspensions.
Even the U.S. Government’s Office of Personnel Management has proposed a new rule under which all federal employees would be subject to ongoing screening.
While many businesses are taking the leap to reinforce their defenses against employee risk through post-hire screening, the practice could have unforeseen negative impacts and other hidden risks built in.
Post-Hire Screening: Is It Worth It?
Below is a list of pros and cons for ongoing employee screening to determine if it is right for your business.
| Pros | Cons |
| Reduces Risk
Employers are more likely to detect employee threats–like out-of-date certifications or poor credit that could indicate future theft–and stop them before they affect the larger business. |
Privacy Concerns
Workers may be less attracted to working for your organization, knowing that their data will be looked at closely on a regular basis, potentially increasing turnover or decreasing applicant pools. Plus, ongoing screening could impact company culture negatively by reducing the overall sense of trust. |
| Increases Workplace Safety
Ongoing employee screening, particularly around criminal behavior, ensures that all employees are safe in the workplace–at all times. |
Cost
Employee background checks can cost anywhere between $5 – $500, depending on the level of detail needed in the report. Multiplied by the number of employees an organization employs and the frequency of screening? That’s a large number to add to the HR budget. |
| Opens Workforce Doors
With the introduction of remote work and the gig economy, the way workers are working is changing–making it difficult for companies to track the activity of their workforce. Ongoing screening, however, is an easy way to keep a pulse on employee activity, making it easier for employers to adopt new work styles. |
Compliance
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), all background checks–including ongoing background screening–must be performed with employee consent. While some authorization forms are evergreen and require a one-time consent, an employee could withdraw their consent anytime, increasing compliance risk. |
| Positive Brand Impression
Last June, Uber faced a suit from a woman alleging assault by one of their drivers. That’s likely one of the reasons they adopted ongoing screening for employees. Not only does the practice reduce the risk that incidents of this kind will happen again, but it also makes customers more likely to use your product or service, knowing they will be safe. |
Data Security
Human resources departments collect and house some of the most highly sensitive data on company networks. Monitoring employee records in real-time means accumulating even more sensitive data which–if leaked–can cause major legal, financial, and reputational damage to the larger organization and employees themselves (i.e. identity theft). |
Further Considerations
Every organization is unique. So, while the pros and cons listed above are a great framework for determining whether ongoing employment screening is worth it, there are a few other factors to take into consideration:
Company size
How many employees does your organization employ? For smaller companies, it’s easier for HR departments to keep a pulse on employee activity, engagement, and well-being–and, in that case, the cost of investing in ongoing screening might not be worth it. That investment makes more sense for larger companies with bigger HR budgets and a reduced ability to track employees.
Work model
Does your organization employ hybrid workers? Does it hire across state lines? It’s extremely difficult to keep up with remote employees, especially those that live in another state–making ongoing screening an attractive option for employers that utilize hybrid or remote-first work models.
Type of Employees
Does your company use gig workers to drive revenue? Does it rely on freelancers and independent contractors to get work done? Or, are most employees long-term and salaried? For employers with more fluid workforces, ongoing screening is a great way to ensure that transient workers can come and go as they please without incurring risk. For employers with a more stable workforce, post-hire screening might be overkill.
HR Resources + Technology
Ongoing screening means more data—which means you need the right technology to collect it and the right people to do something with it. Do you have the technology to collect more employee data? If not, is there room in the budget to onboard new technology? Do you have someone that can manage the operations and analyze the data? It’s critical to think through HR staffing and technical needs before making the decisions to conduct ongoing screening–otherwise, it might not be worth it.