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Background Checks

One of the most current and most popular trends in the background checking arena is running a fingerprint check on candidates for employment.  Just on the surface, one would think, because everybody’s fingerprints are unique, that doing a fingerprint check would be a foolproof way to check out job applicants.

Well, as they say out in the country, “t’aint so!”  In the first place, the FBI fingerprint database wasn’t created to be a background checking device.  The FBI data base contains no information about the disposition of any charge that has been filed against a person.  So, prospective employers have no idea what happened after fingerprints were taken.

Furthermore, as was noted in a recent CNN article, “screeners and employment law experts note…that the FBI fingerprint database used to check…criminal record[s] is neither complete nor always accurate.”  So much for fingerprinting as being the ultimate background checking device!  There is no substitute for using multiple tools to make sure that the candidate is really all he or she claims to be.