Background Checks & The Cannabis Industry: What You Need To Know
46% of resumes contain falsified or glorified information. How does your company verify everything listed on a resume that matters to your specific business? The numbers do not lie.
Cannabis will be a top growth industry over the next decade. As a result, your industry is positioned to offer more than a million jobs. A million jobs will mean more than five million interviews.
Background screening provides insight and security for employers to make informed decisions in the hiring process based on the history of the candidate.
Think of background screening as a type of inexpensive insurance. We are here with a few easy tips to help you protect what you are building and have confidence as you grow over the next decade. Background Checks exist to assist you in protecting these highly important assets:
- People
- Product
- Profit
- Data
- Brand
- Trade secrets
Not all Background Checks Are Equal
Most Background Screening Companies are defined as a” Consumer Reporting Agencies”, pursuant to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and regulated by the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Employers must also strictly adhere to the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) laws.
Regulations and laws change constantly (many at the state and now city levels) a third-party background screening offers a host of educational information and automatic compliance solutions to ease your hiring and decision-making process while assisting in compliance solutions for all the parties listed above.
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According to the Federal Trade Commission the use of Background Reports is highly privileged and highly regulated, so here are the special rules to know and follow: FTC Background checks
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You MUST have “permissible purpose” to run a background check on someone. Permissible purposes include employment, volunteers, and tenants. You cannot run a background check on someone without a legitimate permissible purpose. Employment may consider contractors and temporary workers.
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You MUST obtain authorization in writing in a standalone document that you might use the information to decide employment and request permission in writing.
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Your applicant will provide confidential information to obtain a background check. Typically it requires the following highly sensitive and confidential information including full legal name, date of birth, SSN, address history for last 7-10 years, employment or educational information if requested.
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As an employer if you do not hire, keep or promote an applicant because of something in the report, you must give them a copy of the report and Summary of Rights, that tells you how to contact the company that provided the report.
Q: What if they do not give you permission to run a background check?
A: You may advise they should understand this may disqualify them from consideration and you, the employer may reject their application automatically.
Business Best Practice Tip: #1
Create your company policy on background screening and stick to it!
Create the best background screening strategy for your company and adhere to it for all your future hiring!
Where To Begin
Not all background searches are the same. Create the best background screening strategy for your culture/company and adhere to it for all your future hiring. We always recommend running a county of residence search for the last 7 years.
County searches dig deeper into the library of the county and circuit courts, some of which do not report their information up to the state level. In fact, with 3400 counties in the USA, there are over a hundred different ways information is delivered to/from the courts.
Furthermore, hundreds of courts that do not deliver information up to the state at all. Some counties only deliver information when requested in writing through the circuit court judge. Some states do allow a lifetime scope of looking into an employee’s criminal past and some states limit it.
As a business owner in a large growth industry, you have so much to protect. Simple background screening can easily protect your assets with:
- Criminal Background Checks
- Drug Screening
- Verifications (employment, education, license)
- Credit reports
- Online access 24/7 365 (most results instant)
This article was written in partnership with Background Checks to serve business owners in the cannabis industry. Background Checks champions your past efforts to help you protect your future. They offer compliant online solutions to make background screening easy.
Set up a free online account with no contracts, no minimums, and no annual fees. We want to earn your business with every order, every call, every day. Call 855-882-4422, email support@outspokebgc.com, or visit us at www.outspokebgc.com today and protect your future.
