Background Check Manual

for Small Business Owners and Nonprofit Organizations

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915)

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

Thankfully, most citizens are law abiding, motivated to help others by kindness and compassion. Predatory scumbags, on the other hand, amount to only a small minority of our population, but are forever looking for ways to take from others. As the head high potentate in charge of background checks, it’s your job to squeeze the bad guys and leave them no room to operate, without making the good folks feel like criminals.

Required Equipment

Any business or nonprofit group with access to basic office equipment can perform their own background checks. You’ll need:

• Computer with internet access
• Printer
• Fax machine (optional)

Material Covered

This section outlines the record checks, validations, and verifications you’ll learn to perform using this manual:

• Social Security Validation and Verification
• Personal Reference Checks
• Verification of Employment
• State Criminal Records (where available)
• County Criminal Records
• Driver Records (Motor Vehicle Records)
• Verification of Education or Professional Licensure
• Sex Offender Databases

The Quickstart Checklist from appendix B organizes the process and guides you step by step, while the forms A-E serve as a permanent report for your files.

In the appendix section, you’ll find:

• Quickstart Checklist
  • Streamlines the process, giving you a starting point and reference for progress. Mark it up, make notes in the margins and keep a copy with the permanent record.
• Forms A-E
  • Designed to keep data organized during the background check process and provide a permanent record when you’re finished. Completed sample forms are included. See the bookmarks for quick access to these.
• Resources
  • Gives suggestions for further reading, websites to visit, and related organizations. Most of this information is also available on the links page of our website, http://www.conniebrz.com/
• Complete copy of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
  • Understanding this tome of bureaucratic literature will require a Philadelphia lawyer and a Klingon dictionary, but if you own a business or you’re thinking about hiring a background check company, you’d better go through the FCRA with a highlighter.

Note:

Most nonprofit groups and small business owners check the same county and state information repeatedly. Check your phone book or call the local library’s reference desk for county courthouse information.  State contact information is found in Appendix A.

Background check companies performing checks all over the United States use large databases to find phone numbers and addresses for state and county repositories.  For landlords renting to a transient population and/or some nonprofit groups with a larger geographic scope, an invaluable resource is:

BRB Publications: The Sourcebook to Public Record Information 9^th Edition  

From their website (quoted with permission), “Professionals frustrated with searching for public records can now get accurate and current information on how to obtain records directly from the source. The 9th edition of The Sourcebook to Public Record Information profiles in detail over 20,000 government agencies that house public records. More than a directory, the agency profiles found in The Sourcebook include access procedures, access restrictions, fees, online capabilities, turnaround times, along with addresses, phone/fax numbers, and additional information.”

BRB is currently offering this information in three formats; in book form ($89), cdrom (The Public Records Research System CD is currently out of print), and online as a subscription service (prices start at $10.95 per month). http://www.brbpub.com/default.asp

Next: Overview of the Background Check Process

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