Free Background Check: Employee Screening on Your Own

Free Background Check: Employee Screening on Your Own

Article by Jim Chou

Conducting a free background check on your own is possible. Yet, as the reality of life states, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” One way or another, you would still be paying for the gathered information in your employee screening. It might not be an upfront fee but it can take the form of travel expenses or telephone bills.

But if you really want to do it yourself, here are five ways on how you can gather information for your employee screening and background search.

Search the databases. The internet has tons of public information sites you can use to gather information about your applicant as part of the background check. Public records are available in some states through governmental websites. With a few keystrokes, you may be able to find the information you need. But a word of caution: you must have a keen eye in sorting through the information you gather over the internet as you can never be assured that they are up to date or even accurate.

The second thing you can do as part of you employee screening is calling your applicant’s references. Checking for credentials and references like previous schools and past employers are vital for background check. Licenses can also be verified through contacting agencies who govern the dissemination of professional accreditation.

Visiting the local courthouses is another thing you can do to check up on your prospective employee. A county criminal search is a very dependable source due to its timeliness and accuracy. Also, a county criminal search is convenient because it can be done locally and they have a much focused point compared to a state or federal criminal record search.

After checking a courthouse, you can then check departmental agencies to see if you can conduct a criminal record search on your applicant. The most visited departments for an employee screening usually are the Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Transportation, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Federal Trade Commission among others. Usually, criminal record search done through department agencies dependence on the job description being applied to.

And lastly, you can perform a background search of a person through interviewing the people who surrounds the applicant. Family members, neighbors, friends and past co-workers can give you information about the applicant’s state of mind and character.

A free background check done on your own does sound to be a lot of work and needs a good eye for relevant and vital information. Just keep in mind that you must always be responsible about the information you gather whether it is accurate or timely to evade any future problems in doing an employee screening.

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