Your Adverse-Action Workflow Starts Too Late

Most HR departments run a disciplined background check process. First, they provide the applicant with notice of the check and obtain the applicant's written permission. If information in the report may affect an employment decision, the employer provides the applicant with a copy and an opportunity to respond before making a final decision. That machinery is well-built and well-documented. It is also too late, because the screen that eliminates the largest number of applicants now happens weeks earlier. What's more, the same statute may already cover it.

The half of the FCRA that belongs to you

The Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes two separate sets of duties. One set governs the company that assembles and sells the report. The other governs the employer that uses it, and HR compliance is built almost entirely around it: disclosures, notices, a summary of the candidate's rights, a reasonable interval, and a final adverse action notice. See 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2) and (b)(3).