The term free background check would have caused plenty of raised eyebrows several years ago. After all, this was something that many regarded as unethical and at times, illegal.
Suffice to say, the nature of these checks has changed significantly. Now, they are seen as anything but the above and are used by a wide range of individuals – for both professional and personal reasons.
For the purpose of highlighting just how important these background checks have come in relation to modern-day life, we will now take a look at some of the main uses that people are tapping into them for.
The employee background check
One of the biggest ways in which background checks have shaken an industry up has come in relation to the recruitment process. Once upon a time, there was little employers could do to check that everything an applicant was noting down on their CV was indeed correct. Now, they can validate anything.
For example, educational verification used to be a big burden for smaller companies. Reaching out to each educational institution that a candidate attended was time-consuming and just difficult to do. It meant that a lot of candidates were getting jobs who actually weren’t qualified. In the modern-day, this doesn’t occur, and companies can quickly verify that a person has all of the qualifications that they listed on their CV.
It doesn’t just relate to education, though. For example, companies are now able to delve into a person’s credit history, or even their financial. For some roles this is very important, but it’s worth mentioning that the rules are strict and there must be a good reason (i.e., it relates to the role in question) for a company to request such personal data.
It can work both ways as well…
Following on from the above, it’s worth mentioning that these background checks can also work to the advantage of the employee. For example, if someone is receiving rejection after rejection, this might be due to a minor blot in their history. Sure, nobody can rewrite history, but if you are at least aware of some of the reasons why your applications are not being successful you might be able to apply to a different type of job, or at least try and reach out to a potential employer and explain your plight in the early stages of the process.
People are checking out their partners
Perhaps one of the more interesting ways in which people are tapping into these services comes from a personal point of view. Particularly with online dating rife, a lot of individuals are checking their partners through one of these databases to ensure that they are exactly who they say they are. This is something that would have most definitely have been frowned upon several years ago, but now the power of online dating is in full swing it would be fair to say that opinions about the practice have become more relaxed.
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