- Criminal record checks are at four-year highs in North America, Asia, EMEA and Latin America.
- Drug screening is common in North America; the US has seen many states loosen rules on marijuana.
Companies around the world are grappling with how much scrutiny they need to give job candidates and whether to conduct drug screenings and social media checks.
A new survey found work history, identity information, and education checks were some of the most widely conducted reviews on job candidates' backgrounds globally.
Criminal record checks are at the highest rate in four years in North America; the Asia-Pacific region; Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and Latin America. They remain the most commonly conducted pre-employment checks in North America, according to HireRight's recently released 2023 global benchmark report, which gathered responses from about 2,000 participants between mid-February and mid-March 2022.
Employment and education checks take the top spots for the most widely conducted checks in EMEA and the Asia-Pacific region, respectively. In fact, employment checks in EMEA have continued rising year over year, with nine in 10 respondents from the region saying they verify their candidates' work history.
Meanwhile, 87% of Asia-Pacific respondents say they conduct education checks, compared with 46% in North America and 71% in EMEA.
"Whether a company is screening their candidates because it is a legal requirement in their industry, to help weed out under qualified individuals in the recruitment process, or to protect their company's reputation and brand name from the potential impact of a bad hire, background screening ultimately helps employers to reduce the risk of each new hire through a tried-and-tested due diligence process," Caroline Smith, vice president and deputy general counsel at HireRight said, according to the survey.
More North American companies might consider conducting background checks on candidates given how New York Rep. George Santos lied about his background during his campaign.
Following his election in November, a stream of news reports — which were largely set off by a bombshell New York Times report — revealed that Santos had told numerous lies about his background during his campaign, which included fabrications related to his education, work history, and family background. Recruiters previously told Insider that much of Santos' résumé was suspicious, including what they saw as careless formatting.
These revelations about Santos' background convinced many Long Islanders — including local Republicans who had backed his candidacy, and other members of the GOP — to call for his resignation.
In May, Santos was hit with criminal charges by the Justice Department.
Another type of background check, drug and health screening, remains the most common in North America, with 61% of respondents taking such steps. Only one-third of Asia-Pacific respondents and 20% of EMEA respondents saying they conduct drug testing.
The survey pointed out that in the US, efforts to decriminalize marijuana in a number of states might be stopping companies from conducting drug screening. Indeed, 19% of North American companies are planning to stop or are considering halting testing for marijuana unless doing so is required by law. Prestigious Wall Street banks have already ditched marijuana testing, Insider previously reported.
Many industries across the world don't require drug testing. And survey respondents said that complexities around coordination, time, and cost are considerations around whether to drug test.
Around 62% of respondents from North America whose company conducts drug testing said they screen all positions, regardless of seniority or perceived risk.
HireRight found that social media screening was a hot topic, with the survey responses showing that there has been year-over-year growth worldwide in the number of organizations doing social media checks.
Around 20% of EMEA participants do social media screening, while 17% of Asia-Pacific and only 10% of North American companies include this in pre-employment screening. Around three in 10 respondents globally said they don't know enough about social media screening to use it.
"In the US, numerous states have passed laws restricting an employer's access to the social media accounts held by a prospective candidate or worker," Alonzo Martinez, associate general counsel at HireRight said, according to the survey.
"Employers must be wary of imparting bias into employment decisions," Martinez said, and cautioned that "when employers comb an individual's social media profiles to assess a candidate's fit within an organization and identify potential risks, employers can't unsee what they've seen. This could lead to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) concerns, as it is crucial only to consider non-discriminatory and job relevant information throughout the hiring process."
While many employers don't do pre-screenings, there have been reports of workers getting cut from jobs due to social media postings. These include a Meta worker who said she was fired for posting on TikTok, a Walmart employee who said she was let go for posting about her workday, and a Denver tech worker who said she was fired for sharing her paycheck on TikTok.