EBI's own background screening library.

With the resources EBI has at its disposal for background screening, drug testing, and human resources management, we felt it was time to offer a consolidated location for accessing many of our best public research materials, hence EBI's background screening online library was born.

You'll also find a complete archive of our EBI Advisor, our periodic newsletter on the background screening industry located here.

You're welcome to use and quote any of these resources, in whole or part, as long as you offer complete attribution to this page and our site.

Current topic: Background Checks Are They a Danger? Recently in the news there’s been much noise made about the dangers of background checks. Stories of the wrongly accused are surfacing right and left, the most famous being a 19-year old girl who didn’t get a cashier’s position because of a mythical “rap sheet” that turned up felonies and misdemeanors. It took 6 weeks to clear her name. Other examples of background checks gone wrong include misdemeanors listed as felonies, cases of mistaken identities, and more. But nothing is worse than the criminal background check that fails to turn up important evidence, such as the Wal Mart case where an employee, who supposedly had undergone a standard criminal background check, was hired because his history as a sex offender did not appear! He later accosted an adolescent girl in the workplace. So, are background checks a danger? Only when they’re cheap. The "free background check" or "instant background check" ads you see on television and on the internet will give you what you pay for. This is just a sad truth of the business. As demands for background screening go up, mostly in an attempt to avoid negligent hiring lawsuits, many unscrupulous companies have appeared promising that that free background check will provide you with all you need. This couldn’t be farther from the truth – in a field that lacks consistent standards, and deals with records scattered across 3,142 counties, an instant background check just doesn’t exist. But the greatest irony is this: true background screening will cost more than that instant background check, but will actually save the employer vast amounts of money in the end (and this doesn’t even include avoiding those pricey lawsuits). A recent study on the expense of background screening reveals that the money employers save by not hiring unqualified or otherwise undesirable employees far outweighs the cost of the screening. This includes the kind of cost accrued in having to fire someone, and rehire another employee, and involves conservative estimations for things like lost productivity, healthcare claims, and unemployment. In fact, most employers stand to save twice as much money as they spend in background screening, while simultaneously avoiding lawsuits, and protecting their other employees. On top of all this, they also avoid the expense of having to train the replacement employees of those that wash out or get fired from negligent hiring. So while those free background checks are indeed a danger to employers and their company, a solid, reputable company like EBI will provide you with peace of mind, along with all the benefits of a screening process that will help ensure your employees are suitable for your firm. Call EBI to discuss a background screening program to suit your company's needs. Our comprehensive screening programs can help ensure you're hiring qualified candidates and avoiding less desirable ones. Criminal records searches. Random drug testing. Reference checks. Everything for a comprehensive picture of your prospective employees. Call us at 800.324.7700 for details.

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