Key Points:
- Rescreening, or screening employees again after you’ve hired them, helps keep your workplace safe.
- It also helps you maintain accurate records, stay compliant, and verify pre-employment background checks.
80% of businesses use a background screening provider when hiring a new employee. After all, pre-employment screens help protect your current workforce and verify your new employee’s criminal record, work history, and more. But only 34% of companies rescreen their employees after they’ve hired them. Rescreening may seem unnecessary, but it can further protect your organization. Below, we explain why this practice may be worth the added effort.
What is rescreening?
Rescreening refers to the process of screening employees after you’ve hired them. Rescreens tend to focus on factors that may have changed since you conducted pre-employment screens. As a result, rescreens often check an employee’s criminal record, credit report, and the like.
Ultimately, though, what you rescreen will depend on your business and industry. If you need help determining which factors are crucial to your organization, your screening service provider can help.
Is rescreening legal?
Yes, rescreening is legal. However, you still need to comply with certain regulations and guidelines. At the very least, you need to get your employee’s authorization to conduct a screen.
For more information about background checks and rescreening requirements, please see the EEOC’s guidance.
What are the benefits of rescreening?
Like pre-employment screening, rescreening helps keep your workplace safe. Rescreening your employees can also help you:
1. Maintain up-to-date records
Without rescreens, you rely on the data gathered from pre-employment checks. Depending on when you hired an employee, this information could be several years old.
Rescreening your employees ensures that you have the most up-to-date information. You’ll also be aware of any changes to your employees’ records that could impact the safety of clients or other employees.
2. Stay compliant with screening requirements
Screening requirements may have changed since you first conducted screens for some of your employees. Rescreening employees ensures you stay compliant with the latest state and Federal regulations.
If you update your company’s screening practices, rescreening also ensures you remain compliant with your policy and store the same information for both new hires and tenured employees.
3. Verify initial background checks
Pre-employment background checks may not be perfect. An employee may have accidentally bypassed the process. Or their initial background check may be incomplete or present inaccurate information.
Rescreening ensures the information you originally obtained is accurate and compliant. This is especially important if you switched screening service providers.
When should you rescreen your employees?
It’s best practice to rescreen employees (including board members) once a year. If you work with contractors, it may be better to rescreen them before they begin a new project.
To reduce liabilities, it’s also important to rescreen employees after:
- Promotions or job responsibility changes
- Mergers
- Workplace incidents
Rescreening with an HRIS
An HRIS lets you manage employment screens and all of your HR needs in one place. With SentricHR, you can conduct pre-employment checks and rescreens without ever leaving the system.
To learn more about SentricHR and our screening service provider Verified First, speak with one of our product experts today!For more screening tips, check out our blog How to Conduct Quality Background Checks in Less Time.
