What You Need to Know About Background Checks

Most companies send offer letters that are contingent on applicants passing background checks. These background checks typically happen automatically without much notice. Yet, there are many people — especially in the U.S. —?who know that these checks will likely unearth something for their potential employer to review, such as a criminal record.

On the latest episode of LinkedIn's Get Hired podcast , LinkedIn News Editor Andrew Seaman is joined by Daniel Yanisse , who is the co-founder and CEO of background check provider Checkr, Inc. The conversation dives into what happens behind the scenes when a background check is initiated. Daniel also shares his advice for people who worry a background check will raise red flags for potential employers.

Additionally, Daniel tells Andrew about the importance of fair chance hiring — for applicants and employers.

A transcript of the conversation is below. You can also listen to the discussion wherever you get your podcasts by clicking here .

TRANSCRIPT: What You Need to Know About Background Checks

Andrew Seaman: You nailed your interviews, impressed your future boss, and got the offer. Congrats. But before you can fully celebrate, there's one final step, the background check. For job seekers, the process happens almost entirely in the shadows, but today we're pulling back the curtain and demystifying background checks. We're also exploring what job seekers can do if they encounter any bumps in the road. Stick around for more. From LinkedIn News, this is Get Hired, a podcast for the ups and downs in the ever-changing landscape of our professional lives. I'm Andrew Seaman, LinkedIn's editor-at-large for jobs and career development, bringing you conversations with experts who, like me, want to see you succeed at work, at home, and everywhere in between. Today I'm joined by Daniel Yanisse. Daniel is the CEO and Co-founder of Checker, a background check company. Daniel started his career as a software engineer interning at major companies like Cisco and NASA.

Later, when working at a startup that hired thousands of delivery drivers, Daniel saw how the complicated background check process created massive inefficiencies for the company. The experience inspired him to start Checker. In this episode, Daniel offers us a window into the often opaque world of background checks. We explore what goes on behind the scenes and what job seekers can do if any surprises pop up in their checks. But for some job seekers, they already know exactly what will come up. If this is you, you're not alone. One in three adults in the US has a criminal record. Daniel offers advice on how you can be proactive about your record throughout the job search process. He also explains why fair chance hiring is both the right thing to do and good for business. Here's Daniel.

Daniel Yanisse: Our company is called Checker, and our goal is to modernize background checks for employment. We've been doing that for 10 years, and now Checker is a leading background check provider in the world. And so that's, of course, a product that comes in between job candidates and employers making hiring decisions.

Andrew: Yeah. And I guess when someone applies for a job and a company uses Checker, what happens? I guess that's one of the best questions, is what's happening under the hood?

Daniel: Yeah, so I mean, I'm sure many of the people listening to us might have been through that process. So typically a job candidate applies to the job. Somewhere in that process, it depends on companies, they will be asked to consent to doing a background check. They will share some of their information, like their name, their address, their social security number, and maybe their driver license number if they're expected to drive on the job. And that's the information that we will collect. In the US, for example, it is regulated, and so we need to collect the agreement and consent from the consumer to agree to doing these verifications. And then Checker will gather and verify different pieces of information about that job candidate. And there's a whole menu of things that can be verified. What's very standard is to verify criminal records, driving records, employment history, to verify the information on the resume is accurate. I would say those are some of the most popular, but there's lots of different pieces of data that can be verified depending on the needs of the employer.

Andrew: And I'm always super interested in the use of AI in hiring. Because obviously AI is the new cool kid on the block, and you've been using it, I think, probably a little bit longer than a lot of companies. How have you been using AI in the background check process and what does AI do for you?

Daniel: Yeah, AI is a very powerful technology. I was playing with AI when I was at NASA and as an engineer in the early days. So we've been using traditional AI since 2018, really to organize the data. A lot of this legal data on background check is very complex. It's all over the place. It's in thousands of different cities. It's very unstructured and unorganized. So AI is a very good tool to organize, clean up the data, match names with records and numbers. Those are tasks that AI is very, very good at.

Andrew: Got it. And so as of today, then, when Checker gets a request from one of your customers to say, "Hey, we have John Smith here, we need to check for security, background," various things like that, is that mostly done by hand still, or are you relying more on computer systems and automated checks?

Daniel: It's mostly done by a computer and system. It's been for many years. I believe over 98, 99% of all background checks are fully automated. And we have optimized that with humans in the loop to make it extremely, extremely accurate. And the machine can be much, much more accurate than a human. It's funny you say John Smith because John Smith is one of the most common names in America, and I think last time I checked there's over 45,000 John Smith with very similar identities. So you can see how that can be a challenge.

Andrew: Yeah.

Daniel: We want to definitely make sure that it's the right John Smith who is matched with X or Y records.

Andrew: Got it. And what is the most extensive background check process? Do you check social media? I assume education. So how extensive can the background check get?

Daniel: It can be very extensive. We started with two or three different products and now we have over 50.

Andrew: Oh, wow.

Daniel: So there's literally 50 different things you can check. We can check credit, licenses of a certified nurse. We can check backgrounds in 200 countries around the world. So we can check a lot of things, and we customize it depending on the customer.

Andrew: Got it. And I think a lot of people, too, especially credit checks and things like that, they'll say, "But why is that necessary?" But like you said, it's customizable. So if someone is being hired for a director level role in a company where they'll be in charge of company secrets or things like that, companies want to know that you're not going to be susceptible to bribery or things like that.

Daniel: No, absolutely. So we work with our customers to tailor what's relevant for their jobs, for their business, and finding that right balance. And like you said, there's many jobs that have a very high level of sensitivity, security, regulations, and so that's when employers are going to use very thorough criteria.

Andrew: And I'm curious, obviously, you had gone through background checks yourself, I assume, because you don't get a job or internships at Cisco or NASA or anything like that without them at least looking a bit into your background. So when you started down this road to create Checker, what did you learn through the process about background checks and fair opportunities and second chances?

Daniel: Two things that struck me is first how technical and legal and complex it is. I think many candidates might not even see or feel the background check process happening. But if you do get a copy or you ask for a copy, you will see that usually you get a PDF, and depending on the vendor that's used, it can be very hard to read and understand this legal language and technical language. And then the second thing that struck me is in the US, how many people have a criminal record. It's a really high number. It's between 70 and 80 million Americans have some type of criminal record.

Andrew: For people outside the US who are listening, that represents between 20 to nearly a third of the US population. So this is something that employers are running to basically all the time.

Daniel: Yes, yes, absolutely. It's a very high number of people, and I think any employer who is not understanding or working on those nuances is going to miss out on a lot of talent. We know that there's over incarceration in the US with over two, two and a half million people at any point that are in prison. And with my co-founder, with my team, we decided to go to prison visits to better understand the justice system and understand how people get rehabilitated after prison. And there's not a lot of resource and opportunities. And so that's where we really started to lean into second chances and fair chance hiring. And we discovered it's an amazing opportunity, actually, for individuals to get back into the workforce, to get back on their feet, but also for businesses to access millions of talented people who, yes, might have made a mistake in the past, but are extremely motivated now to turn their life around. We've been a fair chance employer for going on eight plus years now. We have about 5% of our workforce at Checker that has previous criminal records, and it's been really a success.

Andrew: For your own approach, how do you determine who's right for a job, things like that? So how do you navigate that landscape of second chance hiring and fair chance hiring?

Daniel: We believe in transparency, right? We use the background check process, of course, to create some of that transparency and then start a conversation between the candidates and the hiring manager or the HR team. So this way we provide the opportunity for the candidate to share their story to say, "Yes, these are some things on my background, but here is the context of what I did, how I own it, what I've done to rehabilitate since then. Here are some references of other employers vouching for my work." And so we spend more time to build that trust and then we make a decision. Do we believe we trust this person, we want to give them a shot? Is that okay based on the sensitivity of the job that we're giving them? So we have a lot of online free resources of the learnings and the best practices that we've developed over the years. We believe that can be helpful for other recruiting or HR teams who want to benefit from second chance hiring.

Andrew: That's really great. And then we could make sure that we link to those in the show notes. The other thing I wanted to touch on, too, and you mentioned, sort of how regulated background checks are. And background checks themselves in companies like yours exist largely, and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, because companies want to make sure that they're doing these in accordance with the laws, right? So can you offer us a look at some of the regulations that exist, at least in the United States, about what you can and cannot look into? And I know that does vary by state and places like that, but can you give us an example of what that regulatory landscape looks like?

Daniel: Yeah, there's lots of different laws at the federal, states, and even at the city, county level. There's two types of laws and regulations in general. On one side, there's safety laws. So there's, especially for regulated industries such as healthcare, financial services, airline pilots, ride-sharing drivers, teachers in schools, there's lots of safety-focused regulations to make sure that a thorough background check is done to provide safety of the community, safety of customer, safety of children, et cetera.

So that's one set of regulations, and there's many of them industry by industry. And on the other side, there's consumer protection regulations like the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which is federal regulation around background checks, but also credit checks and credit reports to help protect consumer rights. There's also state versions that do limit how much information and how far back background check companies can go. So those are the two types of categories of regulations. And again, at Checker we're focused on safety and fairness. And so we help customers make sure that they comply with all of the laws, that's the baseline, and then that they optimize their process to have the right rules, the right hiring criteria when it comes to selecting talent.

Andrew: We'll be right back with Daniel Yanisse to discuss what control you have throughout the background check process.

Andrew: And we're back with Checker co-founder and CEO, Daniel Yanisse. For job seekers who are out there, and especially people who worry about what might be in their background check, what should job seekers sort of know going into the background check process?

Daniel: Yeah, so I would say pay attention as you go through a background check. It is regulated, so you should get at some point a consent form and disclosure and authorization forms that you sign online, or on paper, but mostly online these days. And so in this language, it will actually say, "The company, Checker, has been hired by your employer to verify your address, your social security number, your driver history, et cetera." So you can really see and you should agree on what is going to be shared about yourself. That's one thing.

Sometimes you can also request a copy of your background check report as you go through the process. So those are two things for transparency as you go through it. And then on Checker.com , we have a product where consumers can go and order an updated background checks on themselves so they can see exactly the same thing that an employer would see ahead of time, be prepared. So if there's any errors that might be coming from a DMV or government record that's not accurate, that can be also surfaced, and we help consumers fix and improve some of those inaccuracies if they are there.

Andrew: When it comes to issues during the background check, maybe your previous employer closed down or there's a lack of data, how can job applicants deal with that?

Daniel: Yeah, so those are called employment verifications. So it's really having the employer verify the last places of employment. At Checker, that's one of the number one pain points that we hear from businesses is they're really struggling to confirm previous employment history. And that's hard to do because sometimes the background check company needs to call the previous employer, if it's a small employer, and try to get a hold of someone in HR who say, "Did Lucy or John work at the company? Can you please verify?" So that's a very painful process. We have deployed a lot of technology at this problem in order to find solutions. So now at Checker, we're able to plug in directly into payroll systems to be able to automatically go and verify employment history. So that allows for instant verifications on millions of consumers. And if that doesn't work, candidates can upload documents where we can streamline the reach-out to previous employer.

Andrew: And when it comes to getting the background check, and maybe someone is surprised that they hear, hey, we found this issue on your background check. Or they have a criminal conviction showing up, or they have a tax lien or something like that that doesn't sound right to them, what recourse do they have if they think, hey, no, that's actually not correct?

Daniel: Yes. So during the application process, there is a dispute opportunity, an appeal opportunity for the candidate. So again, on the federal law, an employer cannot reject someone because of their criminal background without sending them a formal rejection notice. It's called an adverse action notice. So the employer has to send the candidate an email or a regular mail saying, "We have found this information about you and we are about to reject your application, but you have X amount of days to dispute it or appeal it if you believe that's inaccurate." So you should receive that. And that's when the candidate has the opportunity to start the formal dispute. And we at Checker, like all background check companies, we have to listen to that request, follow up with the candidates, and recheck everything on the background to make sure that this is accurate. So that's the dispute process. Any consumer is entitled to benefit from it, and that's one additional step to make sure that information is accurate. And if the candidate is successful in updating that, then the employee needs to reconsider the candidate for the job.

Andrew: No, that's great. And then obviously if you know going into the process that maybe you had a conviction many years ago, things like that, what do you suggest as best practices for people in that situation?

Daniel: Yeah, our recommendation, what we've seen with the many people we have hired and how they went through the application process, is really to be prepared and to own it. Especially if you know that that's something that's going to show up or come up after the fact, it's just a terrible experience when you're all the way there, you think you're going to get the offer and then you get rejected because a record that was not disclosed or talked about early on. Or even worse, sometimes people are on the job and then the employer discovers it after the fact, and then it can lead to a termination, which is of course a terrible, terrible experience.

So overall, we try to also give the tools and education for candidates to own their past, to prepare their story and really own the mistakes and the things that might have happened in the past, but also share all of the great things they have done since then to improve their experience, to rehabilitate, that will help them actually be a successful candidate. And I think a lot of employers have empathy and they know that everyone's not perfect and make mistakes, and a candidate that's going to be confident that owns their past and that shares how they've worked really hard and how driven they are to turn their life around, I think that's going to be very appealing for an employer. It is for us. We see some of the most driven, hungry, motivated people to join your business, and those are great, great candidates.

Andrew: Got it. And is there anything else that you think is important for people to know about background checks or about this whole process?

Daniel: Yeah, I mean, I think background checks are simpler and more transparent and easier than ever, so I would tell people not to be too anxious and worry about it. There's now tools and transparency to make sure it's accurate, and so it doesn't have to be a stressful part of the job interview process. I would also say that for employers, there's a lot of opportunity to optimize your background check so that you don't reject more people than you would have to, and at the same time you keep your company safe.

Andrew: Great. Well, thank you so much, Daniel.

Daniel: Thank you, Andrew. Great to see you.

Andrew: That was Daniel Yanisse, the co-founder and CEO of Checker. If you're leaving today's conversation with a new learning to apply to your job search or career, I'd like to invite you to write about it in a review on Apple Podcasts. Our team really enjoys reading what you learn from our shows, plus it helps other people discover our community. Speaking of community, remember that we're always here backing you up and cheering you on. Connect with me, Andrew Seaman, and the Get Hired community on LinkedIn to continue the conversation. Get Hired is a production of LinkedIn News. The show is produced by Grace Rubin and Emily Reeves. Assaf Gidron engineered our show. Tim Boland mixed our show. We get additional support from Alexandra Kuznietsova and Ali McPherson. Sarah Storm is our senior producer. Enrique Montalvo is our executive producer. Dave Pond is head of News Production and Creative Operations. Maya Pope-Chappel is director of Content and Audience Development. Courtney Coupe is the head of Original Programming for LinkedIn. Dan Roth is the editor in chief of LinkedIn. And I'm Andrew Seaman. Until next time, stay well, and best of luck.