The Assumption Built Into Most Screening Programs

For a long time, background screening programs have been built around a fairly reasonable-sounding idea: if you have a candidate’s Social Security number, you have what you need to find their history. One identifier. One search. One hiring decision. The logic holds up until you look at how public records actually work.

Criminal courts, sanctions databases, and exclusion lists do not index records by Social Security number. They index by name. Specifically, the name a person used at the time of an arrest, conviction, or sanction, paired with a date of birth. When someone has gone by multiple names over the course of their life, searching only the current one means the others go unchecked.

A record filed under a prior name is not a missing record, it is an unsearched one.

What AKA Screening Covers

AKA screening (“Also Known As” screening) is the process of identifying and running searches against all known names associated with a candidate. This includes more than just full legal name changes from marriage or divorce. It also covers the name variations and informal derivatives that appear in public records all the time.

Someone legally named Stephen Jones may appear in court records as Steve Jones or Stephen Jones III. Neither variation will surface in a search run only against Stephen Jones if the database requires an exact match. Both the complete name changes and the partial variations fall under the AKA umbrella, and both need to be searched for a screening program to actually be comprehensive.

Why Social Security Numbers Only Get You So Far

SSNs are genuinely useful in background screening, just not in the way most organizations assume. Running an SSN through an address and alias trace can reveal where a person has lived and what names they have used in connection with credit, utilities, or other identity-linked accounts. That kind of identity discovery is valuable.

The problem is that discovery without action does not reduce risk. If an SSN trace surfaces three prior names and searches are still run against only the primary name on the application, the organization has collected useful information and then set it aside. The gaps remain. AKA screening is what closes them.

How Gaps Show Up in Practice

Most hiring teams are not trying to cut corners. They run SSNs, they order criminal searches, and they feel like they have done their job properly. The gaps that create real problems tend to be quieter than that.

A nurse applies under her married name and a sanction from six years ago sits under her maiden name. A caregiver goes by a nickname professionally, and that is what appears in a county court record. A finance professional had a prior legal matter under a name from a previous marriage. None of these are edge cases. They come up regularly, and when a screening program is configured to search a single name, those records stay invisible. Not because they do not exist, but because no one looked for them.

This Applies Across Every Industry

It is easy to think of AKA screening as primarily a healthcare problem, given how heavily regulated that sector is. But the underlying mechanics are the same everywhere. Public record systems index by name regardless of what industry is doing the hiring. A financial services firm, a school district, a transportation company, and a technology employer all face the same structural issue when they rely on a single-name search.

The consequences of a missed record vary by industry, but the risk of missing one does not. Any organization conducting due diligence on candidates needs to account for the multiple names those individuals may have used.

Don’t miss our next part of this series: “Why Healthcare Organizations Face Uniquely Severe Consequences When AKA Screening Fails”

See Where Your Program Stands

Universal Background Screening helps organizations understand how their current screening configuration handles prior names, name variations, and identity discovery. UBS works across healthcare, financial services, education, transportation, and other regulated industries to build programs that reflect how public records actually work.

Read the full asset: Seeing the Whole Person: Why AKA Screening Is Critical to Safe, Compliant Hiring

Contact a UBS screening expert to find out where gaps may exist in your current program.