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What a Nationwide Criminal Background Check Actually Covers (And What It Doesn’t)

Ask most HR leaders whether their screening program includes a criminal background check, and the answer is almost always yes. Ask whether it covers a candidate who lived in three states over the past decade, worked remotely before joining, or has a prior record under a slightly different name variation, and the answer gets more complicated. That gap between what people assume their screening covers and what it actually covers is where most hiring risk quietly accumulates. And it’s exactly the problem a nationwide criminal search is designed to address. The Assumption Most Screening Programs Are Built On Traditional background screening packages are ... Read More

Why Healthcare Compliance Can’t Stay Stuck in Point-in-Time Verification

Healthcare workforce compliance used to be something you checked off at hire. Now, it is a daily responsibility. Every practitioner, clinician, and technician in your organization needs an active, valid license to practice–not just on their first day, but every day after. When a lapsed credential slips through, the consequences are immediate: regulatory penalties, accreditation risks, payer clawbacks, and patient safety concerns. Most healthcare organizations are still running compliance systems that weren't built for this continuous reality. The Problem with Traditional Verifications Traditional primary source verifications take time and are often siloed. They usually require 3 to 5 contact attempts over 5 to ... Read More

Understanding Clerk Assisted Criminal Searches in Background Screening

When you run a background check, you might assume all criminal records are just a few clicks away online. The reality is more complicated. Many U.S. courts don't maintain searchable online databases, which means accessing certain criminal records requires a different approach: working directly with court staff to retrieve the information you need. This process is called a clerk assisted criminal search, and it's an important part of thorough background screening. Here's what employers should know about how these searches work and why they matter. How Clerk Assisted Searches Work A clerk assisted search means your background screening provider contacts courthouse personnel to ... Read More

The Truth About Criminal Background Checks: What Really Happens Behind the Scenes

Ever wonder what happens after you submit a candidate's information for a criminal background check? The process is more nuanced than most employers realize, and understanding it can help you make better hiring decisions while staying compliant. Here's what actually happens when you run a criminal record search. There's No Magic Database (And Why That Matters) Despite what some screening companies might suggest, there's no single "national criminal database" that captures every arrest and conviction across the country. Instead, criminal records live at the county, state, and federal levels, and each jurisdiction maintains its own system. This is why jurisdiction-based searches are critical. When ... Read More

Why You’re Seeing Redacted Dates of Birth in Criminal Background Checks (And What It Means for Your Hiring Process)

If you've recently reviewed a criminal background screening report and noticed a candidate's date of birth was missing or redacted, you're not alone. This is becoming more common across the country, and it often raises questions for HR teams and hiring managers who want to ensure they're making informed, defensible hiring decisions. Here's what's happening and why your background check is still complete. The Shift in How Courts Handle Personally Identifiable Information Courts nationwide are rethinking how they manage public access to sensitive data. While transparency in public records has always been important, there's been a growing recognition that certain personally identifiable information ... Read More

The Foundation of Trust: Why Primary Source Verification Matters in Background Screening

Hiring decisions carry significant weight. Organizations need background screening partners who maintain rigorous standards and bring genuine transparency to every engagement. At Universal Background Screening (UBS), these principles guide everything we do. Primary Source Verification: The Accuracy Standard Many background screening providers rely primarily on aggregated databases. While this approach offers speed, it can introduce risk. Data may be incomplete, outdated, or inaccurate. Some firms stop at summary-level information. UBS takes a different approach. When we detect potentially adverse information in a background check, we take an additional step: we verify the information at its primary source. We confirm whether the information remains ... Read More

The Hidden Cost of Background Check Errors: Why Getting It Right the First Time Matters

How One Screening Mistake Can Derail Your Entire Hiring Process We've all been there: You've found the perfect candidate. They aced the interviews, their references checked out, and your team is excited to bring them on board. Then the background check comes back with something unexpected. Maybe it's a criminal record that's actually been expunged. Perhaps it's an educational credential that was verified incorrectly. Or it's outdated information that shouldn't even be reportable anymore. Now you're stuck in limbo: Do you move forward and risk compliance issues? Do you restart the screening process and lose weeks? Do you let a great candidate ... Read More

Stop Losing Thousands in WOTC Credits: A Simple Deadline Guide for Employers

The Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) offers employers significant savings, up to $9,600 per eligible hire. Many companies understand the value of this federal tax incentive. Where they run into trouble is managing the timing requirements that determine whether credits can be claimed. We work with employers who hire from eligible target groups regularly. They're doing everything right when it comes to building their teams. The challenge comes down to documentation and filing windows. When those get missed, valuable tax credits simply can't be recovered. Understanding WOTC Timing Requirements The work opportunity tax credit process has specific checkpoints that employers need to meet: Screen ... Read More

Background Screening Compliance Made Simple

Compliance isn't the fun part of hiring. Between industry best practices, federal regulations, and state-specific requirements that seem to change overnight, keeping up can feel like a full-time job on top of your actual full-time job. We get it. At Universal Background Screening, we've seen HR teams juggling spreadsheets in the eleventh hour, trying to figure out if their screening process will pass their upcoming audit. We've talked to hiring managers who've had great candidates slip away because their background checks took too long to complete. And we've worked with companies scrambling to fix long-standing compliance gaps they just discovered they ... Read More

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