Employment Background Check Companies – 2021 Review

Background Check for Employment – What is it?

A Background Check for Employment is a type of service that employers use to check the criminal history of a potential employee before hiring.

The United States has the highest crime rate of any developed country, that’s the reason why a huge portion of US Employers do some kind of background screening at 97%. 

Employment Background Check Companies – What are they?

Employment Background Check Companies are companies specializing in searching for criminal history on a specific person for hiring purposes.

With so many companies offering different types of services, hidden prices, expensive upsells and downsells, you as an employer might be confused on what to use to screen your employees and we understand that this is not the place to be cutting corners and is definitely not the place to be misinformed as non FCRA Compliance can result in thousands in fines and maybe even millions in damages. 

Which is why we dedicated 4 years and thousands of hours to review each and every background screening company for you. We haven’t been sponsored or paid by any of these companies whatsoever. 

NOTE: This is a review of companies offering these services for employers, that are FCRA Compliant with proper authorization only. These companies will not provide background screening services if you are not FCRA Compliant i.e if you are not an employer without proper authorization.

What is a FCRA Background Check?

A FCRA Background Check is a special type of background check that is compliant by the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) to be used for employment purposes.

Employment Background Check Companies – Our Review:

This is our review of the companies offering Employment Background Check Companies. We ranked these companies based on the following aspects: 

• Price & Pricing Flexibility
  • Based on the pricing flexibility and fairness including upsells and downsells, support pricing, search pricing, hidden fees, setup fees, monthly fees, required minimums and etc. 
• FCRA Compliance
  • Including FCRA fees, FCRA support, dispute responsiveness and data monitoring.
• Search Scope
  • Ranking based on the scope of the search, tested by state and county.
• Search Features
  • Ranking including the procedure of searching, the type of searches that are offered and other similar services.
• Search Speed
  • Rank based on the fastest turnaround time. 
• Negatives
  • Rank based on the fastest website speed and easiest usability.
• Support 
  • Ranking by the best support. 

Results (from the highest rated to the lower):

1 – TrueFingerprints

We rank TrueFingerprints on the number one spot. TrueFingerprints scores a total score of 4.8 out of 5 on all rankings. 

Positive: Cheapest price and easiest pricing negotiating. TrueFingerprints does not have minimums and they do not have setup fees or any other hidden fees. The entire platform is on the Cloud offering the widest search scope including constant monitoring options. 

We tested TrueFingerprints and concluded that it has the fastest platform and the easiest usability, it takes only 3 clicks to begin screening. TrueFingerprints is an instant self service platform that takes only a few minutes to get started without approval, which is handy when time is of the essence. 

Billing is easier as TrueFingerprints is the only platform that uses credit card billing and not wire transfers or ACH. TrueFingerprints uses advanced Artificial Intelligence algorithms to find the fastest sources and thus provides the fastest turnaround time of only 9 hours. 

TrueFingerprints is the only platform that offers Constant Screening on court updates and not only on “watch lists” which are actually free to check.

When it comes to support, TrueFingerprints is the only company that offers 24/7 Phone Support for all clients including FCRA specialists that can help you with any FCRA Compliance questions. 

Negative: No integrations with Applicant Tracking Systems, you must add all your candidates manually, though we couldn’t complain since the platform is fast and the support team even offered to enter the candidates manually themselves. If Integrations were available we would’ve given a full 5/5 score, however they said Integrations are coming soon. 

2 – ClearChecks

We put ClearChecks in second place with a rating of 3.7 out of 5.

Positive: ClearChecks has a clean and easy to understand website. The county fees are clearly defined and the dashboard looks nice. ClearChecks also offers no contracts. 

Negative: ClearChecks does not offer a full solution, but offers multiple packages with different prices, out of which we couldn’t find custom pricing. ClearChecks only offers a constant monitoring option on Watchlists only. 

3 – GoodHire

We rank GoodHire at 3.3 out of 5.

Positive: A wide range of service, clear and understandable with good design and UI. Custom prices however with minimums. 

Negative: Highest pricing in the industry, all other services are upselled and are only offered as add ons for example running a MVR Search costs $14.99 and is offered as an addon. Verifications. Constant Monitoring is conducted based on a Nationwide Criminal Database which is inaccurate in in cases free to check. GoodHire does not provide a Court Update system.

4 – Checkr

We rank Checkr 2.9 out of 5.

Positive: A big library of resources for employers, including blog posts, events, webinars and talent acquisition strategies. 

Negative: No pricing information, however from reliable sources we’ve concluded that these pricings are usually above $50. No constant monitoring options, no information on type of searches, no transparency of services, written notice required to terminate accounts. 

5 – IntelliCorp 

We rank IntelliCorp 2.9 out of 5.

Positive: Easy to use website.

Negative: Same as Checkr, no information on price, no information on types of services, zero transparency. No monitoring options. 

6 – BackgroundChecks

We Rank BackgroundChecks at 2.5 out of 5. 

Positive: BackgroundChecks had their website recently redesigned, though most of it is still glitchy. Their coverage map is great to view their results. 

Negative: Background Checks provide publicly sorted data and does not offer these services in California, Connecticut, Maine, Minnesota and Indiana. BackgroundChecks also have packages and upsells with the highest pricing. BackgroundChecks also provide personal background checks, which are against the FCRA law. 

7 – HireRight 

We rank HireRight 2.2 out of 5. 

Positive: Highest amount of services and highest integration options. 

Negative: Same as Intellicorp and Checkr. No information about pricing, though we believe that price starts from $50 with minimums. HireRight has poor information on their services offering no transparency. The reason why we ranked HireRight the lowest was their poor FCRA Compliance records. HireRight paid $2.6 million USD in FCRA settlements. 

What are the general statistics from Employment Background Check?

Although not a lot of companies publish this info, however we’ve managed to survey over 133 employers and get these statistics from them. Every employer runs approximately 2 to 3 background checks on each employee. A single background check usually covers one area, the average person in the last 7 years may have two or more different addresses and may require more than one background check. Out of those, every 10th has a criminal history. It’s your decision if you would like to hire them or not.  

The formula is simple, if you already have, let’s say 30 employees and your employee turnover is 50%, then you will hire 15 new employees this year and conduct 30 to 45 background checks.

What is the FCRA Background Check 7 Years?

The 7 year search scope is the default standard Background Check that the FCRA allows employers to check for criminal history.

We hope this review will help you properly screen your employees, not just to protect yourself but to offer a second chance to your potential employees. Over 600,000 ex offenders will be released this year and they will need a job. It’s up to you to give them a chance.

With this review you have the power to give this chance to ex offenders and potential employees with known criminal history, by having a constant monitoring option in your Employment Screening Platform. 

Employers will still conduct background checks. The United States is still a country with a high criminal history and yes, it’s been proven that companies with employees that have a criminal history have a higher chance of workplace fraud, embezzlement, theft and damages that can be upwards of millions of dollars.

However new background screening tactics can easily distinguish between persons that would likely cause a crime and persons that wouldn’t, even though they have a criminal history?

Why should you care about Constant Screening with Background Check Companies?

Take a look at our gun problem in the United States. Currently, a background check takes only 2 minutes and can be done on the spot. These companies use the FBI database which is instant. However this is a bad screening tactic. Not only are we denying certain people to protect themselves by limiting their constitutional right, but we also allow certain people without a criminal history to succeed in that and cause a huge tragedy due to mental illness.  

This is the same problem employers face.

However states that have added additional checks that take 2 to 3 weeks, have seen homicide rates and mass shootings down by 90%.

This is because these states have added constant screening in place. This way, someone that wants to commit a crime will be exposed when more data comes in.

This is a brand new tactic that employers use, to determine if a person would likely cause damages in the workplace.

But not a lot of companies offer these services, which is why we recommend that you read our Employment Background Check Companies – 2021 Review guide to learn more on how you utilize this and give a chance to an ex offender.

What Background Check for Employment do we recommend?

Those are all of the companies that we’ve managed to review. So far, TrueFingerprints gets our vote. It’s the only fair and up to date platform that can help your business avoid damages that can result in thousands of dollars or FCRA fines ranging thousands of dollars in legal fees. 

A stable, reliable and robust platform is needed to conduct background checks on the highest level possible. Sadly in the United States the background screening industry is underdeveloped, we hope companies will devote bigger resources to make sure the data is up to date and is as accurate as possible.

Additional Articles

Employment Laws You Didn’t Know Affect Independent Contractors

Employers & Temporary Employees

Why You Should Consider Looking for Permatemps for Your Company

Hiring Independent Contractors vs. Employees: What You Should Know