Links to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to find out more about the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
The FTC has prepared publications concerning the FCRA:
- The official publication that all Pre-employment agencies should provide to employers is the "Notice to Users of Consumer Reports Obligations of Users under the FCRA."
- In addition, the FTC has prepare a brief summary of the provisions of the FCRA that apply to employers called, "Using Consumer Reports: What Employers Need to Know."
- Another critical document is the FTC prepared document, "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act." This is the summary that must be provided to a consumer any time an adverse notice action is taken.
Other helpful links for finding out more about the FCRA are:
- Text of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Generally, sections 604, 606 and 615 are of the most immediate concern to employers. The FCRA was amended on November 27, 1998. The principle change dealt with the seven year limitation on criminal records. However, as discussed in the ESR special report on criminal records, there is no clear national rule because states may choose to have more restricted laws. (California for example, recently adopted the previous federal limit of $75,000. See this site in the near future for an article on the state of the law concerning criminal records and the FCRA.)
- The FCRA is summarized in the special report prepared by Employment Screening Resources on, "Complying with the FCRA in Four Easy Steps."
- The FCRA "homepage" for the Federal Trade Commission. It has other consumer literature as well.
- The Index to the FTC Staff Opinion letters page. This is where researchers can find the published opinions by the FTC staff interpreting the FCRA.
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Copy of the California Pre-Employment Guidelines published by the California Department of Fair Housing and Employment.
All employers know that there are certain areas that cannot be covered in a job interview. This summary tells employers what they can and cannot ask in job interviews. It is generally helpful to employers in all the fifty states.
A. Introduction and Application for Employment
An excellent site on legal vs. non-legal questions and the entire area of discrimination in employment is: http://www.discriminationattorney.com/ Although it is based in California, it gives an excellent summary of federal law as well.
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Employment materials
NEW: Why applications are key--Column in the November 16, 2000 Sunday San Francisco Examiner/Chronicle by Lester S. Rosen, President of Employment Screening Resources.
See also, Sample Application form (Word Format) (NOTE: Under the FCRA additional forms are needed to perform a pre-employment screening. Contact your ESR customer service for the consent and disclosure forms that are required. Also, your ESR customer service representative can supply a special report on the language that should be in an application form concerning criminal history, called Criminal Records, Employment and Employment Applications.)
Interesting Links to other sites offering related Human Resources services or information.
See the list of HR Resources assembled by Employment Screening Resources
Links or e-mail addresses to Recommended Professional Services
Richard Schmidt, is a licensed private investigator and a retired police captain with thirty years of investigative experience. He also holds a Masters degree in pubic Administration from Golden Gate University, and works extensively with police departments all over the United States. (rschmidt@aol.com)
WEA Consulting (formerly Western Employer Associates)--Expert consultants assisting organizations in all aspects of Human Resources, Labor Relations and Integrated Business Planning
Interesting books on pre-employment screening and hiring.
ESR is pleased to recommend , "45 Effective Ways for Hiring Smart!: How to Predict Winners and Loser in the Incredibly Expensive People-Reading Game." the author is psychiatrist Pierre Mornell, and is an outstanding book on smart hiring.
Drug testing links-- Click Here for helpful sites for pre-employment drug testing
These are excellent sites for performing business research over the Internet. They are:
1. People Search (Data by InfoUSA)
2. Business Search (Data by InfoUSA)
3. Yellow Page Search (Data by InfoUSA)
4. How to Find People on the Net;
5. How to Research Companies on the Net.
6. www.freeedgar.com An easy way to search through company filings with the SEC.
7. www.10kwizard.com Another site to research public companies by reviewing SEC filings.
8. www.business.elibrary.com A site that charges a small fee, but has a excellent database of newspapers, periodically, and press releases
9. www.refdesk.com and www.refdesk.com/instant.html An outstanding collection of references sites on the web for do it yourself due diligence research
10. www.nedsite.nl/search/people.htm All in one search site links to hundreds of databases
11. www.teldir.com For finding people outside the US, with links for web sites to over 150 countries
12. www.qucis.queensu.ca/FAQs/college-email/college.html Site with links to universities all over the world
13. www.franchisesolutions.com/links.cfm for an excellent listing of resources to to evaluate, start, or manage a small business.
Credit Reports: Viewing their contents or obtaining your own credit report
NEW: Article on, "Credit Reports and Job Hunting," published on-line at www.MedCAREERS.com. Article by ESR for both employers and job applicants on the role of credit reports and employment.
The Federal Trade commission has resources that will help consumers and job applicants deal with their own credit reports. These are excellent resources for job applicants that would like information about improving their reports. For a general list of articles, see www.ftc.gov/bcp/menu-credit.htm . For an excellent article on credit repair published by the Federal Trade Commission, including how to avoid scams, see www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/bbcr.htmIt is an excellent idea to obtain and review your own credit report to make certain that everything is accurate and up to date. The advantages of viewing your own credit report is that you can see which companies are looking at your credit information, you can identify and dispute any inaccuracies, you can track any late payments or adverse information, and you can tell if someone is using your identity.
There are also commercial services available that can help consumers view and track their own credit reports.The best practice is to obtain a merged or combined report from all three major agencies. Although the three major credit bureaus offer the ability to obtain a copy of your own report either by mail, phone or through the Internet, it is usually easier to purchase one combined report from a reputable commercial agency.
A consumer can contact the three major agencies in the following way (phone numbers may change, but current information is available on their web sites.
1. Trans Union (www.transunion.com/CreditReport/CreditFileInfo.asp)--call 800-888-4213.
2. Equifax (www.equifax.com/consumers/consumers.html)--888-532-0179.
3. Experian (www.experian.com/customer/index/html)-800-972-0322 (Has a helpful discussion of consumer credit issues).
For a handy state by state guide concerning criminal records prepared by the CCH, see:
http://www.toolkit.cch.com/text/P05_1600.aspHiThe following links are of assistance in researching laws in the fifty states, and federal law:
a. Findlaw--www.findlaw.com/11stategov/index.html
b. An index to the criminal law for each state: http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/state_statutes2.html#criminal_code
c. California statutes can be found at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/calaw.html. The California Penal Code can be found at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=pen&codebody=&hits=20
d. Rominger Legal: legal resources for each state
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Resources concerning Identity theft
See article in San Francisco Chronicle on what to do if you are the victim of identity theft.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/02/11/BU183774.DTL
Employers can help prevent identify theft in the workplace--From the February 2000 Issue of HR News—HR’s leading Newspaper published by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), containing information and quotes from Les Rosen, president of ESR
(entire article to be posted shortly)
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