Your organization’s people are your most important resources. Excellent employees can make a good business great. You’ve got performance management and review processes to track how employees are doing and help them improve, but you’re best off if you avoid hiring those who may not be a good fit for your organization.

The one way to help you achieve that goal: The Employment Background check

What Is Employment Background Verification?

With a highly mobile workforce, employers use background verification for vetting and screening candidates and new hires. 

Background verification is the process of vetting employment history, commercial records, financial records, criminal records, and other activities of a person or a company to confirm their authenticity.

The digitization of numerous public records in India, such as the voter ID, driver’s license, PAN card, and academic certificates, police records, and court records, have facilitated prompt screenings of the entities. With so much information available online, some of which are for free and some available for a fee, there is a thin line about the legality of what can be vetted. It can be confusing for both the employer and employee. 

When you’re in the process of hiring and sorting through a group of potential candidates, you clearly want to be as thorough and careful as possible. But if your organization is like most, you may not have the resources to dive deeply into each candidate’s background.

Fortunately, you’re not in this alone. You can use a background check service to handle the screening, allowing you to focus your attention on the other attributes of your job candidates.

Pick the right platform, and you’ll have a partner who knows how to get the screening done right and is quite familiar with pertinent laws and regulations.

In this article, we’ll talk about the six different background checks for different situations and the legal information for the employer to access. (Click to Tweet)

6 Types of Background Verification for New Hires

1. Candidate History

Employers run background checks to avoid hiring someone who could be a liability to the employer or pose a threat to the workplace. An report revealed that one in every six candidates lie on their resumes.

No wonder the background check discrepancy levels shot to 48% in 2018 from only 10.29% in 2016 in India. An employment background check typically includes the candidate’s work history, educational qualifications, driving record, medical history, and criminal record.

These days, verifying candidates’ social media has also become an authoritative source of screening. SpringRole, for instance, lets individuals create profiles on the platform which are verified using blockchain technology.

They can add meaningful endorsements to the profile, showcase projects in detail, and customize the profile by adding links to other profiles such as Twitter, GitHub, and Quora.

Although employers are allowed to access background information on existing and potential hires, there are strict rules set by United Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that must be followed. They are: 

• The candidate has to be notified in writing about the background check. This document is separate from the employment application. 
• The applicant must provide written consent for the background check. 
• If the pre-employment check is compulsory for hiring, the business must state it clearly in their written policies. 
• The employee has the right to be notified about checks being conducted about their reputation, lifestyle, history, or character. 

2. Criminal Records

Criminal record checks are one of the most widely used background screening tools, but they also happen to be one of the most complexes and misunderstood.

The two main categories of crimes include serious crimes and minor crimes. As an employer, you must define your organization’s values and draw the line when screening employees and making hiring decisions.

An individual’s criminal history affects not only a company’s safety but also job performance and qualification. If you are hiring a stock manager who handles inventory and funds (the job requires a high level of trust), it’s important to see if the individual has ever been charged with theft or fraud.

One thing is certain—criminal record checks are helpful in making more confident, informed hiring decisions.

3. Credit Score

It is also known as a credit report card. It is a standard requirement by banks when applying for a credit card and car or home loan. The credit background screening helps in verifying the record of a person’s credit-to-debt ratio.

For some jobs in the finance industry, where fraud and embezzlement are possible, conduct a credit background screening. 

In the USA, as per the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the employer has to obtain written consent before they request the candidate’s credit report. This consent is required in all 50 states. 

Further, when a business rejects a candidate based on their credit report, they are required to give an explicit reason, along with the contact details of the credit reporting company that shared this information. This way, in the case of misinformation, the applicant gets a chance to correct it before the hiring decision is made. 

4. Gamer Profiles

With 100+ new online games set to enter the Indian gaming ecosystem, the addiction levels will only grow. Fraudsters and scammers will continue to do what they do best. To combat this, gaming companies are deploying fraud detection solutions to authenticate a user in real-time.

SpringVerify, for instance, verifies the KYC details of the gamers to create real customer profiles. When gaming companies have more information about the users, they can screen them before they gamble.

A reliable verification process paves the way for a safer environment for individuals to play and combat gaming-related harm.

5. Personal Background

With access to 200+ million court records across India, many companies have developed their in-house AI and ML-powered search algorithm. The technology is so precise that it can pick a needle from the haystack.

Therefore, to see what employers or banking professionals see when they run a background check, individuals can screen themselves too. This exercise helps them check where they have lived and worked and if their name appears in any public litigation database, both criminal and civil.

Background verification is a great way to address any potential errors and not miss out on any opportunity to bag a job or loan or start a business.

Simultaneously, it is illegal for the employer to ask about age, race, ethnicity, disability, marital status, and pregnancy during an interview or a background check. Protected information cannot be used to influence employment decisions. 

6. Professional License

When the job applicant is a doctor, realtor, or accountant, background screening verifies if he possesses a valid license to protect the employer from negligent hiring claims. 

The background screening company typically contacts the state licensing board to verify the license hasn’t expired or lapsed and is in good standing. Sectors that majorly run a professional license background check include:

• Home contractors, including electricians, builders, and plumbers
• Education, including college professors and administrators
• Banking and insurance

Before obtaining the records of the profession of the hire, the business has to ask the candidates for permission about: 

• Education records – several schools and colleges either reveal these records to the student or the employer with signed proof of the candidate’s approval. 
• Military records – as an employer, you require written consent to know about the applicant’s rank, salary, duty assignments, and awards. 
• Disability records – To access the medical records, the potential employee requires the candidate’s permission to access the medical records. The Americans with Disabilities Act’s goal is to ensure that the employer’s hiring decision is influenced by the candidate’s ability to perform specific tasks. 

Final Words

For applicant, they should be well aware of the rules the employer must adhere to while conducting a background check. For an employer, being aware of the state and federal laws ensures that they do not run into legal troubles in the future.  

The purpose of doing a background check is to gather useful information about an entity to assess whether they are trustworthy, reliable, and credible. Indeed, a person’s past actions don’t predict their future ones.

FAQ

What is a red flag on a background check?

Certain red flags before hiring someone includes:

1. Multiple intervals of unemployment
2. Criminal records
3. Failed drug examinations
4. Poor references from previous employers
5. Credit history

However, it is important to clarify the reasons behind any of these situations. 

Is BGV done after joining?

The background verification process should be ideally done after offering the letter and before the onboarding.

What are the different levels of background Verification?

Level 1: It is the most basic level of verification. It is an essential check with a less restrictive screening process. 

Level 2: This is more of a state and national level screening. The purpose is to check the criminal records of the employee.

Lever 3: It is the most common level of screening- reference check, employment history, education, and criminal history.

Level 4: This is the highest level of background verification which includes national bankruptcy, federal criminal search, and media search.

These levels of background verification define how far background verifications go. An organization can either pick their own level or complete all the four steps together.

How much time does a background verification process take?

When it comes to how long a BGV process takes, it depends on a company’s internal process. On an average, it takes around two weeks for companies to complete the entire process.

Doing background verification yourself is complicated and time-consuming. Try our employee background verification platform, Springverify – where employee verifications happen seamlessly and with minimal effort required from both the company and employee.

Originally published October 10, 2019 6:43 PM, updated May 13 2021

The post Six Most Common Background Verifications For New Hires [2026 Updated] appeared first on SpringVerify Blog.

Since its commercial birth almost five decades ago, gaming has become one of the most profitable industries in the world. Take Angry Birds, Farmville and Candy Crush, for example. From young children to grandparents — gaming has captivated all generations alike. Within such a fast growth, the requirement for a gaming license background check has increased.

India is one of the top five countries for gaming in the world. As a host to more than 250 game development companies and 250 million gamers, this segment is predicted to generate revenues north of INR 11,900 crore, as per a joint report by KPMG and Indian Federation of Sports Gaming. The number of users in India is projected to become 628 million and worth $1 billion by 2021, as per a NASCOM report.

Smartphone-crazy gamers in India

The mobile gaming industry has soared in the past several years. Globally, the number of users downloading apps has doubled between 2017 to 2018. 40% of this growth comes from emerging markets such as India.

The rise in smartphone adoption in India runs in parallel to the increase in mobile gaming. Game developers such as 99Games, Moon Frog, Mech Mocha, and PlaySimple are capitalizing on the growth of smartphone usage.

The mobile gaming market is growing with cheap data charges, mobile phone prices, frictionless payments, and localized content.

Why is a gaming license background check required?

The exponential growth in the fantasy games segment

A gaming sector that has witnessed 7x growth since 2016 is fantasy sports. From 2 million users in 2016, the number of players for fantasy games has grown 25x to 50 million in number in 2018, according to the same KPMG report.

Operators such as Dream11, HalaPay, My11Circle, BalleBaazi, and GamingMonk have the largest user base in the fantasy games sports segment.

Factors such as the clarity on the legality of fantasy sports, improved digital infrastructure, investor participation, and a rise in the sports leagues contributed to the wide user adoption.

Fraud puts a damper on the fast-growing industry

Despite the impressive numbers, not all is hunky-dory in the world of gaming. A ThreatMetrix Gaming and Gambling Cybercrime report states that one in every 20 new account creations is fraudulent. A credit check for a gaming license helps in preventing such situations.

From small-time scammers to large criminal syndicates, the industry has become a prime target for fraudsters looking to monetize stolen credentials by:

• Making fraudulent bets
• Taking over existing accounts to steal account credits
• Signing up for fraudulent new accounts for illegal activities

Prime Indian gaming companies such as Ace2Three, Dream11, and BalleBaazi have already started putting up proper infrastructure in place to mitigate fraudulent activities.

The popularity of micro-transactions and a seamless gaming experience allows gaming publishers to store payment information. This way, for the next purchase the payment data is available with just a click/tap. Gaming companies who possess payment details on their files are an easy target for hackers.

Additionally, scams and phishing attempts aimed directly at gamers to share their confidential data also lead to fraud. The use of generative ai for gaming is helping to detect and prevent such fraudulent activities by identifying suspicious patterns and enhancing security measures in real time.

The enormous potential of this being, 75% of mobile gamers and 50% of console and desktop gamers spend on an in-game purchase, as per an ACI Worldwide report.

There are still many gaming companies across the globe that have paid a heavy price for such frauds due to negligence. Here are the 3 examples:

Recent reports of gaming frauds

1. Daub Alderney fails to protect data, pays hefty fine

Many UK gambling firms paid a fine of £19.6m in 2018 for failing to stop money laundering and protect problem gamblers. More than a third of the total amount (£7.1 million) was paid by Daub Alderney, an operator running multiple sites such as Kitty Bingo and Lucky Pants Bingo.

The fact that gamblers were allowed to gamble significant amounts of money within short time frames without any operator intervention compelled the Gambling Commission in the UK to fine Daub Alderney.

2. Gambling app manipulation lands father-son in jail

In 2018, a Mumbai-based father-and-son duo was arrested from their hideout in Gurugram for running online gambling websites that had a turnover of INR 200 crore. They manipulated a software that made sure the numbers on which the customers bet never won.

The police noticed the father-son duo after arresting nine people who were arrested for illegal online gambling bets based on the software created by them. The racket had spread across seven states and 15 countries. The father-son duo is now in jail.

3. Malicious actors in Fortnite try to steal info from young players

Fortnite is the biggest name in the gaming world and has a proud parade of young fans. However, that has caught the attention of scammers who try to steal information and money from them. Strings of scams have been unraveled to trick children into revealing sensitive information about themselves and their parents.

Though the scams are age-old, Fortnite came under the radar once again in 2018 due to a spike in reported cases. The video gaming company urged parents to be vigilant and to keep an eye on what their children are doing online.

Conclusion

The addiction levels are only going to grow, and fraudsters and scammers are not going anywhere.

To combat this, gaming companies have started using a gaming commission background check that can authenticate a user in real-time. With SpringVerify, you can verify the identities of the people involved. The KYC details can be checked to build customer profiles.

The correct gaming license background check protects online gaming operators from the growing number of frauds and online scams. The reason being they have more information about the users. The extra layer of protection means that companies can check and verify details about a customer before they gamble and not after. A strong verification process leads to creating a safer environment for gamers and to combat gaming-related harm.

About SpringVerify

SpringVerify is the modern take on the age-old problem of employee verification being costly, tedious, and out of reach of small businesses. We are trying to build a platform where the employee verification process happens seamlessly and with minimal effort required from both the company and the employee.

We believe that employee verification is a must for any business. It is a critical process in ensuring that every employee working with you is faithful and could be trusted. CareerBuilder survey shows that a company stands to lose on average $17000 on a wrong hire. 

We have built the platform with blockchain and believe that it will change virtually everything it comes in contact with. Blockchain helps us in building a decentralized system which keeps all our data secure and immutable.

FAQ

What is a gaming background check?

A gaming background check is necessarily conducted for checking the background history of gamers. The industry has been boosting and this parallely calls for more frauds through hacking and other means alongside. 

Hence it is necessary to ensure that a gaming background check is conducted in order to ensure the safety of everyone.

What can prevent you from getting a gaming license?

In order to get a gaming license, most background checks are conducted around criminal records and work history.

[Originally published Sept 25, 2019 Last updated August 4th, 2022]

The post Gaming License Background Check: Why is it important? appeared first on SpringVerify Blog.