Please Note: The material on this website is provided for informational purposes only. It is not a consumer reporting agency as defined by The Fair Credit Reporting Act and should not be used to determine an individual's eligibility for personal credit or employment, or to assess risk associated with any business transactions such as tenant screening.

Now it is super easy to request a background check on someone and even to do it yourself. In the public records alone, you will find details on any criminal offenses which the person has committed information on marriages and divorces. A person’s employment and financial history can also be looked into. Once you have the report with all the details, you will have to analyze the information and make a decision based on it. Use some practical advice which will help you with this.
Thorough Evaluation
The first step is to compare the information from the background check with the details provided to you by the person either in written form or orally. You should watch out for all kinds of inconsistencies. Sometimes, a single word or a single date can have major impact. It certainly matters whether the person has taken the position of a department manager or senior manager, for instance. In the same way, a job applicant with 19 years of work experience is quite different from someone with 9. When it comes to personal checks, it matters whether a person has had one marriage with two kids or two marriages with three children in total.
The second step involves assessing the number and nature of the black spots in the person’s background. If you are looking at a criminal offense, for example, you should consider when it was committed as well as how serious it was. You may want to dig deeper and check the charges and the specific circumstances as well. Similarly, if a person has had financial problems in the past, you should look into the ways in which they have been resolved.
Approaching the Person
It is up to you to decide whether to ask the person about details of his past and inconsistencies with the information from the background check. This is certainly the best course of action if you find the person to be valuable for your company or you have a private relationship with him and you value him very much. When you provide him with a chance to explain, you will be better prepared to make the important decision. You would not want to lose a valuable employee or a partner who you care for deeply just because of an error that he has made.
Finally, you have to trust your judgement and even your instinct when it comes to making an important decision regarding a person. The information from the background check will be extremely useful to you, but it cannot automatically give you the answer. You are the one who makes the decision.