What 'adverse action' is (and how employers should pursue it)

August 29, 2018

An adverse action is a negative action reported to a job applicant pertaining to the denial of employment, due to issues identified through a pre-employment screening check.

Taking adverse action is perfectly legal (and necessary!). However, there are two key steps to take to ensure you don’t discriminate against a candidate:

  • A pre-adverse notice, sent before a final decision is made
  • A notification of adverse action, sent once a hiring decision is made

To keep your organization safe, here’s a quick 10-step checklist to keep in mind when pursuing adverse action:

  1. Include both pre-adverse and adverse action steps in your process
  2. Provide the applicant with a copy of their background check, to allow them to respond to any issues and inaccuracies
  3. Include the information of the employment screening company to the applicant in case they want to dispute information
  4. Provide the candidate a reasonable period of time to explain the information in the report or to dispute the accuracy of the reported information
  5. Document all communication that occurs during the screening process
  6. Consider ban the box laws in your region (consult with your lawyer and employment screening firm to make sure you’re aware of local and state regulations)
  7. Provide the candidate with an individualized assessment to allow them the opportunity to highlight that they can be employed
  8. Protect the privacy of the information you receive. As a general rule of thumb, this information should be released on a “need-to-know” basis only.
  9. Do not ask for a release of information that’s not strictly necessary. Not only will you increase your risk of violating labor and federal credit reporting laws, you will also waste the time and energy of everyone involved.
  10. Consider keeping the job vacancy open while the adverse action process is being performed

This blog post is an excerpt from our Ultimate Employment Screening Checklist. Grab the full resource – and boost your hiring processes – here.

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