Should You Share Your Employees' Background Checks With Clients When They Ask?

I was recently reading an article about this very topic and it offered some good advice. But I also wanted to make sure the advice was accurate, so I asked my HR Expert at our PEO Company to share his advice.

First, if you'd like to read the article, visit this page: Sharing Employees' Background Checks With Customers

Here are the additional points my HR Expert offered, to make sure you protect your business from legal action.

1. The safety/security of an employee's very personal information is of the utmost importance.  Anything you can do to avoid providing a copy of the background report to any outside entity would be a good idea.

1. You may want to add a statement in your Maintenance Agreement or Contract stating that the firm does do background checks, and will not place anyone on the job with any conviction of theft in the past seven years. That could probably head off the client request to actually view the background checks.
   
   Note: Seven years is the accepted lookback period except for certain felony convictions.  If you look back further than seven years, you run the chance of a discrimination lawsuit brought by the employee through the EEOC.

1. If a background check must be provided to the client, then I would take a copy and black out all of the employee-related information (including the name and court case numbers), and then show it to the employee.  Then create a document stating that “I, employee name, have reviewed a copy of my background check that will be provided to one of 's clients, and certify that it contains no personally identifiable information.  I further understand that the client has agreed to destroy this document once it has been inspected”.

1. Personally, I would not be comfortable providing the client/potential client with a copy of the document, and rely on them to destroy it.  Instead, I would show them the blacked-out document, and have them review it in the company's presence. Then the company could take the document with them once that meeting is done.

1. If you come across a more demanding client that wants to do their own background check, I would make this optional to the employee, and not take action against the employee if the employee refuses.  In this case, I believe it is better to walk away from the business rather than subject your employees to such invasion of their privacy – especially when you take into account all the things you hear about identity theft.