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What Are the Most Common Background Check Solutions?

The words “background check” are a bit indistinct.

A background check solution is not a constant thing that can be applied unchangeably to a number of organizations.

As we always mention, data has many sources, and employers have unique needs. Offering an optimal solution, in some situations, can become quite involved.

Several factors influence the scope of a background check— industry, the position of hire, company standards, and regulations, among others. Employers will require a different combination of many varied products depending on the circumstances.

Breakdown of Utilized Products

To simplify, we have broken down common products by the frequency with which they appear on a given screening report.

Please note that this data represents a number of industries and positions and that not all products are included.

Graph depicting frequency of background screening and drug testing solutions

Given the data above, we can roughly separate these screening products into three categories:

  • Essentials: criminal database searches, SSN trace, county criminal searches
  • Common add-ons: drug testing, driving records, federal criminal searches, employment verifications
  • Deeper-dive/regulation required: occupation health, personal/professional references, education verification, credit history, civil court searches

There are several additional products that may be valuable to certain employers, such as social media searches, medical debarment searches, international searches, DOT screening, and much more.

Determining What’s Best For You

While there may exist roughly-established standards when it comes to the scope of screening solutions, most individual situations experience a fair amount of nuance. Moreover, products can be leveraged in different ways depending on the needs of an organization. Two background checks with the same handful of products can vary considerably in depth and detail.  

More often than not, the most effective screening solutions will be those that are deliberately customized.

We hope you found this article helpful. If you have any background screening questions, feel free to reach out to us.

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