Due Diligence Education

In short, due diligence is the level of judgment, care, prudence, determination, and activity that a person or company would reasonably be expected to do under particular circumstances.

In terms of negligent hiring, an employer is liable for harmful acts committed by its employees, if the employer knew--or should have known--of the employee's predisposition for such behavior.

To protect your company and your clients, an employer must establish due diligence. Employers must establish that they did everything reasonably expected for a background investigation prior to hiring a candidate employee.

Many Instant and Internet screening companies utilize stored data. The FTC, reported that "an employment screening service that uses stored data (which may be as much as 90 days old) does not comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act Section 613(2)" and does not qualify as due diligence.

At Pinnacle, our background investigations are exactly that: investigations. Our qualified investigators will verify an applicant’s social security number, develop a permanent address history, uncover  aliases, maiden and married names, and research criminal records associated with the applicant's name and aliases for every location developed from the address history search.

This pre-employment background investigation protects your company from negligent hiring lawsuits because it establishes that your company did everything possible (and available) to check the applicant's criminal history.

There are other levels of due diligence and the background investigation must be appropriately paired with the job position.

• Federal and state civil court records will provide information on domestic violence issues, restraining orders and violations of federal statutes.
• Employment reference verifications going back 7-10 years will also provide a double-check on address history and fitness-for-duty issues.
• Reference checks (assuming that the right questions are asked) will establish a baseline for character and fitness-for-duty.
• Credit reports will provide yet another check for address history and will let you know if your applicant is financially responsible, which is another direct measure for establishing character and fitness for duty.
• Developed references provide a unique insight into your applicant. A developed reference is a third party character verification of your applicant developed through work contacts or neighborhood searches. We use developed references for all our government background investigations. A person lists references on their application that will provide the best possible references. A developed reference is a check and balance on the entire application letting you know if all the other information is indeed accurate.

Find out more about the differences between background investigations and background screening.