Pinnacle Employment Screening Solutions

Pinnacle offers a wide array of solutions for your employment screening needs. The basic packages we offer contain all the information you need to make sure your company is following the government's compliance policy. Included in our basic solution are:

• Social Security Number Association and Address History Research

  This research must be a foundational part of the actual criminal background check, otherwise you may be missing the majority of available records. Without it, the check can be easily "tricked", and you're company is vulnerable to ID theft and undocumented workers.



• Proactive Research on ALL aliases and ALL locations

  To ensure that your applicants are who they say they are, Pinnacle actively searches out discrepancies on applications. We check all aliases associated with each Social Security Number and locate all previous locations resided. The average applicant has lived in 3 locations in the past 7 years, and a common way for applicants to try to hide identity is to use aliases.



• Real-time Court Docket research

  A common misconception about background checks is that there is a national database with all this information already available. County courts often report only convictions to the state courts, and thus the database information is outdated and does not paint the whole picture of an individual since a vast majority of charges are lessened. Real-time court docket research provides an up-to-date, full criminal history of your applicant including pending charges, original charges, dismissals, warrants, etc.



• Federal Court check

  About 1/3 of all serious crimes are Federal crimes, and the only way to get this information is to do a Federal Court check.

Pinnacle offers additional investigative services that provide your company with valuable information necessary to ensure you are hiring responsibly. Some of our additional features include:

• National Sex Offender Search

  Only 25% of convicted sex offenders are even registered, making this search most effective when used in conjunction with Court Docket Research.



• Credit Report

  A credit check provides much more than information about an applicant’s financial responsibility. Used in conjunction with other background investigation information in the evaluation of an applicant's reliability and trustworthiness, credit history checks determine credit worthiness and overall level of responsibility. Application data, identity, employment, bank accounts or trade lines are all verified by this check, allowing for more accurate risk assessments. Pinnacle interfaces directly with major credit bureaus’ 200 million credit-active consumer files so our clients can make accurate risk assessments of potential employees. Pinnacle also includes Safescan at no additional charge. This information verification system is an interactive warning system alerting customers of potentially fraudulent information. Safescan is nationwide and contains over 20 distinct warning messages, such as:
  1. When a Social Security Number has been issued prior to the applicant’s date of birth, misused, reported deceased and/or never been issued.
  2. Profile address warnings indicate an address that has been associated with more than one name or Social Security Number.
  3. Social Security-issued information provides the year and date the Social Security Number was assigned to help confirm ID and age of the applicant.
  Pinnacle will report all information provided from the credit bureau. This information may not include 10 years because of many factors including, but not limited to: age of applicant, history of credit, bankruptcy, etc. If requested, Pinnacle will further evaluate an applicant's financial history using a variety of tools available. Please note that federal law requires an on-site inspection of your facilities prior to running credit reports for the first time (you may have already had this done) which usually costs around $90 if it is needed.



• Education Verification

  Pinnacle Investigations verifies educational history and certifications, as requested by the client. Each educational institution is contacted to validate the information provided by the applicant. Prepared with the applicant's full name, maiden name, if applicable, Social Security Number, date of birth, and a signed Consent to Release Information, our background investigators can usually verify at least the following directly with the institution (plus any additional information requested by the client):
  1. Dates of attendance
  2. Graduation or completion date with major course of study if applicable
  3. Degree or certification earned



• Employment Verification

  We thoroughly verify each applicant's employment history by personally contacting past employers’ Human Resources Departments or direct supervisors and go as far back as desired by the client. Pinnacle Investigations requests that the information that needs to be verified be provided by the applicant. Although portions of employment history can be obtained and cross-referenced from other sources of information, the data provided by the applicant often contains the most comprehensive source. Our experienced investigators ask customized questions to properly verify prior employment of the applicant. It is important to realize that some companies only verify employment via third-party verification databases. These verification systems will usually only provide the applicant's name, dates of employment, and Social Security Number. Our goal is to provide you the most comprehensive picture of your applicant, so we only use these third-party systems as a last resort or if instructed by the past employer. Pinnacle also verifies military service history. We contact the applicant's last duty station or use the veteran's DD 214, obtained from our client, the applicant, or a custodian of military records to verify the term and character of service.



• Driver License Verification

  Pinnacle begins every driving history check with a driver's license validation. This will ensure that the provided license belongs to the applicant, has not been suspended, revoked or expired, and contains the proper endorsements. Pinnacle has a two-tier approach to checking a 10-year driving history. The first tier is to check driving history at the county level based upon a person's address history. This will reveal all non-criminal traffic-related infractions within that county. The second tier approach is to request an MVR (Motor Vehicle Report) which will report all traffic-related offenses including non-criminal infractions and all criminal traffic for a specified state. Some states (e.g. Montana) will not release county-level traffic reports, but only report criminal and non-criminal traffic offenses through MVRs. County-based traffic reports cost less than MVRs, but only report for that particular county. MVRs report all traffic-related offenses within a specified state, but are more expensive. If the applicant has lived in two or more counties within the same state, then a MVR is more cost-effective.



• License and Certification Verifications

  This check consists of verifying licenses and certifications reported by the applicant to be current, and includes dates of expiration, validity, and any complaints against the license.

There are a variety of other add-on options available. We serve clients ranging from one of the largest retail companies in the world to high-security facilities concerned with terrorist activities. The key is that we work with you to structure packages that ensure legal compliance and protect you from potential liability.

To learn more about what Pinnacle can do for your company, please contact a representative today.