Pre-employment screening is an important part of the hiring process, but it also adds time to the overall procedures—and some background checks take longer than others. We explain what causes the variations.
Both employers and potential employees are left waiting while background checks are in progress, so it’s understandably frustrating when things seem to take longer than normal. In general, most background checks deliver results in two or three business days (or even less time), but they are outliers that can cause delays for various reasons.
Some pre-employment screening processes, by nature, tend to take longer. Court record checks, for example, typically require a lot of research and legwork since there is no singular database that contains all criminal records. The screeners must instead access and search through multiple court databases on the local, state, and federal levels if that’s what the check requires. Likewise, employment checks and reference verifications often take longer than expected. Not all employers and references respond in a timely manner to inquiries, and the situation becomes even more complicated if the business no longer exists.
Sometimes delays can occur for other reasons. Inaccurate data, data entry errors, and incomplete forms naturally disrupt the process and make it difficult to get verifiable results. Fortunately, employers can reduce these issues by encouraging their staff and applicants to submit information carefully and in full. Other things that can slow down the process are name changes, common names, and other factors that make it more difficult to collect background information on a person with a high degree of confidence.