Background Investigations

After you have selected one or two finalists for the vacancy, the next step is conducting a background investigation. A background investigation includes a variety of different employee screening mechanisms, but the ones that you most likely will use include work history verification, verification of education and professional licenses, driving records and criminal conviction records. Whatever mechanisms you decide to use, you need to make sure that they are tied to the specific job requirements. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) states that any pre-employment inquiries that disproportionately screen out members of minority groups or members of one sex and are not valid predictors of successful job performance or cannot be justified by business necessity are unlawful. Under the laws enforced by the EEOC, it is illegal to discriminate against someone because of that person’s race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to retaliate against a person because he or she complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit. In addition, the Minnesota Human Rights Act, Minnesota Statutes § 363A, makes it an unfair discriminatory practice to seek or obtain from any source, information that pertains to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, disability, age, or membership or activity in a local commission unless it can be shown to be a bona fide occupational qualification or unless such information is required by law.

Recommended Background Checks

Here are the background checks that we recommend you conduct if you are not doing so already:

• Verification of work history. At minimum, you should verify dates of employment with former employers. In doing so, you may find instances where candidates have not been truthful on their applications/resumes. If you find that the information that you have obtained does not match the information on the application, please let the Merit System office know. Under the rules, falsifying information on the application is reason for removal from the eligible list. See Hiring Guide (put in link to hiring guide) for more details on reference checks.

• Verification of education and professional licenses and certification. If a degree requirement or possession of a professional license or certificate is part of the minimum qualifications for the position, the Merit System will verify the information. However, if it is not part of the requirements, you may wish to verify the information.

• Driver’s license. If the job requires transporting clients, verification of the driver’s license and information about the candidate’s driving record should be part of the background check.

• Background checks on psychotherapists as required by Minnesota Statutes, §§ 604.20-604.205. The law requires that you make inquiries of employers and former employers of psychotherapists concerning requests for and occurrences of sexual contact by psychotherapists with their patients or former patients. Social workers, chemical dependency counselors, mental health workers and psychologists are job classifications that fit the definition of psychotherapist under the law. If you would like more information on the requirements and copies of draft release forms, please contact the Merit System office.

• Background studies on county child protection workers. This is required by Minnesota Statutes, §626.559, subd. 1b. The county may complete the background study by either a) use of the Department of Human Services NETStudy 2.0 system, or b) an alternate process defined by the county (i.e., its own process for conducting a background study—such as contracting with a company who performs background checks, use of the process designed by the human resources department in the county, etc.)   

NETStudy link:  https://mn.gov/dhs/general-public/background-studies/netstudy-2.0-background-study-changes/

• Fingerprinting of staff who have access to federal tax information (FTI) See page 27 of the IRS publication here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p1075.pdf    If you use NETStudy for all of your newly hired employees, fingerprinting is part of the process.

• Criminal history checks. It is recommended that you conduct these on your finalists. There is a free service offered by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) which contains data on criminal convictions for the past 15 years. Link to BCA website: https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/bca/Pages/background-checks.aspx

Please be aware that Minnesota Statutes, §364, the Criminal Offenders Rehabilitation Act, prohibits the disqualification of candidates for public employment because of a prior criminal conviction unless the conviction relates directly to the position or employment sought.