Federal Law (FCRA)
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) establishes the federal minimum requirements for employment background checks, including disclosure and authorization requirements, consumer rights, and the adverse action process. Many states impose additional requirements that employers must also follow.
Read FCRA OverviewAdditional Compliance Requirements
Beyond the FCRA, several sources determine the requirements for a compliant staffing screening program.
Client Contracts
Client agreements usually specify the package, the turnaround, and who bears the cost if a placement is rejected.
Worksite State Law
The law that applies follows the location where the work is performed, not where the agency’s office sits.
Client Regulators
Placing into a regulated setting brings that industry’s rules with it, and they reach the placed worker.
Employer of Record
The agency carries the hiring obligations that follow from being the legal employer of the placed worker.
Recommended Screening Components
Screening requirements depend on the nature of the position and the length of the assignment. A worker placed for a 3-day temp assignment may require a different screening package than the same worker placed in a temp-to-hire or direct-hire position.
| Position |  SSN Trace |
 Address History |
 Form I-9 |
 DHS E-Verify |
 County Criminal |
 National Criminal Database |
 Sex Offender Registry |
 Employment History |
 Education Verification |
 MVR |
 Drug Testing |
 Healthcare Sanctions |
 Continuous Monitoring |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light Industrial / Warehouse | |||||||||||||
| Clerical | |||||||||||||
| Customer Service | |||||||||||||
| Skilled Trades | |||||||||||||
| IT and Professional | |||||||||||||
| Healthcare Support | |||||||||||||
| Driver |
As required of the employer of record. On temporary placements that is the agency. On direct-hire placements that is the client.
Driven by client contracts, insurers, and industry requirements. Other factors that can determine the screening package are assignment length, cost and turn-around time.
Notes on This Package
Temp-to-hire is where packages fail. The worker is screened at placement against a temporary standard, converts to direct-hire months later, and nobody re-screens against the standard the new role requires. There are two clean answers: screen to the direct-hire standard up front, or re-screen at conversion. What does not work is treating the original report as though it covers the new role.
The report belongs to whoever certified for it. A consumer reporting agency may only furnish a report to a party with a permissible purpose, and each party obtaining one certifies its purpose to the agency. Handing a client a copy of the agency’s report is not a neutral act. If the client is going to make its own decision from that report, it generally needs its own permissible purpose, its own certification, and its own adverse action process.
Adverse action follows the decision, not the paperwork. The obligation to notify sits with whoever takes the adverse action based on the report. When a client rejects a placed worker because of what the report showed, that is an adverse action, and the fact that the agency ordered the report does not move the obligation. Contracts should say which party sends the notices, because silence does not eliminate the duty.
State law follows the worksite. An agency headquartered in one state placing workers in five others carries the rules of all five. Ban the box timing, criminal history lookback limits, salary history bans, and adverse action requirements all attach to where the work happens. A single national package built to the home state’s rules will be wrong somewhere.
A client-specified package does not transfer liability. Clients frequently dictate the searches and the criteria. If a required search is not lawful in the worksite state, or a blanket exclusion conflicts with a state’s individualized assessment requirement, the agency ran the check and made the placement decision. Indemnification language in the contract allocates cost between the parties. It does not reassign the statutory duty.
What the Results Surface
Staffing reports raise problems that come from the structure of the work rather than from the records themselves.
Turnaround is the binding constraint
An assignment can be shorter than a county court takes to respond. That pressure is why database searches dominate short placements and why confirming a database hit is the step that gets squeezed. The compressed timeline does not shorten the adverse action process, which still requires giving the worker a real chance to respond before the decision is final.
The same worker is screened repeatedly
Contract workers move between agencies and accumulate reports, sometimes several in a year from different providers using different sources. Inconsistent results across those reports are common and usually reflect differences in scope or in which counties were searched, not a changing record.
Employment gaps are structural
A worker with eight assignments in three years shows a fragmented history that is normal for contract work. Agencies that closed, assignments that ended early, and payrolling arrangements where the worksite employer is not the employer of record all make verification harder without indicating anything about the worker.
Beyond General Staffing
Staffing spans every industry on this site. Some segments carry requirements that may expand the package.
| Clinical Staffing | Exclusion screening, primary source license verification, and state registry checks apply to the placed clinician, and the facility that bills carries the exclusion liability regardless of who screened. See Healthcare. |
| Light Industrial | The highest volume and the shortest timelines. Physical ability testing and drug testing appear more often here, and client sites frequently set their own site access standards on top of the agency package. |
| Professional and IT | Longer engagements with deeper verification, including education and credentials. Client system access often triggers the client’s own security screening in addition to the agency’s. |
| Driver Placement | Placing commercial drivers pulls in the federal driver qualification file, drug and alcohol program, and Clearinghouse duties, and those attach to the motor carrier. See Transportation. |
Screening Considerations
Who Holds the FCRA Obligations
The disclosure, authorization, and adverse action duties attach to the party procuring the report and to the party taking action on it. In a temporary placement the agency is usually both. In a direct hire placement the client makes the decision, which changes who owes the notices. The arrangement determines the answer, not the invoice.
Sharing Reports With Clients
A consumer reporting agency may furnish a report only to a party with a permissible purpose under the FCRA. Passing the agency’s report to a client who will use it to make a decision generally makes that client a user with its own obligations. Many agencies handle this by sharing a pass or fail result rather than the report itself.
Worksite State Law
Ban the box timing, criminal history lookback limits, credit and salary history restrictions, and adverse action requirements follow the location where the work is performed. An agency placing across state lines carries every applicable rule at once. Check the State Laws Overview for the states where you place.
Client-Specified Packages
Client contracts commonly dictate searches, lookback periods, and disqualifying criteria. Where a specified search or an automatic exclusion conflicts with worksite state law, the agency is still the party that ran the check. Contract indemnification allocates cost between the parties; it does not move the statutory duty.
Redeployment and Re-Screening
A report obtained for one assignment does not automatically support a placement made months later at a different site with different requirements. Authorization language that covers reports obtained throughout the working relationship is what makes redeployment screening workable, and client contracts often set their own recency requirement.
Employer of Record Duties
For temporary and contract placements the agency is the legal employer and completes Form I-9 for the worker. E-Verify applies where the agency is a federal contractor or operates in a state that mandates it. On direct hire placements the client is the employer and those duties sit with the client.
Placing Into Regulated Industries
Screening rules that attach to a regulated setting reach the placed worker. Exclusion screening in healthcare, driver qualification files in transportation, and licensing requirements in skilled trades all apply to the person doing the work. The industry page for the placement setting is the better guide than a general staffing package.
Adverse Action in a Placement
A worker removed from an assignment or refused placement because of a report has received an adverse action, and the pre-adverse notice, the copy of the report, the summary of rights, and a real opportunity to respond all apply. Ending an assignment early does not convert the decision into something outside the process.
Common Questions
Who is the employer for screening purposes?
For temporary and contract placements the agency is the employer of record and carries the screening obligations. For direct hire placements the client employs the worker, and the agency’s role is closer to a vendor performing the check. The placement type determines the answer.
Can we send the client a copy of the report?
Not freely. A reporting agency may furnish a report only to a party with a permissible purpose, and a client using it to make its own decision generally needs its own certification and its own adverse action process. Sharing a pass or fail outcome rather than the report avoids most of the problem.
Which state’s law applies?
Generally the state where the work is performed. An agency in one state placing into four others follows the rules of all four. Where a city ordinance applies at the worksite, that applies too.
Does a report carry over to the next assignment?
Not automatically. Whether an existing report supports a new placement depends on how the original authorization was written and on what the new client requires. Many agencies use authorization language covering reports obtained throughout the working relationship for this reason.
Who sends the adverse action notice?
Whoever takes the adverse action based on the report. If the agency declines to place someone, the agency sends it. If the client rejects a worker after seeing results, the client has taken an adverse action, and the fact that the agency ordered the report does not shift that. Contracts should state which party handles it.
What if a client requires something unlawful?
The agency ran the search and made the placement decision, so the agency carries the exposure. This comes up most often with automatic exclusions in states requiring an individualized assessment, and with searches restricted by state law. It is a conversation with the client and with counsel rather than a package configuration.
Do temporary workers need the same screening?
The legal obligations are identical. The package usually is not, because cost and turnaround are weighed differently on a short assignment. A lighter package is a commercial decision, and it does not reduce what the law requires or what a negligent hiring claim would ask.
Who completes Form I-9?
The employer of record. On temporary and contract placements that is the agency. On direct hire placements it is the client. Both parties assuming the other handled it is a common gap in payrolling and vendor-on-premises arrangements.
Screening by Industry
Most staffing firms specialize. The package for a placement is usually determined by the industry the worker is placed into rather than by staffing itself:
Worth Knowing
A Client Rejection Still Triggers Adverse Action
When a client declines a worker because of something in the report, the FCRA process applies even though the worker stays employed by the agency and moves to another assignment. Reassignment does not replace the pre-adverse notice and the chance to dispute.