Overview
Continuous monitoring screens current employees on an ongoing basis and alerts the employer when a new record appears. It answers a question a background check at hire cannot: whether something has changed since.
A pre-employment check describes a person on the day it runs. Someone hired 4 years ago was screened against records as they stood 4 years ago, and nothing in that process reveals a conviction entered since.
Despite the name, most monitoring is periodic rather than continuous. Records are re-checked at intervals, and the interval depends on what is being monitored.
How It Works
The employer enrolls employees in a monitoring program. The screening company checks the enrolled names against selected data sources on a schedule, and where a name matches a new record, it sends an alert.
An alert is a starting point. It indicates that a record matching an enrolled person has appeared, and it carries the same identification uncertainty as any name based search. Confirming that the record belongs to the employee, and establishing what it actually says, comes afterward.
What Can Be Monitored
| Criminal records | Drawn from commercial database sources rather than direct court searches, so coverage matches that of a national database search. |
| Driving records | Re-checked with the state licensing agency. Common for driving roles, where license status can change without the employer learning of it. |
| Sex offender registries | Checked against published registries. |
| Sanctions and exclusions | Including healthcare exclusion lists, where monthly checking is standard practice. |
| Professional licenses | Re-verified with the issuing board, catching expirations and disciplinary action. |
| Watchlists | Government sanctions and enforcement lists. |
What Monitoring Misses
Criminal monitoring inherits the limits of the database it runs against. It does not search courts directly, so a conviction in a jurisdiction that does not contribute data will not generate an alert. The absence of alerts is not evidence that nothing happened.
Timing is the other limit. Records reach commercial databases on the contributing source’s schedule, so an alert can arrive weeks or months after the event it describes.
Monitoring is therefore a supplement to periodic re-screening rather than a replacement for it. Employers in regulated fields commonly run both.
Authorization and Notice
Monitoring runs on consumer reports, and each report requires disclosure and authorization. The authorization signed at hire generally covers that check, and it does not by itself authorize a program of ongoing checks over years of employment.
Employers running monitoring therefore obtain authorization that covers ongoing screening during employment, with disclosure making clear that checks will continue. Some state laws add requirements about notifying employees.
The practical consequence is that an employer cannot add existing staff to a monitoring program on the strength of paperwork they signed when they were hired.
What Happens When an Alert Arrives
An alert is unverified. Before anything follows from it, the record has to be confirmed as belonging to the employee, and its current status established at the source, which for a criminal record means the court that holds the case.
Where an alert leads to an adverse employment action, the same notice requirements apply as at hire. The employee must receive notice and a copy of the report with an opportunity to respond before the decision is final. Our page on The Adverse Action Process covers the sequence.
An arrest is not a conviction, and this is where that distinction does the most work. An alert generated by an arrest describes a charge that has not been resolved. The difference between arrests and convictions is covered on our County Criminal Search page.
Rap Back and Fingerprint Programs
A separate form of ongoing screening operates through government fingerprint programs. Where a person’s fingerprints are enrolled, the agency notifies the employer or licensing body if they are later arrested and fingerprinted.
This differs from commercial monitoring in 2 ways. Identification is biometric, so it does not carry the name matching problem. And it is limited to positions where a statute authorizes fingerprint screening, so it is not generally available. Our page on Live Scan covers how those programs work.
What It Does Not Cover
- Jurisdictions absent from the monitored sources.
- Direct court records, since monitoring runs against databases.
- Employment, education, or credential changes not published in a monitored source.
- Conduct that produced no record.
- Real time notification, since checks run on a schedule.
Where It Fits Under the FCRA
Each monitoring check produces a consumer report, with the disclosure, authorization, accuracy, and dispute requirements that attach to one. Our FCRA Overview covers those requirements in full.
Two obligations deserve particular attention in a monitoring program. Authorization must cover ongoing screening during employment. And the notice requirements apply to every adverse action taken on a report, not only at hire, so an employer acting on an alert follows the same sequence it would follow for an applicant.
State law adds requirements in some places, including restrictions on how criminal records may be used in employment decisions, which apply to current employees as they do to applicants. Our State Laws Overview covers how the states differ.