Policy 225: Background Checks

Category: Personnel
Covered Individuals: All CEI Employees
Approved: 2019-11-13

225.1 Policy

College of Eastern Idaho conducts background checks in order to promote a safe learning and working environment and to protect the welfare of students, faculty, staff, and visitors to the college. The human resources department is solely authorized to conduct and oversee the background check process. All offers of employment for faculty and staff positions will be contingent on successfully passing a background check. Under certain circumstances, current CEI employees will be required to undergo a background check.

College of Eastern Idaho reserves the right to conduct a background investigation at any time as a matter of law or based on the nature of the position.

Background checks will be conducted using a contracted third party.

225.2 Procedures

• Finalists for all positions, including volunteer and intern positions, will be informed during the pre-employment process that any offer of employment is contingent upon satisfactory completion of a background check.
• Prior to conducting the background check, a signed, written consent will be obtained from finalists, when possible. Finalists who are out of the area will receive an invitation to participate via the contracted third party. Refusal to authorize the background check will make the finalist ineligible for employment.
• Background checks must be completed as a condition of employment prior to the individual beginning work, in any capacity, at CEI.
• Human resources may request additional information from the new employee in order to run the background check, as necessary.
• Human resources notifies the hiring manager if the result of the background check is not satisfactory.
• The human resources executive director, in consultation with the appropriate manager, will determine if the offer needs to be rescinded in cases where the results of the background check are not satisfactory.
• The human resources executive director will contact the prospective new employee if the offer is rescinded due to a failed background check. Notification is followed up with a formal letter to that individual.
• Human resources keeps the results of all background checks in a confidential file.

Background Checks for Current Employees

A criminal history background check will be required when:

• A current employee has no background check on file.
• A current employee applies for a position and the check on file is more than 12 months old.
• A former employee has a break in service of more than 6 months, no matter how old the previous check on file.
• A former employee has a break in service of less than 6 months, but the previous check is more than 12 months old.
• A student employee moves to a non-student position.

All employees, have an ongoing responsibility during their employment to make CEI aware of any felony or misdemeanor convictions or pleas which are acknowledgements of responsibility. Any convictions or pleas should be reported to Human Resources.

Any findings of concern will be reviewed by the executive director of human resources. Actions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Confidentiality

Information secured for the purpose of extending, maintaining, or retracting an offer of employment will be confidentially maintained by the human resources department. For the purpose of making decisions, report contents or portions of the content may be shared with appropriate individuals who have a legitimate business need to know as determined by the human resources executive director.

Information discovered through the background check process will be used solely for the purpose of evaluating a finalist’s suitability for employment and will not be used to discriminate against a finalist on the basis of race, color, religion/creed, sex/gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, genetic information, marital/familial status, disability, military, veteran status, or any other protected status.

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