Iowa Background Checks

Health Street combines industry knowledge, a commitment to accuracy, and a spirit of fairness when performing background checks in the Hawkeye State. Comprehensive employment screenings keep you and your business from stumbling into legal problems. A thorough background screening is essential to confirming that your new hires in are qualified and honest.

Health Street's combination of high tech and high touch make background checks in fast and reliable. We offer simple, secure web technology matched with local court runners to protect your company.

Due diligence is critical. Poorly performed background checks can expose you in the following ways:

In either case, you could be held legally liable. It is critical that you stay in compliance with local labor laws. Let Health Street's experts conduct your background checks in New Mexico so you'll know that your candidates have been fully and properly vetted before hire.

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If your business hires truck drivers, DOT regulations require that you reach out to prior employers as well as check the FMCSA Drug and Alcohol Clearinghouse for violations. You also need to run a Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) to ensure that your drivers have a clean, safe driving record.

Health Street takes this work off of your hands and stores your Iowa background checks securely in the same convenient online portal where you can manage your DOT drug testing and random pool. We contact prior employers, check the Clearinghouse on your behalf, and report it all back to you in a comprehensive background check report, that includes:

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When evaluating a job applicant, the first thing a hiring manager tends to look at is their resume. But what if the schools attended, degrees earned, job titles held, and other credentials were embellished, exaggerated, or outright fabricated? Before making that hire, you can rest easy knowing that Health Street can add resume verification to our Iowa background checks.

Resume fraud is unfortunately all too common in Iowa. Our resume verification services provide a definitive check on everything listed on your applicant's resume. This includes:

Be sure that the person you want to hire is really who they say they are by ordering resume verification services from Health Street.

Background Check Laws Specific to the State of Iowa

In the state of Iowa, employers are generally granted unrestricted access to an applicant's criminal background information. However, there is legislature in place to safeguard applicants from false discrimination due to criminal charges that never received a verdict. Under Iowa Code 2020 Ch. 692.2, charges that did not receive a sentence within 18 months from the date of arrest cannot be accessed by employers without a signed release from the applicant.

Likewise, if an applicant has successfully completed probation following a deferred judgment, an employer may not access this criminal history data without a signed release from the applicant. In addition, records of case acquittals or dismissals by reason of insanity or mental incompetence to stand trial cannot be used throughout the application process.

Furthermore, under Iowa Code 2020 Ch. 692.2, a job applicant or subject of a background check is not required to pay for the request. If an employer requires a criminal background check on an applicant, the employer must submit a written request of release and pay all required fees.

Aside from general criminal history statutes, Iowa does enforce employment-specific background check mandates. Under Iowa Code 2020 section 135C.33, employers of healthcare facilities, such as in-home health service agencies and nursing homes, must request a criminal background check for any potential employee. Similarly, under Iowa Code 2020 section 135B.34, all hospital employees must also undergo a criminal background check. Both health care facilities and hospital employers also reserve the right to request a child and dependent adult abuse record check from each applicant.

In addition to its statewide legislature, Iowa has a city-specific criminal history ordinance in place. On July 1, 2020, the City of Waterloo enacted a "ban-the-box" law prohibiting all private employers with at least 15 employees from inquiring about an applicant's criminal record until a conditional job offer is made. Once an offer has been made and the employer proceeds with a background check, they may not issue a hiring decision based solely on the applicant's record of arrest, pending charges, or lawfully erased records. However, an employer may use the applicant's criminal record towards a hiring decision when there is a "legitimate business reason," such as an individual offense correlating with the desired position.

Statistics on Crime in The State of Iowa

Iowa maintains and reports crime and arrest data in accordance with the Iowa Department of Public Safety's Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. This data is shared annually with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for publication. According to the latest data, Iowa saw 5,743 violent crime incidents in 2018. Violent crime types included rape, murder, aggravated assault, and robbery.

A unique aspect of Iowa's violent crime information is its focus on location demographics. Top violent crime locations in 2018 included: