A background check consists of several separate searches bundled into one order. The employer picks the components; the screening company runs them and assembles a report. The core package is identity plus criminal, and everything else — employment, education, credit, driving, drug testing — is added per role.
The core components
Identity and address history. The screening firm builds a footprint from your name, date of birth, and known addresses. This is what tells them which courthouses to search, so an incomplete address history is the single most common cause of a slow or wrong report.
Criminal record search. Usually a county-level courthouse search for each county you have lived in, plus state and federal searches when ordered. County-level is the most accurate for local cases; statewide repositories can lag.
Sex offender registry search. Included by default by most screening providers.
The role-dependent components
- Employment verification — titles, employers, and dates confirmed with the employer or a verification service.
- Education verification — degree, institution, and dates confirmed with the registrar.
- Professional licence verification — status confirmed with the issuing board.
- Credit report — for fiduciary, finance, and some management roles, and only where state law allows.
- Driving record (MVR) — for roles involving a company vehicle or driving on the job.
- Drug screening — a separate service, ordered alongside the check, with its own consent and chain-of-custody rules.
- Civil records, eviction, and bankruptcy searches — ordered by some employers for specific roles.
What is deliberately excluded
Arrests without conviction are excluded after seven years under the FCRA. Non-conviction records, sealed juvenile records, expunged cases, and medical information do not appear. Salary verification is only performed where the employer orders it and the state permits it.
How long each component takes
Criminal searches are fast when the courthouse is digitised and slow when it is not. Employment verification is usually the long pole because it depends on a human at the previous employer. Education verification is fast if the registrar uses a clearinghouse and slow if not. Credit and driving records are effectively instant.
How to keep your own report accurate
Give the screening firm your complete address history and exact legal name. List employers under their legal entity name, not their brand name. Have W-2s or pay stubs ready for any job whose employer has since closed. If a component is wrong, dispute it in writing during the pre-adverse window — the screening company must reinvestigate.
For employers
Order components that map to the role, not a maximal package. Every extra component adds cost, turnaround time, and legal exposure. Document why each component was included, and keep the scope consistent across similar roles so decisions are defensible.
Where this fits in a hiring process
If you are the one running these checks at volume, the hard part is applying the same standard to every candidate rather than the search itself — AI candidate evaluation covers how to structure that step.