“We don’t need to pay someone to do a Sex Offender Registry search for us,” a Human Resource professional said, “we can do that on our own”.

Miles away, Guardian heard the distress call and sprang into action. “I have to let them know they won’t be getting all the information possible!” Guardian exclaimed.

The business in question is Big Blue Hospital System, and they’re looking to cut costs and streamline their applicant onboarding process just like everyone else is. Guardian knows that they can’t just go chopping off pieces of their investigation without thinking about the information they will be missing first.

As the HR team discussed their options, they soon realized that a bird was staring at them while pecking through their office window.

“Who or what are you!?” The team said as they opened the window.

“Guardian’s the name, protecting employers is my game. I overheard you talking about performing a Sex Offender Registry search yourself, and I’m here to tell you why that’s a bad idea,” Guardian explained.

“What do you mean a bad idea?” The team leader asked. “It’s public information, so we can just look it up ourselves during the process.”

“Yes, it is public information. However, which registry were you going to use? The national or a state specific? Most businesses just start with a National search, but they don’t know that they aren’t getting all the information. Some states have 3 levels of offender, with level 3 being the worst. When you search the National database though, you are only getting high levels, not all levels. Yes it’s the worst offenders, but there are many more offenders, and you still may not want to hire them,” Guardian explained with a smile.

The team looked at Guardian perplexed, “Wait, so the National registry doesn’t have all the data. What’s the point of it then?”

“A national search is a good starting point to find anything obvious, but that registry won’t even tell you the details of the conviction, only the level and state. To get all the information, you have to contact the specific state’s registry,” Guardian said.

“Well we can’t spend that much time on these searches. How do we streamline this while still getting accurate data?” The team asked.

“Partner with an investigation professional. Companies like Commercial Investigations LLC have relationships with the registries and can get your subject’s data faster than an internal team could. It also saves you on any liability that might fall on your hiring team’s shoulders if they see any protected information while searching,” Guardian explained.

With that, Guardian helped another Human Resources team make smarter hiring decisions. Hearing “Thank You’s” in the distance, Guardian moves on to his next great adventure.