Employee background checks go retail

NEW YORK -- Beyond the gallon jars of mayonnaise and the office furniture, shoppers browsing the aisles at some Sam's Club stores will find something that isn't usually sold at retail -- an employee background check in a box.

"Make better hiring decisions," says the package, a little smaller than a box of breakfast cereal. "Conduct background checks quickly and easily!"

With security-conscious employers stepping up scrutiny of job candidates, background checks have become standard procedure at many companies.

But the new check-in-a-box, which is marketed by ChoicePoint Inc. and began selling alongside software for $39.77 late last year, points to new efforts by data vendors to market background screening as a consumer product.

ChoicePoint -- with nearly $800 million in annual revenue, one of the nation's largest vendors of personal, financial and legal data -- also recently began selling background checks via Yahoo's HotJobs.com online employment board, offering jobseekers the chance to vet themselves. Entersect, owned by competing data provider LocatePlus Holdings Inc., says it plans to launch a self-check service later this year on CareerBuilder.com.

The companies say such checks give workers the chance to spot and correct problems in their personal records before an employer does.

The new check-in-a-box, containing a CD-ROM that allows users to tap ChoicePoint's online databases, gives small-business owners access to an essential tool previously available mostly to big companies, say ChoicePoint and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is selling the product in 26 cities.

The Sam's Club product is part of ChoicePoint's efforts to broaden its reach to employers and other users that previously may not have done such checks, said James Lee, the company's chief marketing officer.

It's "more about making information tools available to consumers, but under some very strict privacy guidelines," Lee said.

Privacy advocates object, cautioning that selling background checks could put personal information in the wrong hands.