Parker County, population 148,000, is a largely suburban county located due west of Ft. Worth and forming a part of the larger Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan area. Nearby counties include Hood, Jack, Johnson, Palo, Tarrant, and Wise. Large employers in the county include Walmart and Lowe’s Home Improvement.
Located roughly 60 miles west of Dallas, Parker County has recorded steady population growth over the past several decades as more families and individuals expand outward from the core metro area. Employers in this area are, therefore, much more likely to encounter applicants from throughout the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. Similarly, employers elsewhere in the metro—and especially in the urban core—may encounter more applicants from Parker County. Factoring the movement of people into how you vet your job applicants is an important step.
Not everyone will tell you the whole truth when they seek to work for your company. The usual tools of the trade—the application, the cover letter, and the job interview—can only tell you what the applicant wants you to hear. What about information they may not disclose voluntarily, such as the existence of a prior criminal record? Verifying what an applicant tells you and conducting your own due diligence into their background will help to protect your business from the hazards and risks of negligent hiring. Background checks are the simplest way to start that evaluation.
Background checks can be a natural, streamlined part of your hiring process when you factor them into your work from the beginning—and when you know where to quickly find the data you need. With rapidly available and easy-to-read reporting products from backgroundchecks.com, you can build a comprehensive plan for investigating applicants no matter where they originated in the metro area. Remember, though, these tools consult public records and thus are subject to certain rules and restrictions.
Texas does not have its own “fair chance” legislation or any statewide “ban the box” law for public or private employment. The same is true for Parker County, which follows the state’s guidelines. In the broader metropolitan area, Dallas County bans the box, but only for employment with the county government—not for private employers. Companies throughout the area and within Parker County may therefore ask about prior felonies on job applications, discuss these answers in an interview, or perform a background check (with appropriate consent) at any stage.
Similarly, Texas does not restrict the way employers may use drug tests during the application process, and no legislation to change these provisions is currently before the state legislature. Although Texas gives businesses a broad authority to dictate how they conduct due diligence, federal laws do still apply, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act. You must provide applicants with a standalone disclosure and gather written consent before using background check products.
With your understanding of how to use these tools legally and appropriately, you can start vetting applicants without further delay. Try the US OneSEARCH for instant results on your candidate pulled from records maintained across the nation, including those within Johnson County, the entire Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area, and other jurisdictions. Explore our online coverage map for more source information. In the event of a recently closed case, a pending charge, or an active judicial process, order a county-level court search to obtain the most recent information from on-site.
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Make your hiring processes more effective in metropolitan areas with help from backgroundchecks.com today.