01/18/2026
So, here’s a real story that explains what I mean when I say we at EDIFY believe in compassion and accuracy in background screening.
Recently, an applicant called us in a panic. They’d been denied employment because of what “showed up” on their background check. Multiple criminal convictions in places they’d never been. They wanted to dispute it.
But here’s the twist. We didn’t run their background check. A completely different screening company did.
They told me they tried to contact that company, hit a voicemail, left a message, and a week went by with no call back. Desperate for answers, they Googled “background check companies,” found our info, and called hoping someone could help fix the errors in their report.
They didn’t understand something most people don’t: not all background checks are the same, and not all screening companies handle consumers the same way.
In a perfect world, mistakes would never happen, but the truth is they do. But when they do, one thing should be universal.
When a consumer believes there’s an error, they deserve clear guidance on how disputes work and a real reinvestigation process that follows the FCRA, before an employer takes adverse action.
So we walked them through how the process is supposed to work from an applicant’s perspective. We suggested they try the screening company again, contact the employer and explain what was going on, and ask the employer to call us if they wanted to talk through it from the employer side.
I assumed that would be the end of it. The next morning, the employer called. After about a 30-minute conversation, they became a new client.
We re-ran the screen on the applicant who originally reached out. And sure enough, we found hundreds of records tied to the same name. That’s a very common issue. But when we did the work to validate each “hit,” none of the serious records belonged to this person. The only matches were a couple minor traffic tickets.
They got the job.
That’s what compassion and accuracy look like to us at EDIFY. Not cutting corners, not leaving people stuck, not treating someone’s life like a line item in a report, and putting in the time and effort to get it right.
If you’re an SMB, in HR or hiring, what’s your biggest frustration with screening disputes or adverse action steps?
Blessings,
Chas