Volunteer Background Screening

We Offer Reliable Screening of All Potential Volunteers

Volunteer Background Screening

There are some types of businesses and organizations that make regular use of community volunteers. In the healthcare industry, for example, there are numerous opportunities for people to come in and volunteer their time, whether it’s for something as simple as talking with patients and keeping them company, or with providing relief during disaster situations.

Any time an organization brings in volunteers, it’s critical that they can be certain these volunteers are trustworthy, especially in circumstances in which those volunteers will be working with already-vulnerable people. This is where volunteer background checks come in.

At Palm Beach Mobile Notary & Fingerprinting, we provide volunteer background checks to clients throughout Florida and beyond so you can feel completely comfortable with every person who volunteers with your organization. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of volunteer background screening and why PBN is your best option when in need of this service.

The Importance of Volunteer Background Checks

Here are just a few reasons why it’s so important for you to perform thorough background checks on all your volunteers:

Compliance

For one, there are often state and federal laws that set minimum background screening requirements for people performing certain types of volunteer work. In some states, volunteers working with children, the disabled or the elderly will be required to submit to background checks.

Protection

Even if you’re not required to use background checks for your volunteers, it can still be a good idea as a means of protecting the people and causes you serve, as well as your organization’s reputation. If a volunteer has a history of criminality and you do not take the proper steps to check their background before allowing them to work with you, any crime they commit while working with you could cause a lot of harm. Your organization could be discredited and have a harder time fundraising as a result, and the people or mission you directly serve could also be put at risk.

Risk Management

You should also consider the legal risk to your organization, and not just the risk to your reputation. A lack of background check could result in negligent hiring claims if you bring in a person who should clearly have not been working with you. For example, if you have a volunteer who was committed of a crime against children to work with a children’s program because you failed to perform a background check, that would be an example of negligent hiring that could land you in legal hot water.

For these reasons and many more, it is crucial that you make the small investment necessary to check the background of your volunteers, so you can get some peace of mind and protect both yourself and the people your volunteers would be serving with.

Why You Should Work with PBN for Your Volunteer Checks

Palm Beach Mobile Notary & Fingerprinting has decades of experience in working with local Florida business owners, healthcare organizations, law enforcement and more in performing thorough background checks for a wide variety of purposes. Many organizations are in great need of volunteers, so we understand how important it is for you to get these background checks done quickly so you can get the influx of help you need.

We perform thorough background checks and filter out any extraneous information so that all the data you receive is completely relevant to what you’re looking for. This ensures you don’t get lost under piles of data.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are a few of the questions we most commonly receive about our volunteer background checks:

Why should I complete a background check for volunteers?

We covered most of the biggest benefits of volunteer background checks above, but it’s worth reiterating that background checks for your volunteers go beyond just giving you some additional peace of mind that you’re working with trustworthy people. They also help you to maintain compliance with any regulations mandating background checks for volunteers, and to protect the reputation of your organization.

How long do volunteer screenings take?

Generally a volunteer background check will take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours, though if the screening does reveal criminal information or if the volunteer has lived in multiple jurisdictions within the last few years the screening may take slightly longer to complete.

What do volunteer background checks look for?

Volunteer background checks look for many of the same things employment background checks look for. The analysts run a Social Security Number (SSN0 to verify its validity, and then can perform county criminal records searches to determine if the volunteer applicant has any felonies or misdemeanors on their record. The checks also include determining if the applicant is on the national sex offender registry or the adult abuse registry, as well as, in some cases, checks of an applicant’s motor vehicle records.