There are new factors in regard to employers and conducting background checks. News in regard to what the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) recommendations and actions can be found online. Additional new rules implemented on companies based in the U.S. negatively affect the country’s business environment. With many services such as marketing, designing, engineering, website development and more industries going online, moving jobs if not entire industries overseas is easier and a viable option than ever before. The EEOC’s new proposed rules and direction toward background check is to hold employers responsible and chose only certain jobs/positions where a criminal history search can be requested. This additional restriction imposed on employers limiting when a criminal search to be conducted can have businesses in a compromised position and prone to liability. Who determines the criteria of which positions are to be or not to be included is unclear. How is this determination made is not as clear as the liability that falls to employers.

Whether this is an effective approach going forward to improve American business is subjective, however, the effect on the individual business owner is not positive regardless of views. The proposal from the EEOC includes some reasonable ideas such as education offered to employers of the differences between arrests and convictions. Many employers seeing arrests may not offer the prospective employee the open position solely based on an arrest. This causes individuals arrested without being convicted an unfair disadvantage as being branded a criminal by the employer without having convicted of a crime! This can be easily be remedied by omitting arrest information from background checks. However, the EEOC's solution is to restrict background checks from being conducted and exposing the employer to greater liabilities when not following guidelines that are not clear to begin with. In simpler terms, the less the employer can find out about an employee, the better the chance of someone with a criminal history getting the job. Many big businesses can not avoid this new hurdle and must hire based on guidelines set for them. Before moving that business overseas or using staffing from another country, including the aforementioned jobs, there are few solutions available to some business owners. One good approach may be that to look up public information without ordering a full background check. An online search and verification of a professional license will offer any member of the public instant online information of their education and past disciplinary actions, revocations. Online articles based on a name search, Linkedin, personal profiles on social media and more can be found by accessing the various public sites. Furthermore, court records can be viewed as public information with easier online access from new technology being implemented.