Background-Check Notice, Consent & Adverse Action

The operational procedure that implements the candidate-screening requirements of the Human Resources Security Policy. It governs how Neuroscale orders consumer reports from a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA), how candidates are notified and asked to consent, and how Neuroscale handles adverse decisions based in whole or in part on a report. This procedure is designed to comply with the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq., and the state and local statutes summarized below. Where a state or city imposes a stricter requirement than the FCRA, the stricter rule applies.

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Scope

• All candidates for employment (full-time, part-time, intern) and contractors who will receive Neuroscale-issued credentials, devices, or access to Confidential data — regardless of country of residence. US candidates are screened against the tier-appropriate Checkr core package; non-US candidates are screened against the same core package plus the Checkr International Professional add-on per §“International workforce” below.
• Re-screens of existing employees triggered by role changes into security-sensitive positions or by periodic re-screen requirements for high-trust roles.
• Out of scope: customer or vendor-side due diligence (covered by Vendor Risk Assessment).

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Roles

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CRA — Checkr

Neuroscale uses Checkr as its Consumer Reporting Agency. The Master Services Agreement and Data Processing Addendum on file include:

• A written certification of permissible purpose under 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(1) — Neuroscale certifies, before each report is ordered, that the report will be used for employment purposes only, that all required disclosures have been made, that consent has been obtained, and that the report will not be used in violation of any federal or state equal-employment-opportunity law.
• Compliance attestations covering FCRA, the California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRAA), the New York City Fair Chance Act, Illinois HB 3994, and the Massachusetts CORI law.
• Data-handling commitments aligned with the Data Management Policy.

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Pre-hire process

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1. Job ad & application — ban-the-box compliance

• Job ads must not state or imply that applicants with criminal histories will not be considered, except where a specific role is barred by law (e.g., positions with regulated access).
• The employment application must not contain any question about criminal history.
• New York City roles: the job ad includes the NYC Fair Chance Act notice that Neuroscale will not consider criminal history until after a conditional offer of employment.
• Interviewers are trained not to ask about criminal history during the interview process.

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2. Conditional offer

A background check is initiated only after a conditional offer of employment has been extended in writing.

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3. Disclosure & authorization

CHRO, via Checkr, sends the candidate two distinct documents:

1. A stand-alone disclosure stating that a consumer report (and, where applicable, an investigative consumer report) may be obtained for employment purposes. Per 15 U.S.C. § 1681b(b)(2)(A)(i) and binding case law (Syed v. M-I, LLC), the disclosure is a clear and conspicuous, stand-alone document — not embedded in the employment application or combined with liability waivers.
2. A separate written authorization form signed by the candidate. See the Background-Check Consent template.

Both documents are accompanied by:

• A Summary of Your Rights Under the FCRA (CFPB-prescribed form).
• State-specific notices required by the candidate’s state of residence and intended work location, including (non-exhaustive):
  • California (ICRAA): Notice that the candidate may request a copy of any investigative consumer report; the seven-year cap on reportable convictions per Cal. Civ. Code § 1786.18; investigative-consumer-reports notice.
  • New York City (Fair Chance Act): Notice that criminal history will be reviewed only after a conditional offer.
  • Massachusetts (CORI): Acknowledgement form for any CORI request and the standard CORI notice.
  • Illinois (HB 3994 / Job Opportunities for Qualified Applicants Act, as amended): Notice that conviction records will be considered only after a conditional offer.
  • Washington, Minnesota, New Jersey, Connecticut, Colorado, and other ban-the-box jurisdictions: Equivalent notices as required.

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4. Order

CHRO files the Background Check intake form — which captures the role tier (per §“Background-check tiers” below), the candidate’s residence and work-location, and the package selection — and, once authorization is captured in Checkr, orders the appropriate Checkr package and add-ons for that tier.

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Background-check tiers

Neuroscale runs a minimum-viable screening program: each tier carries the smallest Checkr build that satisfies SOC 2 §CC1.1 / CC1.4 (“proportional screening, documented and consistently applied”) and ISO/IEC 27001 A.6.1 (“proportional to business requirements and information classification”). Optional add-ons (employment verification, education verification, continuous monitoring, credit, civil, professional license) are layered onto a candidate’s screen only when a specific customer contract or regulatory regime requires them — see §“Optional add-ons” below. The CISO assigns the tier at the time the requisition is opened and the CHRO confirms at offer. Roles that straddle production access and fiduciary authority (CTO, CISO, GC, CHRO) are screened at T2; the T3 designation does not currently add screening components — it is preserved as a label for fiduciary-role tracking and will pick up additional searches only when a customer contract or regulatory event triggers them.

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Optional add-ons — added only on customer-contract or regulatory trigger

The add-ons below are not part of the baseline tier builds. The CHRO + General Counsel evaluate the trigger and, where added, document the basis on the candidate’s record so the auditor can see why the optional search was run for that particular hire.

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Add-ons explicitly out of scope today

• MVR / Driving Records. Not applicable — Neuroscale does not require driving on company business. Add only if a role drives.
• Drug screening. Not required by federal law for any Neuroscale role; state marijuana protections in NY, NJ, CA, CT, MT, IL, WA, OR, MN, MI, RI, NV, and DC make routine drug screening a net liability for non-safety-sensitive roles. Add only if a specific customer contract demands it; if added, CHRO and GC review the contract clause and document the basis on the candidate notice.
• DOT / Clearinghouse. N/A — Neuroscale is not a DOT-regulated employer.
• Fingerprint / FBI Identity History Summary. N/A unless Neuroscale enters a regulated channel (FedRAMP High, law-enforcement customer) that requires it.

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Adjudication policy

The Assess Standard adjudication engine applies the Neuroscale Adjudication Matrix — a written rule-set maintained by the CHRO and General Counsel — to every report. The matrix translates raw findings into one of Clear / Review / Engaged per the §“Adjudication” rules below. Updates to the matrix are reviewed by the General Counsel before activation and recorded in the SOC 2 / ISO 27001 evidence library.

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International workforce

For workers resident or recruited outside the United States, the tier-appropriate core package is run together with Checkr International Professional for the worker’s country of residence (and country of citizenship where different). International Professional covers, in the jurisdictions where Checkr supports it, non-US criminal-record sources, sanctions / PEP screening, identity verification against country-issued identity documents, and education / employment verification when those add-ons are included on the engagement. Country-specific coverage differs by jurisdiction — some countries return criminal records on a national basis (UK, Ireland), some only on a regional or court-level basis (Germany, India), and some restrict employer access to criminal records entirely (France, Belgium). The CHRO maintains the country coverage table below — a row per country in which Neuroscale currently employs staff, the Checkr-supported components for that country, and any country-specific notice / consent variation that the candidate-disclosure flow needs to apply. Beyond the Checkr-mediated screen, the General Counsel reviews each new country of employment for local labour-law constraints on pre-employment screening — including but not limited to:

• EU / EEA / UK: GDPR / UK GDPR Article 6 (lawful basis), Article 9 (special-category data — criminal-history data is treated as Article 10 / special-category in many member states), Article 88 (workforce derogations), country-specific employer-screening statutes (Germany BDSG §26, France Code du travail Art. L1221-6 ff.).
• Canada: PIPEDA Principle 4 (limiting collection); provincial human-rights law on criminal-record use (e.g., Ontario Human Rights Code).
• Brazil: LGPD Art. 7 / Art. 11 (sensitive personal data), Súmula 51 of the Tribunal Superior do Trabalho (TST) limiting criminal-history use to specific roles (see Brazil row above).
• India: DPDP Act 2023, IT Act SPDI Rules, Aadhaar usage restrictions (see India row above).
• Other jurisdictions: evaluated on entry.

A Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is filed for each country of employment per DPIA procedure, and the candidate notice + consent template is adapted to satisfy the local regime before any new-country hire is screened. Where staff are employed through an Employer of Record (EOR) — Deel, Remote, Velocity Global, or similar — Neuroscale typically relies on the EOR’s pre-placement screen via a written reliance letter attesting that the screen covers the components required by this procedure’s tier table, instead of ordering a separate Checkr screen. The reliance-letter pattern follows the §“Contractor and third-party screening” model below for staffing-agency contractors; the reliance letter, not the underlying report, is what Neuroscale retains, to avoid joint-FCRA-user obligations.

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Contractor and third-party screening

Contractors fall into five operational sub-categories. Each is screened — or relied on as already-screened — through the path below. The “or required to provide evidence of an acceptable background” clause in the Human Resources Security Policy → Screening is the umbrella that authorizes the reliance-letter pattern in sub-categories 2–4.

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FCRA joint-user caveat (sub-categories 2 – 4)

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1681 et seq.), the “user” of a consumer report is the party that obtains and acts on that report. When Neuroscale runs its own Checkr screen (sub-categories 1 and the international EOR-direct alternative), Neuroscale is the FCRA user and the procedure’s disclosure / authorization / adverse-action machinery applies in full. When Neuroscale relies on a third party’s screen (sub-categories 2 – 4), Neuroscale is not the FCRA user — the staffing agency, vendor, or professional-services firm is. To preserve that separation:

• The reliance letter or engagement-letter clause states that the screen was performed and met Neuroscale’s tier requirements. It does not include a copy of the underlying consumer report.
• Neuroscale does not request, store, or forward the underlying report.
• If a candidate or contractor disputes a finding, Neuroscale directs the dispute back to the agency / vendor / firm — Neuroscale does not adjudicate the underlying report.

Pulling, retaining, or acting on the third-party screen’s underlying content would make Neuroscale a joint FCRA user and trigger the disclosure and adverse-action obligations of §§ 1681b(b) and 1681m — including the candidate notice and the pre-adverse / final-adverse holding-period machinery. The reliance-letter discipline keeps Neuroscale out of joint-user status.

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Reliance-letter template

A reliance letter retained for sub-categories 2 – 4 attests, at minimum:

• The screening firm’s name and address.
• The candidate / contractor’s name and the engagement identifier.
• The components of the screen performed (criminal at what level, identity verification, etc.).
• The date the screen was completed (must be within the trailing 2 years).
• Confirmation that the screen met or exceeded the tier-appropriate components in this procedure’s §“Background-check tiers” table.
• The firm’s authorized signatory and signature date.

Reliance letters are retained in the Vendor Inventory entry for the agency / vendor / firm and surfaced at each annual vendor review per Vendor Risk Assessment.

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Adjudication

Checkr returns the report to the CHRO review queue. Reports are matrix-adjudicated against role-specific criteria approved by the CHRO and General Counsel:

• Clear — no records or only records that do not meet review criteria; hiring proceeds.
• Review — record matches a review criterion; triggers an individualized assessment as described below.
• Engaged — candidate self-disclosure or dispute in progress.

Hiring managers receive only the disposition. Report content is restricted to CHRO, People Operations staff supporting the CHRO, and (where engaged) the General Counsel.

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Individualized assessment

Where a record meets a review criterion, CHRO and the General Counsel conduct an individualized assessment considering the nature and gravity of the offense, the time elapsed, the nature of the position, and any evidence of rehabilitation, consistent with EEOC guidance and applicable state/city fair-chance laws.

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Pre-adverse action

If the individualized assessment indicates Neuroscale is likely to make an adverse decision in whole or in part based on the report, CHRO sends the candidate a pre-adverse-action notice containing:

• A copy of the consumer report.
• A current copy of the Summary of Your Rights Under the FCRA.
• Any state- or city-specific notices required (e.g., the NYC Fair Chance Act Notice, including the position-specific Article 23-A analysis form).
• A clear statement of which item(s) in the report are at issue.
• Instructions on how to dispute the accuracy or completeness of the report directly with Checkr.

A reasonable waiting period of at least 5 business days (longer where required by state/city law — for example, NYC Fair Chance Act requires a minimum holding-open period) elapses before any final adverse decision. During the waiting period, the candidate may dispute the report or supply additional information.

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Final adverse action

If, after the waiting period, the decision remains adverse, CHRO sends a final adverse-action notice that includes, per 15 U.S.C. § 1681m(a):

• The name, address, and toll-free telephone number of the CRA (Checkr) that furnished the report.
• A statement that the CRA did not make the adverse decision and is unable to provide the specific reasons why the decision was made.
• A statement of the candidate’s right to obtain a free copy of the report from the CRA within 60 days.
• A statement of the candidate’s right to dispute the accuracy or completeness of any information in the report directly with the CRA.
• All applicable state- and city-specific adverse-action notices (e.g., the NYC Fair Chance Act final determination, California ICRAA notice).

See the Adverse-Action Letter template.

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Records retention

Records of every step of this procedure — disclosure and authorization forms, the report itself, the individualized assessment, the pre-adverse and final adverse notices, and any candidate correspondence — are retained per the Records Retention Schedule.

• Adverse-action records: retained for 5 years from the date of the adverse action.
• Consent and disclosure forms (cleared candidates): retained for the duration of employment plus 5 years (or as required by state law).
• All records are stored in the CHRO folder of SharePoint with access restricted to the CHRO, People Operations support staff, and the General Counsel.

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Re-screening

Re-screening of currently-cleared workers operates on two layers:

1. Triggered re-screen. A full new report at the new tier is ordered when (a) an existing employee or contractor moves into a higher tier (T1 → T2 or T1 → T3); or (b) a specific event (reported misconduct triggering a fitness-for-duty review) is approved by the CHRO and General Counsel.
2. Periodic re-screen. Every 3 years for T2 and T3 roles.

Re-screens follow the same disclosure, authorization, and adverse-action process described above; a new stand-alone disclosure and written authorization are obtained each time. Where a customer contract or regulatory event triggers Continuous Criminal Monitoring as an optional add-on (see §“Optional add-ons”), the monitoring service surfaces new criminal records to the CHRO review queue within ~30 days of the source-record posting and runs in addition to the two layers above.

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Cross-references

• Human Resources Security Policy
• Background-Check Consent template
• Adverse-Action Letter template
• Records Retention Schedule
• Onboarding

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Version history