What is Rescreening? And Why Would You Do It?

Fama is the leading provider of online and social media background checks, working with organizations directly as well as providing online screening services for 95% of background check providers including global partners like, First Advantage. 

In most cases, these checks are done in conjunction with a traditional background check. However, as the need for more social media checks increases, many companies are choosing to conduct these important, comprehensive screenings both earlier in the process as well as regularly throughout the employee lifecycle, the latter of which is known as a “rescreen” or “report rerun.”

In this article, we’ll walk through some of the key reasons employers would choose to rerun online screening reports and some of the implications that has on the employee, business, and their larger communities. We’ll start by walking through what a Fama report rerun is and the difference between a report rerun vs. ordering a new report. 

What does it mean to rerun a report? 

Rerunning a Fama report is about screening someone you’ve already screened again. Companies may want to do this to look for new content, update information about the screening subject, change the screening criteria, or even screen someone at a later time in their employment. It’s a great option for organizations who want to keep a pulse on employees without  monitoring them in real time, which many employees are actively against. 

Ordering a New Report vs. Rerunning a Report  

When you order a new report, you’re screening someone for the first time. However, if you want to screen the same individual again, that would be considered a re-screen. If you need to rerun an individual's report for any reason, it is recommended to rescreen instead of just ordering a new Fama report. 

The biggest difference between running a new report and rerunning an existing report is how the reports are linked and the information provided. When you rerun a report, you will not have to submit the candidate’s information and the new report will be linked to the previous Fama report for future reference. When running a new Fama report the candidate or employee information will need to be provided and the two Fama reports will not be linked.

Whether you choose to rerun or run a new Fama report, both scenarios will incur a report fee and be billed according to customer contracts.

Why would you rerun a report?

So, why would you rerun a report? There are several reasons. Generally speaking, sometimes a company code of conduct has changed or parameters around behaviors have changed or a period of time has gone by since the last check.

Here are 5 reasons to re-screen a candidate or an employee. 

1. You need to update candidate information: Talent acquisition teams are busy. You’ve got a lot of roles to fill, interviews to conduct, candidates to screen, and more. On a rare occasion, you might need to update candidate information to ensure better results in your Fama report. For example, you might originally input a candidate’s name as “Jon” and then realize you want to also look for “Jonathan.” Or, an old address was added to a report and you want to rerun the report to update the address. This is one use case for rerunning a report makes sense. 
2. You want to modify screening criteria: Even if you’ve entered or parsed all the candidate information correctly, there may be a time where you want to change the type of screening you do on the candidate or add new behaviors. For example, if you originally screen someone for a Fama Plus report but then you realize you want to screen their TikTok and Instagram Reels content, as well. Or, you screened for our 8 types of misconduct but then realize you want to update your Behavior Kit to screen for work or industry-related keywords. These are other great times to rerun a report and rescreen a candidate based on the new screening criteria and sources. 
3. Before promotions or internal job changes: You hired someone a few years ago and they passed with flying colors. It’s been several years since and you’re looking to promote them to a manager or even leadership position. Rerunning a report is a great way to check in and make sure your great employee is still aligning with your code of conduct and would make a good managerial or leadership candidate. 
4. There’s an issue that needs to be investigated: Unlike the other examples, there are some cases that rerunning a report and rescreening an individual is a must for security. Unfortunately, we experienced this last year. A customer noticed an employee acting out of character and they wanted us to rescreen them to make sure nothing suspicious was going on. After rerunning their report, it was clear that the employer had cause for concern. The employee made Facebook posts, one of which was a manifesto announcing plans to go to work with a firearm and kill some of his coworkers.  The other was a hit list of people he intended to kill. Luckily, Fama found the posts before the person acted, we alerted the customer and law enforcement, and prevented a workplace shooting. 
5. Regular re-screens, whether monthly, quarterly, or even annually: So much happens day to day it can be hard to keep up. This is why many customers are choosing to rescreen at regular intervals. We’ve seen this ask more frequently in the past year, usually around major events like the war between Israel and Palestine, which led to massive increases in online bigotry as well as after the attempted assassination of the former president.
   
   Many other customers have chosen to rescreen candidates or employees after major events in the news or changes in legal requirements. For example, a recent court case has extended workplace harassment to include online platforms and employers can be held liable if cyberbullying is happening between work colleagues online. Many Fama customers have since wanted to rescreen employees to ensure that their workers aren’t engaging in any cyber bullying behavior between co-workers.
   
   

In addition to these legal ramifications, the recent assassination attempt on former President Trump also led to a large increase in online misconduct. As an example, this X post went viral, talking about a political staffer who was fired for making Facebook posts about the event.  

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How to Rerun Reports

After an initial candidate screening, customers can go back into the Fama dashboard or partner dashboard and request a new report A page identical to the order page will pop up, and it will autofill all of the candidate's information, including any accounts and profiles that were provided or confirmed by Fama. Here you can add or edit any information. You can also change the check type, or Behavior Kit. Click the green 'Add Report' button at the bottom of the page once you are ready to submit.

Conclusion

The 'Rerun Report' feature allows customers to look for new online content about an individual, modify personal information, and change the behaviors you want used on a report. This feature was designed for customers to provide an easy way to rescreen candidates or employees as requirements and times change. Implementing a regular rescreening cadence is a good way to maintain compliance and effectively protect your people and your brand. 

For more information on rescreening, contact your account manager today or request a demo.