When an applicant logs into their account and then checks their status, they find that they have "Disabled" right next to background screening.
The first reaction is usually panic.
Are they going to find out that an employer found out about their medical history? Does that mean the applicant is going to lose the job offer? Do they have a serious criminal record or other issues?
The short answer is no.
Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and third-party Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) create friction through terminology.
The word "Disabled" has many meanings in the real world related to medicine and law, but in an ATS software dashboard, the term indicates a technical issue.
Knowing exactly what the "Disabled" status code refers to can help anxious applicants and busy HR Representatives alike.
The short answer about "Disabled" on a background check
If you want the short reply without reading this entire article, here are the fast facts:
- "Disabled" refers to a technical error, not a personal judgment. The "Disabled" status has no relation to an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) status nor an applicant's physical health.
- The report is jammed. The "Disabled" status means the report cannot proceed until the underlying data or system issue is resolved.
- A "Disabled" status does NOT indicate failure. The "Disabled" status is different than a "Failed" or "Under Review" statuses, which indicate an actual criminal or employment verification flag.
- Action is required. An applicant must provide the missing information or fix any integration errors so that the report can resume.
To fully appreciate why a candidate can have a background check in "disabled" status, it is critical to examine exactly how today's HR technology works.
It is also important to understand how that technology interfaces with third-party vendors (in this case, First Advantage, Sterling, or Accurate) to perform background checks on behalf of their employer clients.
When a company opens a case for a background check with a vendor, they will send relevant data. This includes the candidate's name, date of birth, SSN, and any other specific identifying information.
This data is sent through an application program interface (API) directly from the employer's applicant tracking system (ATS) to the appropriate vendor.
The vendor then checks multiple different databases, court records, and prior employment records to verify the accuracy of the information provided by the employer.
If any part of this flow fails for any reason, the vendor will return a status code.
System status codes are not medical classifications
This is where many candidates get confused.
Many candidates believe that they have a private medical condition that an employer has uncovered. Others worry they were flagged as having a disability when applying for government-sponsored disability insurance.
System architecture is the basis for the way vendors use labels for these status categories.
As defined in First Advantage's Internal Reporting, a "Disabled" status means that a specific background check package or search criteria has been turned off.
It means that a package has been "Disabled" or "Stopped" at the administrative pause level
If you want to understand what a vendor means by "Disabled", you need to know how to categorize status codes correctly.
"Failed" or "Needs Review" status codes indicate that the vendor successfully completed the check process. However, the system identified information that contradicted the Vendor's client's hiring criteria, such as a felony conviction or an invalid degree.
"Cancelled" or "Case Cancelled" status codes indicate that the employer has stopped the background check process.
This usually occurs if candidates withdraw from candidacy for the position, or if the employer retains another candidate to fill the vacancy.
"Disabled" status indicates that the background check has been interrupted and cannot continue.
The blocker to the vendor’s ability to complete a search is based on technical or data-related issues.
Four reasons your first advantage check shows as disabled
Background screening is made up of several components, and all components of the screening process must be working.
If you are blocked, it is likely due to one of the following four common operational issues.
Missing or incomplete candidate information
In most cases, candidates provide misinformation about themselves at the outset of their employment search, which ultimately leads to this issue.
First Advantage’s vendors use very specific data points to ensure the candidate’s identified character is accurate. If a candidate has recently moved across state lines, changed their name, or provided a partial Social Security Number, there will not be a match in the automated verification process.
The credibility of the candidate will not be compromised, but the candidate’s information will not show as a match until the recruiter inputs the exact details of the move, the name change, or the full Social Security Number.
Courthouse/database outages
There are many types of criminal record repositories (such as state and federal).
Not all counties and states’ courts and law enforcement departments are connected to the national fingerprint exchange or the U.S. Department of Justice. Nor do all of them have a modernized electronic system for processing criminal records.
There may be temporary outages of many of these databases.
For example, if a courthouse takes the server offline for maintenance, or if a clerk’s office has a lengthy API outage, First Advantage would not be capable of supplying the criminal record portion of the package.
When this occurs, the First Advantage system will designate the position as being in a “disabled” status until it becomes able to access the required source.
Most of these types of outages are resolved within 24 to 48 hours, although it may take longer in rural jurisdictions.
Configuration error(s) in employer background packages
Many times, the issue with the candidate verification system will not have anything to do with the candidate.
Rather, the hiring team of the employer may have configured the “background check packages” with errors for the job(s) for which they are hiring.
A software engineer may be screened based on his or her education, but a delivery driver must also have their Motor Vehicle Record checked.
If a human resource representative erroneously assigns an MVR screening package to a candidate without a valid driver's license number, the platform will discover the error.
Since the platform cannot process the request, the MVR screening will be disabled.
Failed sync between ATS and API
The enterprise HR software solutions are very large and complex systems.
When an enterprise HR software solution, like Workday, Oracle HCM, or Greenhouse, attempts to communicate with First Advantage, the initial API handshake sometimes fails.
First Advantage may return a response of rejected if the request is made due to a timeout on the server side, or if there is a corrupted mapping of data fields in the ATS to the screening vendor.
If the ATS cannot determine what type of rejection it received, it places the disabled status on the recruiter's dashboard.
What to do if your screening workflow is disabled from your ATS
Time-to-hire metrics go down when there is a delay in the process. Top candidates will most likely leave the candidate pipeline if the delays are prolonged.
Recruiters and HR compliance leads will find this to be a significant friction point. You will need to troubleshoot the specific ATS environment where the background check is at a standstill.
How to troubleshoot using Workday or Dayforce
When using enterprise platforms, such as Workday and Dayforce, recruiters need to identify where the background check is in the data stream.
Access the Screening Module and open the Background Check Details for the individual candidate.
Check the sub-status under the primary disabled tagging (for example, "insufficient data"). If this message appears in the sub-status, HR needs to verify all fields in the individual candidate's profile manually.
Many times, a simple misprint of a zip code or an inverted number in a SSN might be the source of the problem.
Correcting the core record and pressing "Resubmit" usually resolves the issue.
How to resolve package errors in Greenhouse
Greenhouse and many other agile, ATS-like platforms rely heavily on integration with pre-established entities.
If a background check gets stuck here, this is often due to the setup of the requisition.
The recruiter must access the job requisition settings to check the background check package assigned for that specific step/stage.
If the package requires an international criminal search but the candidate is strictly domestic, then the HR department needs to edit the package parameters to exclude any incompatible searches and trigger the vendor API again.
Regulatory issues - FCRA and EEOC requirements
Due to the complexity of background checks, legal regulations are in place to protect candidates from being unfairly treated.
Not following the required process for dealing with a disabled status may delay hiring and create a meaningful amount of legal risk for the employer.
Pausing the pre-adverse action process
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires employers to follow a specific procedure if they intend to deny employment to a candidate based on information in a background report.
This means sending the candidate a pre-adverse action notice and allowing them the chance to dispute the information in the report, before any decision is made.
If a candidate’s background report is in a disabled status, the report is technically incomplete. Therefore, the employer cannot legally utilize it to make any decision regarding a candidate.
If a candidate has a background in a disabled status and comes back as "failed," but the report was not completed before a candidate was rejected based on a disabled status, they may technically violate federal compliance laws.
In addition, HR must be taught from the EEOC perspective that a disabled status has no connection to the candidate's physical/mental health as it relates to medical definitions or software descriptions.
Mistakes made by misinterpreting a software term in place of having medical records could create very large discrimination problems for an employer.
Candidate's survival guide: Next steps
As a job seeker with a disabled application status, your most important objective should be communication.
Do not assume things will correct themselves, and do not assume you have been rejected by the company.
Your application status is still in the company's hands and needs to be resolved through the company.
Email template for HR
Contact your recruiter or hiring manager immediately.
Maintain a professional tone without revealing panic. Feel free to use this email template:
"Hello [Recruiter Name], I checked my application portal and saw my background check is currently showing ‘Disabled'. From what I can tell, this usually means the background check vendor does not have all the information needed or they are having a syncing error. Please let me know if there is anything else you need from me (e.g., previous addresses, ID numbers, etc.) to assist in completing my background check."
This will display a sense of urgency, demonstrate that you understand the process, and provide HR with the specifics they require to follow up with their dashboard regarding this disabled status.
Our ultimate finding: What a disabled system status means to business applications
The description of software for businesses is very rarely written with end user empathy.
The term "Disabled" on a background check is an example of how a lack of understanding by the designer can cause significant anxiety in the real world.
The term simply means there is an obstacle – either First Advantage (or the vendor's) need for more information from the HR department to complete a report, the vendor's lack of API access, or a delay in the retrieval of information due to the county court server being cycled.
With a better grasp of how background check status codes work, HR staff are able to more effectively troubleshoot any problems with their integration with First Advantage or other vendors.
Additionally, HR will be in compliance with all of the regulations for keeping top talent in the final stages of hiring.
Frequently asked questions
When does a 'Disabled' status mean I've lost the job offer?
A disabled status does not mean you've lost your job offer.
It is an administrator or technical hold at this point because the employer can't access your criminal history or credit report yet; that's because the vendor hasn't been able to pull the data together at this time. Your job offer is still contingent on the completion of your background check, when it becomes available.
How long will it take to resolve the issue regarding the disabled status of a background check?
The length of time required to resolve a disabled background check issue will vary according to the cause of the problem.
If the problem was as simple as a missing information like your middle name or an API sync error, HR can usually resolve this issue very quickly, often taking no more than five minutes, and the background check will be completed that same day.
If the reason for the delay was due to a major county court database edition, it will likely take several days to resolve.
Does applying for a government disability benefit cause a background check to show a disabled status?
Absolutely not.
Background check vendors such as First Advantage and Sterling cannot access your personal medical records, nor can they determine if you are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or if you have filed a claim for Social Security disability benefits. The terminology of "Disabled" is a software coding label denoting a broken search parameter or inactive search parameter.
Can an employer legally refuse to hire a candidate if their background check remains disabled?
This is a very tricky area for employers. Employers cannot use a candidate's incomplete background check as the basis for taking an adverse action against that candidate under the FCRA.
However, if an employer is waiting for a candidate to provide the missing information to complete the candidate's background check, an employer may rescind a contingent offer if that candidate refuses to provide that information.
However, if the employer believes the delay is due to a vendor outage, employers usually will wait until the issue is resolved before moving on to find an alternative candidate.