Why Following the Rules is No Longer Enough: The Shift Toward Systemic Vetting Compliance

In a recent industry commentary, Alonzo Martinez, Associate General Counsel at HireRight and Chair of the PBSA Background Screening Credentialing Council, noted that the biggest employment law story of the year isn't a single regulation, but rather a macro pattern.

Citing a sweeping multi-state patchwork of updates—ranging from Washington’s Fair Chance Act and New York’s credit restrictions to state-level AI regulations in Texas and Colorado—Martinez argues that these developments are all pointing in a single direction. Namely, employment law is transitioning away from rigid, standalone rules and shifting toward the actual systems employers build around the hiring process.

The BKI Takeaway: For background screening firms, this insight hits the bullseye. The days of a client asking a CRA to simply "run a standard search" to check a compliance box are ending. Because states are heavily regulating the systems around work authorization, individualized assessments, and automated data processing, CRAs must become consultative partners. If your clients aren't structuring compliant, multi-layered workflows that account for these systemic state shifts, they are walking into a litigation trap.

👉 Read the full industry observation and connect with Alonzo Martinez on LinkedIn.