by Jason Morris

We have said it before, but I’ll say it again; “We believe there is a job out there for everyone.”  However, an employer has the right to know the backgrounds of their applicants.  This suit will set off an interesting EEOC Title VII debate, however the employer in this case has certain rights.  The article claims that because Mr. Nash is a minority he was discriminated against due to his felony conviction.  I am not here to debate whether or not this is true, I know nothing about this employer, its policy’s or its management.  What I do know is this; The weight and gravity of the offense must be taken into account.  Just because another employee has an older conviction does not mean the convictions are equal.  If the other employee has a 1990 Felony DUI and Mr. Nash has an offense dealing with a breach of trust, dishonesty or perhaps violence, it would be weighed differently.

Felon files racial discrimination suit against GCR Tires

5/8/2008 11:00 AM
By Michelle Massey, Texarkana Bureau

TEXARKANA, Ark. - John Nash had a felony conviction, but when he applied for a job he claims the potential employer said his record would not be a factor. When Nash did not get the job anyway, he suspected it wasn’t his felony that kept him from employment, but his race.

Nash filed a racial discrimination suit against GCR Tire Center on May 5, in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas.

When applying as a GCR service driver, Nash told the general manager about his 1993 felony conviction. Nash states the manager said that the prior conviction should not matter, as their policy is only a 7-year background check. Nash was instructed to apply through a temporary service until the background check could confirm the date of his conviction. About two weeks later, the manager told Nash that GCR could not hire him due to his felony conviction.

Nash’s suit alleges GCR violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts by not hiring Nash because he is black. He argues that a permanent white employee of GCR, also had a felony conviction slightly prior to Nash’s 1993 conviction. Nash states that he saw this employee’s employment records and the company’s policy regarding background checks.

However, Nash also states that he did receive a notice from GCR stating how they do not hire felons.

The plaintiff is asking the defendant to pay for an unspecified amount in damages.

Nash is proceeding as his own attorney and is demanding a trial by jury.

U.S. District Judge Harry F. Barnes will preside over the litigation.

Case No. 4:08cv040375

by Jason Morris

Dallas WFAA-TV News did a great job on this story.  In my opinion the Texas Board of Nursing has a lot of explaining to do.  The fact that it will take another four years to complete background checks on nurses is incomprehensible.  If the system is broken change the system.  If the board is mandated to use this process, put another process in place while you are waiting.  Hiring an employment screening firm to keep people safe is the best course of action here.  The board is putting millions of patients at risk by negligently allowing some of these criminals into the workplace.

Thousands of Texas nurses have arrest records

11:23 AM CDT on Thursday, May 8, 2008

By JASON WHITELY / WFAA-TV

DALLAS – Few times in history has nursing become such a lucrative career.

“A good nursing supervisor, a manager, can make more than $100,000 a year in some cases,” said Devon Herrick, Senior Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis.

Salaries spiked because of a shortage in the industry. But among the hardworking dedicated nurses are some with questionable backgrounds.

News 8 compared names and dates of births of every currently licensed nurse against the Texas Department of Public Safety criminal database.

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by Nick Fishman

I just read an article out of the Edmonton Sun about a city bus company that hired a driver through a contractor.  The driver subsequently was terminated and is sure to be prosecuted for molesting a child.  It turns out that the contractor never performed a background check.  (See full story)

This is a horribly regrettable situation, but hardly one that isn’t being repeated every single day.  Employers are forgetting to ensure that their contracted employees are being screened and if they are, they are not asking how and when they are being screened.

I just wrote an article about this exact topic and invite you to read it.

My Contractor Said They Performed a Background Check

by Jason Morris

Bus driver accused of “inappropriately touching” a student lost her job
By GLENN KAUTH, SUN MEDIA

A city bus company didn’t get a criminal reference check on a driver facing allegations of “inappropriately touching” a kindergarten student, a Catholic school board spokesman said Thursday.

The driver has now lost her job, but that hasn’t stopped school officials from sending the bus company, R.L. Smith Transportation, a “strongly worded letter” about the breach of its contract with the board.

“We’re very, very concerned that this is a serious breach and that the safety of our kids is always a priority,” said board spokesman Lori Nagy.

Gordie Mayes, the owner of R.L. Smith, declined to comment Thursday. But Nagy said the board learned the company hadn’t done the criminal background check, as well as a child welfare check, after it began its investigation into the allegations.

On Wednesday, Mayes told Sun Media that R.L. Smith runs background checks on all of its drivers before they come on staff. The driver now under investigation had been working for the company since February, Nagy confirmed.

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by Jason Morris

I think this article is relevant because in many ways interviews are a way of vetting employees. Last week I attended the Recruiting Roadshow and Joel Cheesman of Cheezhead.com gave a great commentary on video resumes. Interestingly enough, he also showed a parody done by “The Daily Show” about the subject. Normally this is not a forum for comedy but I believe its a great way to show you the benefits and the liability of this new medium. First however, read the following article, then watch the video:

InterviewStudio Webinar Discusses Legal Considerations of Video Interviews and Resumes

Thursday May 8, 2008

Bellevue, Wash. — May 8
InterviewStudio, a new rich media platform used for the initial interview of a job candidate, has just made available its latest Webinar, “To Video or Not To Video: The Social and Legal Considerations of Video Interviews and Video Resumes.” The Webinar features legal views and perspectives from the EEOC, a private-practice law firm, and recruiting industry experts.

Though controversial, the video has arrived on the hiring scene, and employers and recruiters must now determine how they will use video interviews or resumes in their applicant-screening process while staying within the guidelines set forth by the EEOC and OFCCP.

InterviewStudio’s Webinar, “To Video or Not To Video,” presents employers and recruiters with the latest information they need regarding video usage in the screening process, with the EEOC’s views presented by an assistant legal counsel; practical advice on video risk management from Summit Law Group, a private practice firm based in Seattle; and an industry perspective from Colleen Aylward, a 16-year leader in the applicant screening market.

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by Natalie Beck

If this study doesn’t convince you to randomly screen your employees for alcohol use (or drug use, for that matter), I don’t know what will. This UK study provides some staggering information on employee alcohol use in the workplace that may leave some of you surprised. While it is great that employers are conducting pre-employment alcohol and drug tests on their employees, it is equally important to continually screen your employees to make sure they are not drinking before work and habitually using illegal substances. Alcohol and drug use are the predominant factors in decreased productivity, absenteeism, and workplace accidents.

Your employee was clean when they started the job, but how about now?

Click here for the study

by Jason Morris

This topic created a big buzz at last months NAPBS (National Association of Professional Background Screeners) Conference.  It was rumored that Marsh & MacLennon could not fit the Kroll group into its portfolio of companies.  This latest moves solidifies this rumor. It appears that the core “employment screening” aspect of Kroll will remain with Marsh, but other areas will be sold off.

Marsh & MacLennon CEO: Will Sell Parts of Kroll Unit

Weeks after reportedly rebuffing a bid for its Kroll unit, Marsh & MacLennan Cos. (MMC) said it will sell parts of the business.

Insurance broker Marsh & MacLennan bought corporate security and investigations firm Kroll in 2004, but never successfully integrated it into the larger business, said Brian Duperreault, Marsh & MacLennan’s chief executive during the company’s first-quarter earnings call Wednesday.

During the quarter, the company undertook a restructuring of Kroll, to separate the businesses it expects to keep from those it will seek to sell.

Duperreault said that he considers Kroll’s employment-screening, business- intelligence and investigations operations “core Kroll,” and intends to incorporate those more closely into Marsh and MacLennan.

Kroll’s corporate restructuring group should also perform well in the current economic downturn, Duperreault said.

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by Jason Morris

Stories like this absolutely infuriate me. Its one thing to use the excuse that a background check was never done, its another to simply look the other way. We truly believe that there is a job out there for everyone. Ex-offenders have the right to work, its the American way, everyone needs to work! Convicted ex-felons have no place and no right to work with our kids! Its bad enough that the background checks typically done in the education field are substandard, its worse to ignore the results!

5 Investigates High School Security Guards

PHOENIX — A CBS 5 investigation found convicted felons in charge of keeping students safe.

Security guards at Valley high schools interact closely with students, but some have arrest records for crimes like auto theft, assault, shoplifting and lying to police.

One former security guard told 5 Investigates he witnessed guards taking bribes from students, fighting with students and stealing from the school.

He said all of those guards had criminal records.

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by Jason Morris

We have been predicting consolidation in the Applicant Tracking System (ATS) arena for the past few years. It came as no surprise to us that Taleo will be acquiring Vurv Technologies. This blog posting may surprise our readers who are used to reading about background checks and employment screening. We felt this announcement would impact our readers in the HR and Recruiting space so we decided to post it.

Taleo to acquire Vurv Technology

Unique breadth, scale, experience and global capabilities created by this acquisition produce a market leader in the fastest growing segment of enterprise software.

This acquisition will create the largest company in the talent management software sector and the third largest Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) vendor in the world, serving 48 of the Fortune 100 and more than 2,800 small and medium sized businesses worldwide. According to AMR Research, the company is part of the fastest growing category in enterprise software.

This acquisition will benefit the combined customer base by focusing the industry’s leading talent management resources on a single development investment. Two world-class development teams will join forces to create a talent management engineering Dream Team, sharing a unified vision of building the next generation of talent management applications. The combined company will benefit customers by providing the industry’s strongest global footprint, improved technology infrastructure and scalability, streamlined implementation and customer support, highly concentrated thought-leadership based on broader and deeper experience, and significant buying convenience.

No immediate impact is expected to Vurv or Taleo customers, as both product lines will be supported for the foreseeable future. In the months and years ahead, customers can depend on this new powerhouse to deliver innovative solutions as business needs evolve. The goal of the combined company is to incorporate the best of Vurv’s intellectual property and product line into the Taleo Platform, delivering a unified recruiting, performance and compensation solution. Upon completion, customers will have a simple migration path to a unified talent management platform that will appreciate in value over time.

The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of June, after the standard regulatory review period is completed, and is expected to be accretive immediately.

by Jason Morris

As the concept of checking one’s employees becomes more common in European nations these statistics will change.  I would be interested in seeing discrepancy ratios and criminal record ratios to compare them to U.S. Screening companies.

Recruitment: Check to identify dishonest applicants

Many employers are still uncovering discrepancies, inaccuracies and lies in candidates’ job applications, according to Personnel Today’s sister publication Employment Review.

The study of 177 employers showed that applicants made dishonest claims about their experience, qualifications and criminal convictions (see table, right). This reinforces the need for thorough background checks - particularly for positions of trust.

Eight in 10 employers (79.1%) were found to conduct background checks for all their vacancies, while one in five (20.9%) did so for some of their posts.

More than eight in 10 (85.3%) use six or more vetting methods for positions of trust, some of which are likely to be reserved for specialist posts.

References are the most common background-checking method, used by 99.4% of respondents. However, the jury is out on how useful they really are.

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