by Natalie Beck

Yet another shining example of someone working with children that should not have been. This just goes to show that school officials should make sure that the proper screening procedures are followed before a person is placed in a position of authority at a school. It’s one thing for the employee/volunteer to have a criminal past, but quite another when this person is contributing to the delinquency of those he is supposed to be supervising.

Click here for the story

by Jason Morris

IQ Review is a perpetual screening program designed for our clients’ current employees. IQ Review was launched last month and the response has been overwhelming. Issues such as workplace violence and employee theft have led employers to want to expand their employment screening program to their current workforce.

While a comprehensive pre-employment background check allows you to make an informed hiring decision and reduce risk in the workplace at the time of hire, it can only provide insight into information available at the time of the background check.

For security conscious organizations, IQ™Review provides assurance that valued employees continue to represent the same professional standards and character demonstrated at the time of hire.

Services offered for IQ Review are:

• Countywide Felony and Misdemeanor Search
• Federal District Criminal Search
• National Database Criminal Record Search
• Motor Vehicle Record Check
• Sex Offender Registry
• Homeland Security Check
• Infinity Screening

For most of these searches it is only necessary to search in their current jurisdiction. Perpetual screening will become more important in the coming years as workplace violence and negligent hiring lawsuits continue to make the news!

by Nick Fishman

If you’ve been following the on-going drama of NASA’s quest to perform background checks on their contractors, I’ve got an update:  Nothing has changed . . . again.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected NASA’s request to lift the injunction it imposed earlier to stop them from conducting background checks on a group of 27 contractors (full story).

It seemed that the biggest issue that the contractors had was that they didn’t think NASA should have the right to dig into their personal lives including their sexual orientation and family lives.  You wonder if NASA really needs that type of information.  Stay tuned.  We’ll keep following this soap-opera.

by Jason Morris

Here is a story from employeescreenIQ’s own backyard.  Though these allegations have yet to be confirmed, this story brings into question how efficient the school district’s background screening process really is.  If this person failed the background check, as this article states, how was she still placed in a position at the school?  The only reason I can think of is that the district may have run the background check after the employee had already started work making their continued employment contingent upon the results of the background check.  Running the background check after the person starts working for a company is certainly something employeescreenIQ would not suggest (especially when the position entails working with children) but, on the flip side, we do realize that sometimes a company’s immediate staffing needs outweigh any possible pitfalls.  Of course, this is just speculation at this point.  It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/15982631/detail.html?taf=nn5

by Nick Fishman

We just published the 2008 2nd Quarter issue of The Verifier, employeescreenIQ’s background-screening quarterly newsletter.   Take a peek when you get a chance.

The Verifier

by Nick Fishman

Herbalife, a publicly traded corporation just confirmed that their president and Chief Operating Officer failed to complete the MBA he claimed to receive on his resume (Herbalife Statement).  Isn’t it amazing how often we see stories such as these?  Not really!  Face it people, in this information age there are no secrets.  What amazes me is that this information was never revealed in a background check.  You would think it might be important for Herbalife to know this information, right? A simple Education Verification would have provided them with the 411.

Here’s the thing.  I don’t know this individual or about his job performance, but you have to do a lot of impressive things to become a president of a globally recognized publicly traded company.  My guess is his experience and hard work got him to the top.  Unfortunately, it is a little “inconsequential” lie that will surely lead to great consequences.

by Jason Morris

Ever peel an onion? I hate the saying but in many ways peeling an onion is like setting up an employment screening program for an organization. In various sections of this series, Employment Screening 101, we have discussed different services to use when screening your candidates. What we have yet to discuss are the industries where very specific services and/or process must be followed. This discussion will not be all inclusive; I will use a few examples so feel free to contact us if you need more information.

Several industries require certain services and others require very specific processes when ordering the background checks. A few of these industries include: Aviation, Transportation (DOT), Insurance, Banking, Heath care and Energy to name a few. One must be very careful to make sure all regulations are being followed and results are being adjudicated accordingly.

Some industries are quite simple. The Insurance industry requires a “lifetime search” due to the Insurance Fraud Prevention Act. This act is part of an Omnibus Crime Bill, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. (18 U.S.C. § 1033). For our purposes the act is specific where it does not allow work in the insurance field after conviction of a crime involving dishonesty. However, the act fails to specifically lay out these crimes. In a nutshell a very comprehensive search must be done to uncover all crimes involving dishonesty for all years since the applicant or candidate was 18 years old. The results bring up an exciting argument of preemption but that’s a topic for a later date.

In aviation there are several mandates and federal laws that must be followed. Commercial airline pilots are required to have a very specific type of background check conducted. Among a slew of screening requirements are FAA Pilot Certifications, Pilots Records Improvement Act (PRIA) Searches, National Drivers Registry (NDR) Searches and a few more. (Listing and explaining all of these would be a series on its own).

Be very careful when setting up your screening program if you are in a regulated industry. Ensure that your screening provider can develop a comprehensive program that not only keeps your workforce safe but also is in compliance with any Local, State and/or Federal Mandates.

by Jason Morris

U.S. Employers have historically been overwhelmed by the cumbersome process of I-9 Forms and compliance with I-9 Regulations. Fines for inaccurately completed I-9 Forms range from $300 to $3000 per occurrence. The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) mandates that U.S. employers authenticate the employment eligibility status of newly hired employees and makes it illegal for employers to knowingly hire or continue to employ unauthorized workers. As a designated agent for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), employeescreenIQ ® can automate your I-9 process and allow your company to participate in the DHS E-Verify program. (Previously called the SAVE and/or Basic Pilot Program).

In a recent article on employeescreen University, Nick Fishman writes:

Ask any HR executive about their I-9 process and their eyes begin to water before they can spit the words out. Names spelled wrong, social security numbers don’t match, proper identification isn’t verified. Let’s face it, it’s a time consuming process that often is executed incorrectly and the penalties for lax policies are scary. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 mandates that US employers verify the employment eligibility status of new employees. Until recently, this was accomplished most typically by examining a few pieces of identification while hoping the ID documents were authentic, entering the relevant information on the I-9 form, and filing it away in the employee file. It was pretty much forgotten at this point unless and until the government decided to audit your I-9 files to make sure you were not employing illegal workers. Still, many employers are fined for incorrectly filling out the I-9, even though they are employing legal workers. There was no external oversight or feasible process available to gain assurance that you are indeed employing legal workers, or gain the peace of mind that your documentation was all in order every time.

What Can You Do?

Fortunately, this problem is common to all organizations and now employeescreenIQ offers Employment Eligibility Verification and Electronic I-9 Filing through our partnership with Form I-9 Compliance LLC. These tools can reduce your workload and keep you in compliance. The product that Form I-9 has developed allows employers the ability to fill out a “smart” I-9 form on-line that ensures it is filled out completely and correctly. From there, an employer can simply store the document in an on-line archive or can seamlessly and electronically verify employment eligibility instantly through the Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Within moments the system will give you a confirmation of the employee’s eligibility or it will indicate a non-confirmation. In occurrences of non-confirmation, the system will walk the employer step by step through the error and illustrate how to resolve the issue. Some of the common issues may be resolved with a few keystrokes. Others require follow-up from both you and your employee; the Form I-9 system will send you regular reminders indicating the number of days your employee has to resolve the non-confirmation. If the non-confirmed employee fails to respond through the appropriate channels within the legally mandated grace period, or if employment eligibility is ultimately found ineligible for employment, the system will indicate that the employee must be terminated. You may continue to employ workers who have received the initial non-confirmation until their employment eligibility has been confirmed through these channels.

The system can also be used for re-verifications, such as when an individual legally changes their name or when a foreign employee’s Green Card expires and is re-issued. The system will track and notify you of upcoming expiration dates for workers without permanent authorization.

Program Features Include:

- Comprehensive and error free electronic I-9 form processing and storage

- Electronic signature module that is fully compliant with the E-Sign Act

- Integration of this electronic process into your background check results

- Instant confirmation of “Right to Work”

- Receive automated alerts 90, 60 and 30 days in advance of the expiration of employees work authorization documents.

- Automated Tentative Non Confirmation (TNC) compliance

Benefits

- Simplify and improve your I-9 process

- Mitigate your risk during I-9 Form Audits

- Allow your company to centralize and automate the entire I-9 Process

- Remove paper from the process

- Removes guesswork from I9 document review during the Form I-9 process

- Allows participating employers to confirm employment eligibility of all newly hired employees

- Improves the accuracy of wage and tax reporting

- Protects jobs for authorized United States workers

Many states are already mandating this process with twenty more states coming on board by the end of the calendar year. While not a part of the background screening process, E-Verify is a critical step in solidifying a reputable workforce. While lobbying with NAPBS® we have found a lot of support for a federal bill requiring full deployment of E-verify within five years. For more information on E-verify feel free to contact us: http://www.employeescreen.com/requests/freedemo.asp

by Jason Morris

This is a Canadian article so I will cut them a break, the FCRA is a U.S. law. We know that the practice of using sites like Facebook(R) and Myspace(R) for background checks is a gross violation of the FCRA. This article fails to argue that even without the FCRA it violates the common sense principle; How do you know its really your applicant that posted it? Section 607(b) of the FCRA requires “reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy” Utilizing this practice in the U.S. clearly violates this section.

Unfortunately, this practice is still on the rise and used by employers and recruiters across the globe. We can all debate the the ethics of it but quite simply, applicants should be careful about what they put out for public viewing.

by Jason Morris

As you know employeescreenIQ has always been on the forefront of our industry, setting trends and raising the bar in all areas of employment screening. Each year we come out with the “Top Background Screening Trends to Track” for that particular year. For the past few years a common theme has been Global Screening AKA International Screening, International Background Checks Etc.

While not a new facet of the industry, international background screening continues to gain in importance as U.S. companies open offices globally and/or recruit overseas candidates to work in the U.S.

I am not one to use clichés but one could say that we “Wrote the book on International Screening!” Last year we were asked by a major publisher to write a chapter for an upcoming book on Background Screening and Investigations. This book was just published and co-authored by myself and Nick Fishman.

Shameless plug – Book available at Amazon.com – Background Screening and Investigations – Barry Nixon and Kim Kerr.

Today, we are at an interesting crossroads for both U.S. and international screening. The advent of the internet has made access to and mobility of information easier than ever worldwide. This has resulted in great efficiencies, as well as unintended side effects, such as privacy violations and identity theft. In the U.S., these side effects have been addressed through federal and state legislation requiring a permissible use for the information and strict guidelines regarding information handling and ensuring accuracy and reliability.

Internationally, there are few standards in employment screening processes. From one country to the next, records maintenance capabilities, procedures, and rules for access vary widely. To begin with, the ability to access information in various countries is dependent on compliance with global information exchange rules for ensuring data security across international borders. One such compliance framework is the European Union’s Directive on Data Protection, which prevents the transfer of personal data to non-EU nations that do not meet the European “adequacy” standard for privacy protection. A select few U.S. companies, including employeescreenIQ, are Safe Harbor certified with the U.S. Department of Commerce to meet the requirements for international data exchange and privacy protection. (employeescreenIQ has been Safe Harbor Certified since 2004)

Companies must protect themselves from employees both foreign and domestic. Recently, A worker at HSBC’s Bangalore call centre has been arrested after being allegedly caught supplying personal details to fraudsters who went on to steal £230,000 from 16 of the bank’s UK customers. It not only happens oversees, we see it here in North America as well. A longtime Canada Post employee is accused of stealing hundreds of pieces of mail containing gift cards, cheques, CDs and DVDs over an eight-month period.

employeescreenIQ’s Global Screening Services are an important tool in an increasingly global business environment. As with our domestic services, you can trust employeescreenIQ to stay on top of the latest developments worldwide in accessing reliable, timely, and compliant information to increase the value of your hiring decisions.

For more information regarding international background checks and the valuable service employeescreenIQ provides, please visit us at www.employeescreen.com/global.