by Jason Morris
employeescreenIQ’s Jason Morris sat down with Lori Morgan, Alliance Manager at HRSmart to talk about the emergence of Applicant Tracking Systems. One of the trends Lori highlighted was the need for ATS solutions that integrate many different services. She also elaborated on how organizations can use ATS to save time and money. Take a listen.
If you don’t see the media player, click here!
by Jason Morris
In a follow-up to a story we recently wrote, Beacon Plumbing is under investigation by the State of Washington. A few months ago we wrote about Felons on Payroll of a Well Known Plumbing Company. It appears they are still in hot water (no pun intended).
State regulators have opened an investigation into Beacon Plumbing, looking into issues raised in a recent KING 5 Investigation.
Beacon Plumbing has propelled itself into one of the largest residential plumbing companies in Western Washington, largely due to a advertisements that has included the catch phrase “Stop Freakin’. Call Beacon.”
State regulators say they were already watching Beacon Plumbing when the KING 5 Investigators ran a series of stories earlier this year about customer complaints.
It appears there are irregularities in their licensing practices. In addition to having felons on the payroll, plumbers don’t have the proper licensing and supervision. In addition to a comprehensive criminal records search, a proper professional license search should have been conducted. Doing an extensive employment background investigation is a great way to keep your company out of the news!
by Nick Fishman
Question: What happens when 1,900 convicts including those with sex offenses, murder raps and child abuse convictions apply for a job in day care in the state of Michigan.
Answer: They get get hired!
This is not a joke. The state of Michigan allowed this to happen exposing the children throughout the state to people who had no business caring for them. The state admits that the “background checks” that they ran were unsuitable and since 2007 are now running “4 background checks”. Since they were negligent in setting up a effective background screening program the first time, what are the odds that the program they have now is effective?
This is not rocket-science people! And my intuition tells me that the original decision was made for budgetary reasons. I’m personally disgusted by this revelation and hope that the people responsible for this are held accountable.
The media is already ablaze over this and I’m happy to pour on more gas. See a sampling of the articles written in the last 24 hours.
1,900 Convicts Worked in State Day Cares Due to Poor Background Checks
Audit: State Allowed Sex Offenders to Work as Day Care Providers
Audit: Michigan Ok’d ‘Unsuitable’ Day Care Providers
Michigan Let Criminal Provide Day Care for Children: Audit Finds
by Jason Morris
In doing research for another blog post I came across an interesting website, Trump University. Mr. Trump has obviously been capitalizing on his fame and the popularity of his show, The Apprentice. Like employeescreen University, Trump University gives tips on being successful in the business world. Trump’s goal is to help entrepreneurs become successful. Our job is to help them stay in business by hiring qualified people.
Trump has a great post about why you should not lie on your resume. In it he says:
What’s the harm, you wonder, in a few minor deceptions? Those lies can come back to haunt you. Recently, resume inaccuracies have hurt the careers of executives at several organizations, including Radio Shack, Bausch & Lomb, and the U.S. Olympic Committee. This is serious stuff. Good executives don’t want liars to lead their companies.
It’s a great post; short and sweet but it makes a great point: We all know what happens when he finds out you lied…..”You’re FIRED!”
To read the whole post click here!
by Jason Morris
employeescreenIQ’s Nick Fishman sat down with Sybil Romley, President & CEO of Spectrum to talk about the emergence of Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS). One of the trends Sybil highlighted was the need for organizations of all sizes to build programs that are easily customizable so that individual development can be kept at a minimum. Take a listen.
If you don’t see the media player, click here!
by Natalie Beck
Yet another example of what can happen when proper background checks are not conducted. We read (and blog) about companies who don’t conduct background checks or aren’t conducting them the way they should be all the time. We’ve almost become immune to it because we see it so much. But this story stirred me. It’s almost unbelievable an oversight like this can happen.
On second thought, it’s downright scary.
Audit: Michigan OKed ‘Unsuitable’ Day Care Providers
Tuesday July 22, 2008, 11:08AM
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A state audit released Tuesday shows Michigan put thousands of children at risk by authorizing sex offenders and other “unsuitable” day care providers between 2003 and 2006.
The audit said the Department of Human Services shouldn’t have licensed, registered or enrolled about 1,900 day work providers.
The audit said background checks done by the state weren’t effective in identifying perpetrators of child abuse or neglect, sex offenders and others.
State officials agreed with the audit’s recommendations. They said in the audit report that in April 2007, they began running additional background checks after being informed a main background check program wasn’t flagging enough offenders.
“We now conduct four background checks in addition to a central registry check,” said Lisa Brewer Walraven, director of the DHS’ Office of Early Education and Care. “The health and safety of children is a high importance to us.”
Walraven said the state terminated day care providers after being alerted by the auditor general.
Between October 2003 and March 2006, the state enrolled 116,585 day care providers to care for 273,364 children whose lower-income families get financial assistance for day care. About 4,600 of those children were put at risk, according to the audit.
by Nick Fishman
According to the Miami Herald, if you are a convicted criminal being a mortgage broker in the state of Florida might be for you. The article “When Scott Almeida Walked Out of Federal Prison and Into the Mortgage Business He Took a Gamble” depicts a story about a man who once released from prison decided he wanted to be a mortgage broker. He divulged that we had just gotten out of jail for selling cocaine and as a reference he provided a man he met during visitation at the prison and his mom.
The gamble paid off. State officials approved the application and away Mr. Almeida went. It took him just 3 years to write over $3 million is fraudulent loans and steal from over 30 people. “They asked for a copy of the court file but never demanded the police report, which shows that he had been caught with a small arsenal of assault rifles and ammunition, in addition to the cocaine.”
Yikes! Want some more fun facts, check out these whoopers revealed in the story:
During an eight-month investigation, The Miami Herald analyzed computer records for more than 222,844 Florida mortgage professionals, examined thousands of records from the Office of Financial Regulation, reviewed hundreds of court files and interviewed dozens of regulators, brokers and victims.
The newspaper found:
• From 2000 to 2007, regulators allowed at least 10,529 people with criminal records to work in the mortgage profession. Of those, 4,065 cleared background checks after committing crimes that state law specifically requires regulators to screen, including fraud, bank robbery, racketeering and extortion.
• More than half the people who wrote mortgages in Florida during that period were not subject to any criminal background check. Despite repeated pleas from industry leaders to screen them, Florida regulators have refused.
• Confronted with a growing epidemic of mortgage fraud — Florida now has the highest rate in the nation — the number of license revocations declined over the last five years, leaving borrowers at the mercy of predatory brokers.
• During the peak of the housing boom, the Office of Financial Regulation ignored a state law enacted in 2006 that compelled it to perform nationwide criminal background checks on applicants. That failure allowed people convicted in other states — and in federal court — to peddle loans in Florida without any scrutiny.
• Regulators allowed at least 20 brokers to keep their licenses even after committing the one crime that seemed sure to get them banned from the industry: mortgage fraud.
You think they ought to maybe look into this further? Florida Senator Mel Martinez said it best a most eloquently when he went ought on a limb and said “I knew we had a problem. I had no idea how bad“. Now you know senator. What next?
by Jason Morris
employeescreenIQ’s Jason Morris sat down with Industry Pioneer Bruce Berg. Berg, President of Berg Consulting Group talks about the state of the industry, how it started and some insight into today’s economy. Berg owned one of the first employment screening firms and consults today to many in the industry. Take a listen.
If you don’t see the media player, click here!
by Jason Morris
Back in March we wrote about FoodTV star Robert Irvine being fired for lying on his resume. Normally we don’t do follow up stories, especially when the news is old. I am taking liberties here because I just found out about this! One of my favorite chef’s, Michael Symon is taking over for Robert Irvine on Dinner: Impossible.
Hey, I’m a Clevelander, we don’t get much excitement here! Every year for our sports teams we hear “Wait till next year!” Our city has been rated dead last in about every category! I am happy to re-announce Cleveland’s own Michael Symon is officially taking over this show. Symon’s restaurants are incredible and he will be a great addition to this show.
To my knowledge, Symon has never lied on his resume and I can vouch for his fantastic food!
by Natalie Beck
I love, love, LOVE this idea! In my opinion, the Australian authorities have a fantastic program on their hands. Now, I know that many local police stations set up DUI checkpoints during the holidays and do catch quite a few under the influence. But think of how many more they would catch if they did this intermittently throughout the year? And how many of those would be YOUR employees? Even though this is a different concept altogether, one can infer from this story that it is a good idea for employers to randomly test their employees for drugs and alcohol as well as continually screen them for possible criminal activity. You’ll never know what your employees have been up to if you don’t bother to check!
Random Testing Catches Doped-Up Drivers
16/07/2008 12:00am Campbelltown-Macarthur Advertiser
IT looked just like a random breath test unit but instead many motorists asked by police to pull over on Therry Road, Campbelltown, earlier this month got their first taste of random drug testing.
“The look on some people’s faces when we said they’d been selected for a random drug test was surprising,”‘ Sergeant Grant Bucknell said.
About 1400 people were pulled over and 348 of them were also tested for drugs.
Sergeant Bucknell, from Macquarie Fields Highway Patrol, said five people returned a positive blood alcohol reading while six returned positive readings for drugs.
“This means that about one in 50 people tested positive to drugs, which makes it a bigger problem than alcohol,” he said.
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