by Natalie Beck

Looks like quite few people didn’t do a background check on the best way to conduct a background check. (Maybe that statement was overkill, but after reading this article, you’ll understand why I couldn’t resist!). This article talks about how one company had no way of knowing that their employee had out-of-state warrants and the limitations of Massachusetts CORI (Criminal Offender Record Information) system, MA’s statewide database of criminal records information. employeescreenIQ, as well as many other outlets, have stated time and time again that statewide databases are notorious for having incomplete, inaccurate, and outdated criminal record information and should never be used as a sole criminal records source for companies looking to obtain a comprehensive background check on their prospective employees. Also, companies should be conducting criminal records checks in states other than the applicant’s current state of residence or just the state the company is headquartered in. Unfortunately, this message has not reached everyone’s ears and that is why we end up with situations like those described in this article.

This company could have potentially located this person’s out-of-state warrants and other possible criminal activity in his past by running a Social Security Number Trace, obtaining his address history, and running a criminal records check in every county he has lived in in the past 7-10 years. The company could have topped this off by running statewide and national searches in order to locate any records that may have appeared in places other than where he lived (this would have been our recommendation since the nature of the position this person had required that he travel without setting down a permanent residence that would have been detected by the SSN trace). This would probably be a bit pricey, but sure beats the cost of a negligent hiring lawsuit. I believe the author of this article could have done this story more justice by doing a little research on how companies can conduct a comprehensive background check and possibly save another company from having the same misconceptions.

Click here for the article

by Nick Fishman

Diploma Mills are on the rise and chances are you’ve seen them used on the resumes’ of job candidates you have considered for employment. The question is whether you caught it our not. The Federal Trade Commission has published a helpful tool for employers to consult in order to combat fake degrees when performing Education Verifications:

Avoid Fake-Degree Burns By Researching Academic Credentials

Helpful Details Include the Following:
You can use the Internet to check if a school is accredited by a legitimate organization at a new database of accredited academic institutions, posted by the U.S. Department of Education at www.ope.ed.gov/accreditation. (There are a few legitimate institutions that have not pursued accreditation.)

To find out if an accrediting agency is legitimate, check the list of recognized national and regional accrediting agencies maintained by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation at www.chea.org.

by Jason Morris

I noticed a good article today on yahoo’s hotjobs site. Desperation Will Doom Your Job Search focuses on what not to do when sending and creating a resume. While most of our articles focus on employment screening, background checks, identity theft and other HR related topics, I felt this was a good opportunity to speak to a different audience, the candidate.

The first tip the article lends to the reader is of course to be truthful, don’t lie or fabricate your resume. Most companies will conduct a background check and uncover an untruths you may have lent to your resume. Read this article to see the other three tips it lends to job seekers!

by Nick Fishman

The President of Washington-based Dollarwise payday stores, Charles Seil was operating his business from a prison cell over the summer. A pretty cool trick if you ask me, but the State of Washington didn’t think so when it found out after the fact. In fact, they revoked his license after getting an anonymous tip that he plead guilty to watercraft homicide and had been serving time.

Now, Mr. Seil was not an employee of his company so I doubt he would have instructed his people to run recurring background checks on him to allow for continuous employment, however if the state, which issued his license didn’t get this anonymous tip he’d still be operating his business. What could the state have done?

We’ve written much about the concept of Continuous or Recurring Background Checks recently:

Background Checks for Current Employees

Well, they did perform a background check to issue the license. However, that background check was conducted well before this incident took place. If the had a program in place to update the information, they could have caught this.

The same concept applies to any employer. It’s great that so many organizations see the value in conducting background checks in order to make an informed hiring decision. But, that check doesn’t guarantee that something hasn’t happen since the time that the applicant hired.

Check out the links above for some suggestions on how to effectively screen your current employees.

by Nick Fishman

At this point most of us that conduct employment background checks know that consistency is key in ensuring a compliant screening process. We’ve all been advised to make consistent hiring decisions when adverse information is present; that we shouldn’t conduct a background check on one candidate and not on another, etc., etc.

However, lost in that message of consistency is that you can and should vary the search criteria used for different positions within your organization. For instance, the search criteria for a company’s drivers would surely include a Motor Vehicle Record check. But is it necessary to perform that search for your administrative assistant? Well, if they are driving a company car or regularly drive their own car for work purposes, the answer is yes. If not, maybe that information isn’t important to an employer. Another example: an Education Verification might be in order for a company’s managers, but is it necessary to conduct such a search on their drivers? Probably not.

The point is that only you, the person making the hiring decision knows what is important to your organization. It might help to make a list of each position you fill and then to establish what screening criteria is important.

Now, back to consistency. Once you define the criteria for each position it is important that each person who gets screened for these positions is screened using that exact criteria. Furthermore, when adverse information is identified you should consider the information and how it might affect your candidate’s employment. Then make an informed (and consistent) hiring decision.

by Nick Fishman

We’ve just released the latest edition of our Quarterly Newsletter, The Verifier. Please feel free to check it out.

http://theverifier.net/index.php

by Kevin Bachman

by Nick Fishman

As we’ve discussed a number of times in the past, there are a number of restrictions, recommendations, guidelines, etc. about how to use a credit report when making a hiring decision. We found these guidelines on the Ohio Civil Rights Newsletter from October. They are worth the read if you currently utilize or are considering utilizing credit reports for your hiring decisions in the state of Ohio. The following paragraph taken from the newsletter give you the gist:

by Nick Fishman

As posted on Xtra Cheezhead earlier this week.

Okay, so Michael Vick, former quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons sends you his resume to become your next Latex Salesman (I finally get to use a Seinfeld reference). Let’s say you have been living under a rock for the last few years and you don’t know who he is. You decide to conduct a background check. What will you find? That all depends on where you look. Up until last week, the only charges filed against Vick related to his involvement in a dog fighting ring were in Federal Court. He has pleaded guilty, so let’s say for the sake of argument that the Federal Court has appropriately updated their system. In order to find this conviction, you would have had to conduct a Federal District Criminal Search. A County Court Record Search would not identify this particular conviction. Now, separate charges have since been filed in Surrey County, VA. A conviction has not occurred so while you might be able to find the charges by performing a County Criminal Record Search in Surry County, you would just see a pending case. In most states you can use a pending case in the hiring decision. In some states, you cannot (another topic for another post).

The view the rest of this post, please click on the link below.
http://www.cheezhead.com/xtra/2007/10/01/celebrity-hires-provide-lessons-in-background-checks/

by Nick Fishman

I hate to blatantly copy a post I’ve made elsewhere, but I’m rather impressed with myself (or at least the topic) on this one I recently posted on Xtra Cheezhead. See below.

Okay, so you’ve conducted a background check on a prospective employee and decide that they meet your standards. You extend an offer and that person accepts the job and becomes a valuable member of your team. Now that the person has been hired, most companies would not be inclined to consider further background checks. Well the times, they are a-changing.

While the concept of follow up background checks has been around for a long time and employed by security conscious organizations, you are seeing this emerging trend creep into the consciousness of your average business. It even has a shiny new name that many are using: “Infinity Screening”. I’m a big advocate of this practice because it allows you to evaluate your current employees for adverse information throughout their employment. An easy example is conducting annual Motor Vehicle Record check on those that drive company cars.

Please click on the link below to view the rest of this post:
http://www.cheezhead.com/xtra/2007/09/07/post-employment-screening/