by Nick Fishman

Those of you that follow this blog (all 3 of you), know that I was a bit skeptical about this year’s Annual SHRM Conference which was held in Chicago this past week. Many of us felt that the current economic cycle coupled with the fact that Chicago just doesn’t hold the same cache as a Vegas or San Diego led me to believe that we were in for a real dud. I couldn’t have been more wrong (it happens a lot, just ask my wife).

This year’s conference was an absolute gem! Paid attendance was over 13,000 HR professionals and from the perspective of an exhibitor, they were truly engaged. From the time the exhibit hall opened on Sunday night until closing on Tuesday, the floor was packed. People were genuinely interested in finding partners who could make their processes more efficient and cost effective. That’s not to say that they were looking for the cheapest prices. They were looking for consultation and expertise.

As far as employeescreenIQ was concerned, we had more meaningful conversations with more HR professionals than at any other SHRM Conference. We gave away employeescreen University T-Shirts and Tote Bags as well as a chance to win a 42″ Toshiba LCD Television. However, it was clear that they were far more interested in learning about developing effective, efficient and compliant employment background screening programs. In fact, we were interview by Workforce Management about the overall mood of conference attendees. Check out the story that was published yesterday morning: Economic Downturn Doesn’t Slow SHRM Conference

We also conducting PodCast interviews with many attendees about their attitudes about background screening and industry experts and insiders who gave their POV’s about a multitude of topics. Interviewees included:

• China Miner Gorman, Chief Operating Officer of SHRM
• Joel Cheesman, Head Cheese of Cheezhead
• Jonathan Goodman, Vice President of Membership and Business Development at HRMarketer
• W. Barry Nixon, Executive Director of the PreEmployment Directory
• Jennifer Borgee, Product Development Manager at MyStaffingPro and finally
• Matthew Lesko of Ask Lesko fame (boy was this an experience)

All of our podcasts will be posted on employeescreen University in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Lastly, for the 2nd year in a row we chose to announce our 10 Trends in Employment Background Screening in the Coming Year (for 2009)

Needless to say, we’re proud to announce that we’ll definitely be back for the conference next year in New Orleans!

by Nick Fishman

Just a quick reminder that employeescreenIQ will be exhibiting at next week’s Annual SHRM Conference being held at McCormick Place in Chicago, IL.  I’ve already checked the weather forecast and it stinks, so no excuses for not staying inside and cuddling up with your favorite employment background screening provider at booth number 2153/54. We’ll be giving away free employeescreen University T-Shirts and Tote Bags.  We are also raffling off a 42″ Toshiba LCD television.

Lastly, we’ll be conducting on-site PodCast interviews with any of you that have opinions about background checks and will post them on employeescreen University following the conference.

by Nick Fishman

Okay.  I’ll be the first to admit, I wasn’t thrilled to hear that the 2008 Annual SHRM Conference would be held in my hometown of Chicago this year.  Give me San Diego or Vegas any day.  But the more I thought about it, the prospect of not having to book yet another flight began to appeal to me.  So, since it’s always about me, I’m on board.  And so is employeescreenIQ!

We’re excited because we are using this conference to educate the marketplace about our most recent endeavor, employeescreen University.  If you haven’t heard about it, now’s your chance to learn about the industry’s first of its kind interactive online community focused on boosting your employment screening “IQ”.

Enough of the shameless plug, now on to the free stuff (translation: what are we giving away to get you to give us your information).  We are giving away employeescreen University T-Shirts and Shoulder Totes.  We’re also raffling off a 42″ Toshiba LCD Television.  If that’s not enough we might even spend some time talking about our unparalleled services and our expertise in the employment screening field.  (Maybe I should have stopped with the TV raffle).

The conference is being held at McCormick Place June 22nd through the 25th.  Please stop by our booth #2153/2154 and say hello.

As an added incentive, feel free to ask for restaurant and hotel recommendations.  I love to eat as much as I love to talk about background checks.  Test me to see which I’m better at.

by Nick Fishman

Just wanted to take a moment to plug a really cool event we are participating in later this month.  It’s called the Recruiting Road Show and it is produced by well known industry insider John Sumser.  Speakers include our good friends Joel Cheesman of Cheezhead fame and Martin Snyder of PC Recruiter.  employeescreenIQ’s own Jason Morris will also be a featured presenter and will discuss emerging trends in employment screening and background checks.  The event is being held on April 29, 2008 at the offices of PC Recruiter.  If you are interested, please register now.  I understand that they are limited to just 120 attendees and slots are filling up fast.  It should be a great opportunity to learn and network.  And it’s free.  You heard me, free!  (Alright, I’ll retire as a used car salesman after this post)

Click here to register

by Nick Fishman

Greetings from the Nashville airport. I’m finally headed home after a couple days at SHRM’s Staffing Management Conference and realized I hadn’t posted anything is while (hold the applause). This year’s conference was . . . well, interesting I guess. The conference was sold out both for exhibitor’s and attendees. With both the economy and Nashville (no offense Tennessee readers), that kind of surprised me, but I’m not complaining. This year there were only 8 background screening firms represented compared to approx. 20 last year. (I’m also not complaining about this!). I suppose that my proposed conference name change to “The Employment Screeners Conference” doesn’t apply any longer.

We spoke with a lot of people at this year’s show. With a few exceptions, no one told us that the economy was drastically affecting their company. Everyone seemed rightfully concerned. Things have slowed down, but we didn’t hear about any anticipated layoffs, hiring freezes, etc. I think everyone has their fingers crossed that things will begin improving from here. Cheers to that!

Overall, attendees were very pleased with the educational opportunities offered at the conference. You’d have to be brain-dead not to notice a theme: everyone is looking for faster, more efficient ways to hire and train people. Any opportunities for consolidation an reduction of duplication is key.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by to learn about our employment screening services and to our valued client/partners who continued to heap on the praise (it never gets old).

Talk to you again soon.

by Nick Fishman

Will we see you in Nashville at the SHRM’s Staffing Management Conference held at the Opryland Hotel? employeescreenIQ will be in attendance and exhibiting April 14^th-16^th. Please stop by our booth. If our charming personalities aren’t enough to win you over, we’ll have something free to giveaway and a chance to win American Express Gift Cards.

We’ve heard from our friends at SHRM that this year’s conference will be attended by more HR professionals than ever! We can also surmise there might be a few companies that provide background checks. The first few years we exhibited at conference formerly know as EMA there might have been a couple screeners. Nowadays, there are considerably more causing us to speculate that they may soon change the name of the conference again to the Background Screening Conference (wonder if I can trademark that?). We look forward to seeing you there.

BTW, anyone have a recommendation for the best BBQ joint in Nashville?

by Nick Fishman

I wanted to send out a quick reminder that employeescreenIQ will be attending and exhibiting at SHRM’s Global Forum & Exposition at the Boston Marriott Copley Place Hotel in Boston, MA on March 31st and April 1st.  Please stop by our booth and say hello if you plan to attend.  At the very least, I’m sure we’ll be passing out some free stuff.

by Nick Fishman

employeescreenIQ President and COO, Jason B. Morris will be speaking at the HR in Hospitality Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, NV at the Wynn Hotel on March 18, 2008. The topic is “Trends in Employment Screening: What Foodservice HR Professionals Need to Know”.

Please be sure to stop by if you plan to be in Las Vegas then. We’ll look forward to meeting you.

by Nick Fishman

Well, it certainly took them long enough to catch up to the rest of the country, but we are finally seeing some positive trends when it come to higher education institutions and background checks. I found this great article, Checking Up on Your Past on insidehighered.com (I’m sure today’s college students get a kick out of the name of this on-line publication).

The article focuses on last week’s annual meeting of the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (who knew there was such a thing? but I bet you background screeners will be flocking to it from now on). Evidently, the topic of background checks was all the rage. Noteworthy in this article is a study conducted by Stephanie Hughes, an assistant professor of management at Northern Kentucky University on the use of background checks among universities. See a snapshot of results below.

- 13% of university’s polled never engage in criminal background checks
- 87% perform checks for some staff positions
- 40% screen for some faculty positions
- 26% conduct checks on some student workers

These are good stats, but a little misleading since “The way the survey was phrased, a “Yes” answer meant only that in some cases, a person in that category would be subject to a background check. That means that a college that would investigate a potential professor being hired in a field where security clearances are necessary or for work with young children would have answered Yes even if the vast majority of professorial hires are never subjected to a criminal background check.”

Good article and even better trend nonetheless.

by Kevin Bachman

This week, I am attending the 16th Annual Service Quality Conference in San Diego, presented by the American Society For Quality. ASQ is a global organization whose role promoting sound practices has earned them worldwide respect. Companies all over the world have sent their staff to San Diego to learn cutting edge service techniques from respected thought leaders across a variety of disciplines.

We are a rapidly growing organization; both a function of increased demand and our performance as a best practices background screening provider. Taking advantage of the latest management and service philosophies ensures we continually meet our commitment to our clients’ changing needs.

From the looks of it, we are the only employment screening company in attendance. I will post several times throughout the conference with updates.