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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by Natalie Beck

More and more employers are including both pre-employment and random drug testing as part of their hiring procedure and company policy. As a few companies have learned, this is a VERY good idea as they are now finding many of their prospective employees are testing positive for a variety of illegal drugs. As a person who has been working closely with employeescreenIQ’s client base over the past few years with regards to their drug testing programs, I cannot begin to describe the stories I have heard and what a great idea it is for employers to drug test their employees and potential employees. What you find may surprise you!

If you are thinking about implementing drug testing in your workplace, please contact employeescreenIQ for more information regarding our substance abuse screening services.

Click here for the article.

by Jason Morris

In our series Employment Screening 101 we discussed a new important service, IQ Review.  Here is a story out of Atlanta proving why perpetual employee screening is so important.

DOT Workers Fired For Violence, Theft, Porn

ATLANTA — More than 40 employees have been fired from the Georgia Department of Transportation for a wide array of misconduct including incidents of assault, drugs pornography and nudity, since the new DOT Commissioner took charge.

Through an open records request WSB-TV Channel 2 obtained documents from the DOT that in some cases read like a police report.

“I had just received a plethora of employee issues that just were absolutely unacceptable,” said DOT commissioner Gena Abraham.

When the new DOT commissioner came under fire for admitting to a romantic relationship with the DOT board chairman some called her a hypocrite for releasing a memo holding her employees to the highest moral and ethical standards.

But documents obtained by WSB-TV Channel 2 may justify the need for the memo.

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by Jason Morris

We often have this conversation with clients; Why should I search these alias names? Well as you can see from this article Identity Theft continues to be a problem.  This individual has 23 different alias names that he uses to rip off consumers!

Accused identity thief allegedly used at least 23 names to steal $291,139

by Nate Reens | The Grand Rapids Press  Thursday March 13, 2008, 6:01 AM

GRAND RAPIDS — There are many sides to Mamoudou Bathily, none of which federal agents can fully authenticate.

A citizen of Mali, a West African country, Bathily says he has a wife and child in Texas, but that he doesn’t know his offspring’s name. He told authorities he has another child in Minnesota, but he has been living in Grand Rapids with more than one woman.

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by Jason Morris

I am glad to see that others are thinking about people lying on their resumes.  I have used these examples many times while doing presentations to HR groups.  Its almost like the I wrote this one!  This is a great story called Little white lies (or bigger ones) pop up in job hunt.  I don’t agree with their findings that 25-40% of resumes have misleading information, our statistics show this number to be well over 50%  A great case for doing background checks and employment screening.

This is a good read:

Don’t mean to brag, but my grade-point average was a 4.0. I landed a job at The New York Times right out of college. As for community service, well, you’ll find me serving meals to the homeless and tutoring adults in reading.

Sound too good to be true? Of course it does, because it is.

But as you type up that resume or sit nervously in front of the interviewer, sometimes a little white lie slips out, right? Maybe not quite so blatant. Maybe not really intentional. But lying seems to be a qualification to get a job.

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by Jason Morris

I found this article while reading USA Today and felt it might be important to our readers.  Although this has little to do with employment screening and more to do with substance abuse testing its always interesting to show these types of studies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Methamphetamine use continued to decline in nearly every part of the country last year as the government sharpened its crackdown on precursor chemicals used to make the illegal drug.

Overall, the number of workplace employees who tested positive for meth dropped 22% last year, according to a study released Wednesday by New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics Inc., the nation’s largest drug-testing company. Meth use in the Northeast, however, remained steady.

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