EmployeeScreenIQ

Officials in Charlotte, N.C., are changing the city's background check (Click here) policies.

The city currently conducts nationwide criminal background checks on all of its public safety, professional and technical workers. However, Charlotte had only been completing local checks covering the past seven years for non-skilled laborers.

According to an article by FOX Charlotte, the changes came about after Royce Mitchell, a street maintenance worker for the city and convicted felon, was brought into Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department on rape allegations in connection with a teenager's death.

"We had this one small gap that we're going to close." Tim Mayes, human resources director for the city, said in the article.

Charlotte currently spends about $250,000 per year on background checks for employees. Police and fire department employee checks cost between $200 and $300 each, while checks for maintenance workers cost only about $40. The new change in policy will add about $5,000 in costs.

"We knew it was there but we just didn't think it made business sense to be paying the expense of going through a process that we didn't need to have ... and you have an occurrence like this," Mayes said.

Some residents and officials, however, are worried that convicted felons could still make their way onto city payroll regardless of the new background check policy.

"If it's been years ago, and based on the work the person is doing, and the kind of work record they've had since that occurrence, its possible we may hire them in some of our positions, just not for police and fire," Mayes added.

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What can employers and job seekers expect in the way of background checks during 2010?

Background checks are pretty much commonplace in today's working world. They help employers be sure they're getting the best candidate possible and help job seekers prove they are who they say they are.

EmployeeScreenIQ recently released its annual list of background check trends for next year. The trends are designed to equip hiring professionals with advance information on crucial screening topics before they become everyday news.

A brief list of the trends include:

• Greater hiring controversies due to social networking.
• Contractor and PEO background checks rise in importance as temporary labor gains widespread use.
• Increased hiring throughout the year.
• Fewer employers will respond to requests for resume verifications.
• As job seekers become more desperate to regain employment, resume falsification and diploma mills will increase in use.
• A greater "blind" dependence on the FBI criminal database - despite the reality that it's not fully effective.
• Controversies over increasing attempts to enact privacy laws, redacting social security numbers and other background information from court records.
• Increased state legislation aimed at discriminatory use of credit reports.
• Screening providers will achieve industry accreditation.
• Litigation will increase over perceived discrimination in screening and hiring decisions.

"We're often asked by clients what elements of a background check deserve the most attention," President and CEO Jason Morris said. "The answer is, review everything. Every organization is unique in their hiring needs and practices. Every individual that you consider for employment should be judged on their own merit, strengths and weaknesses, by someone in the hiring organization that can consider the complete individual.

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We all know that background checks are becoming mainstream in today's employment industry, but what kind of statistics are background checks revealing.

According to a recent study from American DataBank, background checks from 2008 to 2009 drudged up some surprising facts about employees in various industries and different sized companies.

When looking at industries, food services and stores have the most employees with criminal hit records at 8 percent, followed by retail at 7 percent, health services at 6 percent, transportation and manufacturing at 5 percent and business services at 4 percent.

Transportation has the highest number of applicants with false information on their resumes at 89 percent. In the manufacturing industry, 10 percent of employees had a negative personal reference.

When it comes to driving records, 39 percent of food service and stores employees had one to three violations, while 8 percent had at least four violations. In the same industry, 51 percent of employees had a credit record with a negative history and, along with manufacturing, had the highest number of employees file for workers compensation at 14 percent.

When comparing companies by size, those with one to 49 employees are considered small businesses, those with 50 to 99 are considered medium-sized businesses and those with 1,000 or more employees are considered large businesses.

Those with 50 to 999 and those with more 1,000 or more employees both had 5 percent of employees with a criminal hit record. Large companies also had 53 percent of employees falsify information on their resumes. Medium-sized companies had 10 percent of employees receive negative personal recommendations.

As for driving records, small businesses had 34 percent of employees with one to three violations on their driving records. Small and medium-sized businesses both had 6 percent of employees with at least four violations on their driving records.

Medium businesses had 47 percent of employees with a negative credit history and 12 percent of small business employees have filed for workers' compensation.

Some other overall statistics found by recent background checks:

• Up to 30 percent of applications contain false material or information
• 40 percent of the information on resumes is misinterpreted
• 45 percent of potential employees have a criminal record, bad driving record, worker's compensation claim or bad credit history
• 40 percent of American drivers have a violation on their driving record and 25 percent have no insurance
• 95 percent of all companies are victims of theft, but only 10 percent discover it
• 30 percent of all business failures are caused by employee theft
• Workplace theft costs employers more than $120 billion each year
• More than 2 million crimes occur in the workplace each year
• Employee fraud estimates cost employers about $20 billion each year
• From 1991 to 1997, sexual harassment has increased by 130 percent, an average of 15 percent each year
• About 2,000,000 workers are victims of violent crimes while on duty, costing employers $4.2 billion
• Employers lose 72 percent of all negligent hiring suits

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Officials in New York are disagreeing on whether or not a change to the state's background check laws is a good idea.

Sen. Frank Padavan recently introduced a bill that would stop a change to rules pertaining to background checks that were set during the Rockefeller drug law reforms. Those reforms are set to take effect June 8 as part of the 2009-2010 state budget.

According to an article by EmpireStateNews, the bill would put a stop to the rule that allows courts to seal criminal records of certain drug felons when they complete drug court. This means there is no record of a criminal's conviction when they apply for future jobs.

"This change defies all common sense because it would effectively wipe the slate clean for drug dealers who undergo criminal background checks when seeking employment in certain positions," Padavan said in the article. "This means convicted drug dealers could be taking care of children at a day care center or as a nanny, teaching at a school, or working at a nursing home or some other position of trust."

Under the proposed provision to be included with the budget, courts are allowed to seal a criminal's current conviction and up to three prior misdemeanors in order to keep them from being disclosed during background checks.

"The sponsor of this budget measure says it was intended to give criminals a better chance to get a job, but it goes against other laws that are intended to give the public a better chance to ensure their safety," Padavan added. "My bill would fix this by striking what was a dangerous provision hidden in a bad budget."

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Rhode Island Gov. Donald L. Carcieri is hoping to increase the fees for a basic background check, but not without opposition.

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch and his office are highly criticizing Carcieri's proposal, saying an increase in fees would only create more of a barrier for jobless people searching for work in Rhode Island.

According to an article by The Providence Journal, the plan to raise background check fees is part of Carcieri's budget proposal. The plan would raise the fee from $5 per check to $25 per check, which would create almost $900,000 in new state revenue.

The Attorney General's office processes about 150 background check requests every day. Director of Administration Christopher Cotta thinks the price increase will create financial hardship for applicants.

“If you’re applying to five jobs and need five of them, that’s $125,” Cotta said in the article. “This is often put on the backs of people who are out of work. That’s why it’s historically been $5.”

Another potential flaw is that the proposal is worded so that local police departments completing checks for investigations or arrests also would have to pay $25, which would add hundreds of thousands of dollars to their yearly budgets. However, officials say this was not done intentionally and will be corrected.

“$25 might not seem like a lot, but some of these positions that require [background checks] are low-paying, such as work in daycare facilities or nursing homes,” ACLU coordinator Amy Vitale said in the article.

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One company is offering a free background check tool.

Snoopstation.com allows users to easily investigate the background of any person, free of charge. Users only have to provide the name of person they want to perform the background check on, and Snoopstation.com's wizard will provide a list of linked Web sites where you can find information.

Snoopstation.com allows users to check everything from criminal backgrounds to public records directories to sex offender records. There also is a reverse mobile phone number lookup.

Users can use the site's services to find records on: criminal history, sex offender, prison and inmate history, FBI, bankruptcy, marriage, divorce, birth, death and adoption, credit reports, unclaimed money and properties, government and policy auctions and Social Security numbers. The site also allows users to search for wanted criminals, as well as provides a reverse address search, reverse phone search and e-mail search.

"Snoopstation.com is a very sophisticated site that shows genuine and comprehensive records," the company stated in a press release. "Other such Web sites charge an outsized fee amount from their enthusiasts in return for providing information. Although the information provided by this site is very thin, Snoopstation.com has maintained a very high standard for providing data.

"They are literally the front runner in the sphere of background check and public records," the company adds. "Snoopstation.com is really a free website. No fee is charged in exchange for the services rendered. Being a decentralized Web site, it is extremely speedy. The entire investigation is done within a fraction of seconds. The public records provider exercised at snoopstation.com is one of the best in the industry."

Snoopstation.com is currently partnered with the Area Code Lookup USA and offers software such as Net Detective, eDetective, Web Detective and Keylogger.

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One Ohio hospital system is implementing background check rules to help keep patients and workers safer.

University Hospitals began requiring extra security measures, including fingerprinting doctors, last year for employees, volunteers and anyone else who comes in contact with patients.

"Because of the attacks, we went though a rigorous process of heightening security and background checks," hospital spokeswoman Janice Guhl said in an article by the Plain Dealer.

The efforts stemmed from an incident in which a temporary nurse's aide abused patients in 2007. The temporary agency that sent that worker to UH had failed to complete a required criminal background check. A further state investigation found other workers had not undergone the necessary checks.

UH has required fingerprinting and background checks for all employees except doctors since 2004. However, the new rules include doctors in the checks, as well as students from medical and nursing schools. Temp agencies also now have to provide background checks, which are then reviewed by the hospital.

While violent crimes are usually rare, Cleveland police reported 176 assaults and 1,500 crimes at hospitals and other medical facilities from 2001 through April 2008.

William Nesbitt, a hospital security consultant in California, said in the article he has seen more sexual assaults and other crimes involving temporary hospital workers in recent years.

"There has probably been some naivete on the part of some hospitals to do their due diligence," he said. "It may be somewhat out of the norm (to require universal fingerprinting), but maybe the norm is moving in that direction."

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A new background check law in California could help protect children in youth organizations.

Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, recently introduced Senate Bill 447, which would help protect children in youth organizations from sexual predators and other criminals. The bill would reform the criminal background check policy at the state's 36,000 youth organizations and human resource agencies that work with children.

According to an article by the California Chronicle, organizations like the Boy Scouts and youth soccer leagues are currently required to conduct criminal background checks on staff members. Each organization must appoint a custodian of records to review the checks and determine if a potential employee's criminal history poses a potential threat to the organization or its members.

However, the current law allows the custodian of records to review their own criminal record, which could result in a convicted person serving as the custodian of records.

"SB 447 will help protect children from predators and other violent criminals by closing an obvious loophole in the law," Yee said in the article. "Those determining who can work with children should not be reviewing their own records and determining if they are fit to serve. Parents deserve assurance that their kids are safe when they are dropped off at a soccer practice or scouts meeting."

The bill would create a program under which the California Department of Justice would review the criminal record information for custodian of records applicants. The program would be funded by a $30 fee for all custodian of records applicants.

Labels: Background check

Whether you're a job seeker or a business owner, chances are you're going to have to deal with background checks in one way or another.

From the business standpoint, background checks will save you from being targeted for negligent hiring lawsuits and help you discover any false information a potential employee offers in a resume or interview. From the job seeker standpoint, background checks allow you to prove yourself to your potential employers.

Background checks can vary from checking your social security number and employment history to checking various other records, according to an article by Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act dictates what is and what is not allowed to be included in a background checks.

Items that can be included in a background check include:

• driving records
• bankruptcy
• property ownership
• past employers
• vehicle registration
• education records
• character references
• military records
• personal references
• credit cards
• court records
• neighbor interviews
• state licensing records
• incarceration records
• criminal records
• workers' compensation
• medical records
• drug test records
• sex offender lists

Some information that cannot be reported under the FCRA includes:

• bankruptcies after 10 years
• civil suits, civil judgments and records of arrest after seven years
• paid tax liens after seven years
• accounts placed for collection after seven years
• other negative information, except criminal convictions, after seven years

Overall, background checks are an important part of the hiring process for both employers and employees. They help employers feel confident in their hiring decisions, and if the employee has nothing to hide, they should be confident about the outcome.

Labels: Background check

If you're searching for a job, chances are you'll have to undergo a background check at some point. Visit http://employeescreen.com to learn more.

It has become commonplace for most employers to complete a background check on any potential employee. Background checks help employers validate the information a candidate gives them on a resume or during an interview.

If you're in the market for a job, according to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, there are some steps you can take to make sure your background check will come out clean.

• Order a copy of your credit report. Many employers take your credit check as a serious indicator of responsibility. If there's something on it you don't recognize or you disagree with, dispute the information with the creditor or credit bureau. This also is a good way to make sure you haven't been the victim of identity theft.
• Check court records. If you have an arrest record or have been involved in court cases, inspect those files to make sure the information is correct and up-to-date.
• Check DMV records. Request a copy of your driving record from the Department of Motor Vehicles, especially if you are applying for a job that involves driving.
• Complete your own background check. If you want to see what an employer's background check will reveal, hire a company that specializes in such reports to conduct one for you.
• Ask to see a copy of your personnel file from your old jobs. Even if you do not work there anymore, state law might enable you to see your file.
• Read the fine print carefully. When you sign a job application, you will be asked to sign a consent form if a background check is conducted. Read this statement carefully and ask questions if the authorization statement is not clear.
• Tell neighbors and work colleagues they might be asked to provide information about you. This helps avoid suspicion and alerts you to possible problems.
• Clean up your "digital dirt." This includes conducting a search of your name on major Web browsers, such as Google and Yahoo. If you find unflattering references, contact the Web site to see if and how you can remove them. You also should review your MySpace and Facebook profiles.
• Request previous background check reports. If you have been the subject of a background check covered by the FCRA, you may be entitled to receive a copy of your "file" from the employment screening company.

Labels: Background check