Happy Holidays to All!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to all of our loyal readers! Enjoy a healthy and peaceful holiday season. We look forward to hearing from you in the coming year.

Retail Theft Study on Employment Screening

This is about a month old now, but an old friend from SHRM passed this study on Employment Screening in the retail sector which was published in Loss Preventation Magazine. See some key findings below:

The purpose of the survey was to benchmark large retailers’ current pre-employment screening programs. The survey was sent to the most senior-level loss prevention executive in ten leading U.S. retailers. The surveyed retailers ranged in store count from 250 to over 3,000 locations and included both hardline and softline retailers. The survey focused on five types of screening processes—drug testing, assessments, credit checks, criminal history, and motor vehicle checks. The scope of the survey included store, distribution centers, and corporate levels at each retail company. The survey was conducted in March, 2007.
The survey did not attempt to evaluate the ROI from a pre-employment background screening program. While this is outside the scope of this survey, many retail companies have an internal ROI process measuring programs such a pre-employment screening.
The chart below is a summary of the responses to the five primary questions. Conducting an assessment is clearly the most common pre-employment screening method employed, followed by conducting a criminal background check.

Screening Type: Store Distribution Center Corporate
Drug Screen 50% 60% 40%
Assessment 90% 40% 40%
Credit Check 0% 0% 33%
Criminal Background Check 70% 80% 70%
Motor Vehicle Record Check 0% 60% 40%

I am a little surprised that assessments beat out criminal background checks at the store level, but given the cost structure of screening tactics perhaps it makes sense. Also, I'm surprised that the Substance Abuse Screening levels and use of Criminal Background Checks vary from Store, to Distribution Center, to Corporate. I would think that if these things were important at one level, they would be important at all.

Xtra Cheezhead Post on Social Networking & Background Checks

Check out my recent Xtra Cheezhead post concerning the use of Social Networking Sites in Background Screening process.

I found a great interview in SmartMoney Magazine with employment attorney Jeanine DeBacker on the topic which highlights her thoughts on this practice and the potential for litigation.

Click here to view the full post.

Ohio Lawmakers Not Subject to Criminal Checks

If you live in the state of Ohio and want to be a dentist, veterinarian, marriage therapist, dietitian or an embalmer state lawmakers just passed House Bill 104 mandating a criminal background check. Seems like a good idea. However, the same lawmakers didn't think it was a good idea to subject themselves to the same requirement.

Check out "State lawmakers: No criminal checks on us" as published in yesterday's Columbus Dispatch. This would be a funny story if it weren't actually true.

I'm Just A Sucker For Stories Like These . . .

I'm taking a brief respite from posts related to background checks (trust me, it will be over after this one), to share an email that was passed on to me last week. Whether the story is true or made up doesn't really matter. I still like the message.

Two Choices

What would you do? ....you make the choice.
Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway.
My question is: Would you have made the same choice?
At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:“When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?” The audience was stilled by the query.The father continued. “I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.”Then he told the following story:Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball.Shay asked, “Do you think they'll let me play?”I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father, I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, “Well, we're losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him in to bat in the ninth inning.”Shay struggled over to the team's bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart; and, the boys saw my joy at my son being accepted.In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.In the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball.However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay's life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed.The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.The game would now be over. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game. Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman's head, out of reach of all team mates. Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, 'Shay, run to first! Run to first!' Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.Everyone yelled, “Run to second, run to second!” Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base. By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball. The smallest guy on their team now had his first chance to be the hero for his team. He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher's intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman's head.Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.All were screaming, “Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay.”Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted, “Run to third! Shay, run to third!” As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators, were on their feet screaming, “Shay, run home! Run home!”

Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team “That day”, said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, “the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world”.Shay didn't make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day! AND NOW A LITTLE FOOT NOTE TO THIS STORY:We all send thousands of jokes through the e-mail without a second thought, but when it comes to sending messages about life choices, people hesitate.The crude, vulgar, and often obscene pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion about decency is too often suppressed in our schools and workplaces.If you're thinking about forwarding t his message, chances are that you're probably sorting out the people in your address book who aren't the 'appropriate' ones to receive this type of message. Well, the person who sent you this believes that we all can make a difference.We all have thousands of opportunities every single day to help realize the 'natural order of things.'So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice:Do we pass along a little spark of love and humanity or do we pass up those opportunities and leave the world a little bit colder in the process?A wise man once said every society is judged by how it treats it's least fortunate amongst them.You now have two choices:

1. Delete 2. Forward

A Greener Background Check: Place Orders On-Line

A couple weeks ago we committed ourselves to identifying some methods for performing background checks in a more environmentally friendly way. Tip number one is for those that order background checks by fax to switch to electronic requests.

Think of all the paper that is generated for faxed requests. A piece of paper is used to request the search and a new one is used at the receiving end of the fax. Plus, if you attach a cover sheet you've used even more paper: twice. All that paper piles up over time.

The nice thing about this tip is that it goes hand-in-hand with speeding up the process. If the order is faxed, your screening provider must enter the order into their system. This takes time. If an order is placed on-line, most likely (depending on provider), the work is assigned in an automated fashion. This also saves the hassle of "Didn't you get that fax? I sent it three days ago."

Saving trees and saving time. Sounds good to me.

employeescreenIQ Releases Latest Newsletter

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

employeescreenIQ Recognized by Weatherhead 100

I am proud to announce that employeescreenIQ has been recognized as a Weatherhead 100 organization for the 3rd consecutive year. This year's ranking of 14th is extremely gratifying. I have included a brief description of the award below and invite you to view the attached press release.

Since 1987, the Weatherhead 100 has showcased the fastest growing companies in Northeast Ohio. Recognized organizations must demonstrate consistent growth over the previous five years. The Weatherhead 100 list is objectively determined annually and highly regarded throughout the region. It is branded as a testament to hard work, commitment, innovation, and the dream to succeed.


2007%20Weatherhead%20Release.pdf

Employers Access Credit Reports

We see so many articles these days slamming employers and grossly overstating the misuse of employment credit reports, so I was pleased to see a well-balanced, informative view about from a 30,000 ft. level of the process. See article below published in the Detroit Free Press.

It may not seem fair, but that company you're talking to about a new job can find out when you opened your Visa and Nordstrom charge accounts and whether you're keeping up with payments. Whether it's their business is up to you.
That kind of information is detailed in your credit report. Besides the date on which you opened what credit account, the balance you owe and how often you pay, it includes your full name, address, former addresses and names, date of birth and Social Security number and public records such as tax liens, judgments and bankruptcies.

Read More

Drew Peterson Investigated for Conducting Illegal Background Checks

As if Drew Peterson wasn't in enough hot water, now he's being investigating for conducting illegal background checks through his police department's computer system. Talk about a guy who thought he was above the law. Peterson is a Chicago-area cop who is being investigated for his 4th wife's disappearance and his 3rd wife's death.

This story on ABC News details the allegations.

Hires and Liars - employeescreenIQ quoted in the New York Post

HIRES AND LIARS
IT'S TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES FOR JOB SEEKERS WHO FIB ON THEIR RESUME

By BRIAN MOORE

December 3, 2007-- A resume is a modest document - a dry, page-long summary of achievements that, while failing to capture what writer Richard Price calls "the wonder of me," makes a serviceable introduction between job seeker and job giver.

And according to many experts, it's more often than not a steaming pile of bovine feces filled with fraudulent academic credentials, mysterious omissions and wildly embellished job descriptions.

"When some people start dreaming up resumes, they go into an almost novelistic mode," says Michael Hershman, president of the risk-management firm the Fairfax Group, who cites studies that say fully 70 percent of resumes include a "major misstatement of fact."

"I think there's a lot of fraud, personally," agrees Dorothea Gaulden, a former executive and author of the business ethics tome "Right Makes Might." "Fraud is everywhere."

Paul Viollis, the CEO of Risk Control Strategies, a Manhattan security screener for high-end clients, estimates conservatively that six of 10 resumes include "exaggerated or blatantly fraudulent" information. Other experts put the number between 10 and 20 percent.

Some claim resume fraud is on the rise - while others disagree, all concur that people are getting nabbed more often, due to a steep rise in background checks.

And even if claiming a Harvard degree when you actually flunked out of CUNY gets you in the door, misrepresentations can come back to haunt their perpetrators. That's been demonstrated by a number of recent incidents, which experts say have caused employers to look at resumes more closely.

Former MIT dean of admissions Marilee Jones resigned in April after an anonymous source tipped off her egghead associates that she'd fabricated academic degrees when applying for her first job at the university in 1979.

Last year, Radio Shack CEO David Edmondson switched off his career at the electronic retail giant after press reports that he'd fudged information about academic degrees he didn't receive. Ditto football coach George O'Leary , who was hired and then fired by Notre Dame, for citing phony academic credentials.

The most common misrepresentations are academic degrees, previous salaries and haziness about gaps in employment, says Jason Morris, COO of employeescreenIQ, though he adds that some misrepresentations are honest mistakes or miscommunications.

Read More

Curiosity Doesn't Always Kill The Cat

A few weeks ago, I wrote about applicants who claim to have degrees or diplomas but really don’t. We check, report back to our clients. They make a decision. However, not all cases are that clear cut.

Recently, a candidate said he had a degree, but the school couldn’t verify until they spoke to the applicant directly. Unusual, but not unheard of. Less than 48 hours later, we received a call from someone who said he was a school employee. This person verified the candidate’s degree. Sounds simple enough. Wrap it up and send it back to our client, right?

However, the area code on this phone call was different than the area code of the school. Our researcher’s curiosity was peaked at this point, and called back the school. They stated they still cannot release information, nor had they heard from the applicant!

Our work wasn't done though. The department the person who called us confirming the applicant’s degree. He didn’t work there. The Registrar’s Office? Not there either. At this point, we shared our findings with our client.

While this verification made for a pleasant blog piece, we’re happier about the performance of our researcher. She noticed something looked out of place and acted on her instincts. She made more than a few follow up attempts to obtain information, clarify what she was told, and ascertain the quality of the information she was given.

Our client was more than pleased. Could another company have done the same thing we did? Perhaps. But processes and best practices are very, very important to us. All of our verifications are done within 75 feet of my desk. We do this work in-house and train our own staff, so we can assure our clients they’re receiving a high quality report. We’re proud of our work and like to think our efforts pay off on searches like these.

Identity Theft - By The Numbers.

I found this on-line this weekend. This article has nothing to do with background checks but has a lot of great information about identity theft.

Facts about identity theft:

-- In 2005, about 1.6 million households experienced theft of existing accounts other than a credit card, such as a banking account, and 1.1 million households discovered misuse of personal information, such as a Social Security number.

Read more

Australia - Why do background checks?

An interesting article about doing background checks in Australia. It seems in theory that our Aussie friends are a few years behind us, but still seeing the importance of doing employment screening. Check out this article, Protect yourself from fraud in the Herald Sun.