Resume Tips

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!

A Case for Continuous Employment Background Checks

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.

Does Your Background Check Fit the Position?

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.

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

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.

Guidelines for Use of Employment Credit Reports in Ohio

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:

In the light of the discriminatory impact on minority job applicants, employers should be extremely cautious in their use of consumer credit reports as a tool for screening job applicants. The policy guidance, as approved, makes clear that when an applicant is denied employment on the basis of his or her consumer credit report, the employer should have valid, objective proof--preferably in the form of a job validation study--that its use of these reports is not only related to the job in question, but also based upon a business necessity. More

Hiring a Celebrity: Don't Forget the Background Check

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/

Checking In On Your Current Employees: Recurring Background Screening

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/

Minor League Umps Agree to Background Checks

Major League Baseball Umpires should take a notice of their Minor League counterpart's recent negotiation concerning background checks. It is being reported in the Sporting News that the Minor League Umpires Union has agreed to allow background checks now that it clearly understands the parameters and scope of information being sought and how that information is being analyzed.

This is exactly how this should have played out with Major League Umpires. Instead, it appears that they are looking to use this issue as a bargaining chip. What could be more important than implementing a process that can help to ensure the integrity of the umpires and the game itself? Once the minor league umps understood how the process would work, they realized the need to submit to such checks. Thus far, the Major League umps have not relented.

How does this lesson apply to your average organizations? One, it is important to define the parameters of your screening program and to let your applicants/employees know what you are screening for and how the checks are being used. To a lesser extent, one can learn how the unions (in Major League Baseball's case) can take a no-brainer idea and make it an issue.

National Employment Screening Services

Just because you are local, doesn't mean your employment screening firm must be.  While local is always nice in terms of familiarity is concerned, capabilities are far more important.  Just because your local screening firm might screen a lot of people in your particular area, doesn't mean they have the expertise, capacity or capability to conduct background checks for your applicant's that may live or have lived outside of your area. 

One of the best practices in conducting an effective screening program is to check every county where you applicant has resided, worked or gone to school and every name they have used over the past seven years.  So, it is imperative to identify and select a provider who can cover the entire country.  It is also important to select a provider who has a basic sense of the federal, state and local laws that govern the use of background checks.  In most cases, the Fair Credit Reporting Act will pre-empt state of local laws, but not always.  So conducting a check in California for instance is completely different than conducting a check in Ohio.

In addition to client references, you might ask the following questions of a potential provider that seek to highlight experience in this regard:

• Do you have a national client base?



• Do you have national coverage? (duh?, sorry for the obvious one but you never know)



• If you do have national coverage, do you regularly cover all areas of the country?



• Please highlight some of the differences or challenges you run into in different areas or regions of the country (beware of the provider that tells you none).

Credit and Background Checks

Many companies utilize credit checks as part of their pre-employment screening programs.  While credit checks are often confusing, they can shed light on an applicant's personal responsibility.  It is important for employers to bear in mind the following when contemplating this type of search.  First the basics, you must have a signed authorization from the applicant before you can check their credit.  Second, you want to make sure that credit is not the only thing that you look at to determine an applicant's suitability for employment.  Other valuable pieces of a background check can include a criminal record search, employment verifications, education verifications, etc.  Next, you want to make sure that you evaluate how poor credit might affect your candidate's ability to work in the position they seek.  Credit checks are great for executive level applicants, those in the financial sector or those and, or those with access to large amounts of money.  For others, the extension might not be so obvious. 

Next is understanding the different between an Employment Credit Report and a Consumer Credit Report.  There are many differences that require far greater explanation, but the for the purposes of this discussion let's point out a couple of the highlights.  A Consumer Credit report contains a credit score (which cannot be used as part of the hiring decision) and account numbers (which an employer shouldn't need to make a hiring decision).  Running them also counts against the applicant's credit score, unlike the Employment Credit Report.  For simplification purposes, this makes the Employment Credit Report the preferable of the two. 

Lastly, there are three primary credit bureaus in the US.  They are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.  Information can vary from bureau to bureau, but as far as determining the best, all three have their strengths and weaknesses.

Now comes the hard part.  Making employment decisions based on the results of a credit report.  And that my friends is something that can and should be dealt with on a unique employer by employer basis.

Background Checks and Job Offers

Okay, so you've made a smart decision and decided to integrate the use of background checks into your hiring process.  The question now is "at what point in the hiring process to I use this insightful tool"?  The answer is different for every organization.  For some organizations, the successful completion of a background check is the most influential part of the hiring decision, therefore the check is conducted at the beginning of the process.  For others, it is used as a helpful tool to choose between equally qualified candidates and thus conducted somewhere between the first interview and the actual job offer.  Some organizations will conduct it post offer and make the offer contingent upon the successful completion of the check.  And yet others, will also make the offer contingent upon the successful completion of the check, but put them on the job before executing.

All of the aforementioned options are permissible and when used effectively, greatly benefit the employer.  There are ramifications for each though.  For instance, if the check is conducted at the onset of the hiring process, the organization is probably screening many more candidates than it will actually hire.  The benefit is that rather than going completely through with the whole process, candidates can either move on or be eliminated right away.  On the other end of the spectrum, those who wait until someone is on the job run the risk of employing and potentially having to terminate a candidate after they have made it through the entire process.  The benefit of waiting is that they can breeze through the hiring process and get candidates on the job quickly.

At the end of the day, you have to make the best decision for your organization.  The important thing is that you actually conduct a thorough search that allow you to make an informed hiring decision.

Costs of Pre-Employment Background Checks

The most common question asked by potential customers is "what is the cost of doing a background check"?  The answer is never easy.  But let's start with a few basics.  First and foremost, the price charged for a background check is most commonly attributed to anticipated or demonstrated volume and the types of services ordered.  Volume meaning the more background checks you order, the better the price.  Services ordered can vary.  Some clients just do a basic criminal check while others order criminal checks, employment verifications, etc. 

Now comes the more challenging part of the equation: the apples to apples comparison.  The most common differentiating factor in the nebulous term "background check" is how criminal convictions are sought: County Criminal Records, State Repositories (if and where available) and commercial databases.  The best method for obtaining thorough and accurate search is to conduct an in-person county criminal record search wherever your applicant has resided, worked or gone to school over at least the last seven years.  The county level is where the overwhelming majority of convictions that matter to employers occur and give you the best chance of finding information.  This method usually takes the most time (1-4 days on average) and is the most expensive method.  State repositories can be hit and miss for a number of reasons.  Most states cannot mandate that their county courts report information, how often they report it or what types of information they report.  Normal institution tells you that the larger the sampling size, the better chance you have of finding more.  Unfortunately, that intuition is based on the fallacy that the larger sampling size is just as thorough and accurate as the smaller one.  Lastly, there are commercial databases, the quickest and cheapest method for obtaining a criminal background check.  Also, the most unreliable (see article on national criminal database searches).  Commercial databases rely on various reporting agencies willingness to provide or sell data.  Such sources can include corrections facilities, some county courthouses, some state sponsored sites.  There can be as many holes in these databases as there are in swiss cheese.  Having said that, statewide and database searches can be a good compliment to the county search, just not a good primary method.

Having said all of that, the buyer needs to make the age old decision: time vs. quality (accuracy) vs. cost.  And there are other factors to be considered here: how much time, money and energy would be spent defending a negligence claim for not utilizing a proper screening tool?  How can I put a price tag on the negative publicity from one incident in the workplace?  These are questions only a buyer can answer, but when you think about the aforementioned factors you are armed with the tools you need to make an informed decision.  Kind of like the results of a background check.   

Executive Background Checks

It only stands to reason that employers think about ratcheting up background checks when it comes to screening potential executives.  The prevailing logic is "these positions pay a lot of money and I want to make sure that everything looks good".  You can't argue with this institution.  Executives do make more money, they are hard to replace and even more difficult to find.  In addition to the cursory searches (Social Security Number Trace and County Criminal Records Check), employers should consider the following:  Federal Criminal Record Search- While a minuscule number of crimes are prosecuted at the federal level, they are mainly the types of convictions that would concern employers.  Many, but not all federal convictions are white collar in nature.  Employment Verifications- While important for many other positions, employment verifications are vital for executives.  It will help to confirm items such as starting and ending title, starting and ending salary, starting and ending position and responsibilities, etc.  Education Verifications- Confirms education degrees and we have all seen many public embarrassments based on fraudulent education credentials.  Professional License Verification- Confirm that your candidate is in fact a member of a state bar, a licensed medical practitioner, a CPA, etc.   

These are just some of the searches employers should consider when screening executive candidates.  A more specific list should be discussed based on the unique needs of an organization.  I guess the most important message here is that whatever you choose to do, make sure that you perform a thorough background check.  The risk for not doing so is just too great.