EmployeeScreenIQ Blog

For those of you interested in keeping up with the latest in pre-employment background screening compliance and the laws that affect your use of  employee background checks, check out our latest publication, “BTW: Your Guide to Staying Out of Hot Water“.  This compliance resource has been crafted by our VP of Compliance and General Counsel, Angela Bosworth and is a must-read for human resources and security professionals.

Our January issue focuses on issues of privacy affecting the employment background screening industry, both from the prospective of data brokers and social media.  Are data brokers responsible for the information they aggregate?  Does it have to be accurate?  Are private Facebook posts indeed private?  For a preview of this issue, check out Angela’s video below.

Download the January issue here.

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Strike up the band, pop the champagne and raise the roof!!!!  You can’t see me right now, but I’m doing my happy dance.

For the past 2 years we’ve chronicled the EEOC’s case against Kaplan Higher Education in which they alleged that Kaplan’s use of employment credit reports constituted a discriminatory hiring practice.  Today, I’m happy to share that a motion for summary judgment has granted in Kaplan’s behalf and the case has been tossed. [...]

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 “I would suggest to (businesses) that they think long and hard about why they think they need to do a criminal background check”.

John Hendrickson, Regional Attorney for the EEOC’s Chicago District

If I asked you what the context of this quote was and what the EEOC attorney meant when he made these comments, what would you say?

Well, that was the primary question directed to me by Civil Rights Commissioner Dave Kladney following my testimony last month at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ hearing on the impact of criminal background checks and the EEOC guidance on the consideration of arrest and conviction records.  And I have to admit, I was so floored by the question thinking that it was so obvious that I had a total Scooby Doo moment; ZOINKS!!!!

I was so caught off guard that I thought I must have missed something.  Check out the actual transcript below. [...]

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As I’m sure you can imagine, the search term “background check” has skyrocketed on the internet due to the tidal wave of stories about toughening the checks associated with gun ownership.  For the last month, my Google alerts are filled with these stories every day even though they have nothing to do with employee background checks (someday Google will just know what I want).  Generally, I just ignore them and look for the next thing that peaks my interest.  Well, today I came across a Wall Street Journal article that exposed the criminal background checks that are used by gun shops for the Swiss cheese that they are.  See below.

Polls show that expanding background checks to cover all gun sales, not just those by licensed dealers, is one of the most popular measures being considered by the White House to curb gun violence. There’s one problem: The system President Barack Obama and many lawmakers hope to expand is full of holes. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which federally licensed firearm dealers must use to check the credentials of potential gun buyers, doesn’t include millions of people legally barred from owning guns, researchers and advocates say. Fourteen states list fewer than five people flagged for mental-health issues.

“Many states are still failing to do the bare minimum,” said Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which studied the matter in a 2011 report. “We know they have hundreds of thousands of records sitting in state agencies.”

If this is about gun ownership databases, why should we care?

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Background screening companies help employers identify and hire responsible, trustworthy employees. But how do you pull back the veil on sales and marketing claims to identify the best partner for you?

We don’t mean to scare you but your good intentions just aren’t enough. The truth is that your employment background check is only as good as your background screening provider. Having a poor partnership could mean finding yourself starring in a real-life hiring horror story. [...]

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Criminal records. Resume distortions. Social networking sites that reveal a little too much. You have front row seats to the most contentious issues shaping the screening and hiring industries, all under the ever-watchful eye of federal and state regulators as well as other government agencies. Every opinion matters-we want to hear from you!

Take the 4th Annual Trends Survey and share your insights on these and other pressing concerns facing human resource professionals in a new era of increased legislation and litigation. The survey will take just five minutes of your time and you will receive a free executive summary of the results for your participation! All participants will also be entered to win a new iPad Mini.

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I guess you can’t blame Huffington Post blogger Erin Steiner for her post entitled “5 Stories of Background Checks Gone Awry” where she highlights five individuals who were adversely affected by inaccurate background checks.  It’s time to acknowledge that we as background screening companies and employers have a perception problem.  The mainstream media continues to highlight instances of inaccurate background checks as they occur.  I think that’s fair.  It shouldn’t happen.

Background screeners have a responsibility to their clients and to their clients’ employees and job candidates to ensure maximum possible accuracy.  That means that they should confirm that the record belongs to the subject of the report before ever reporting the information.  Employers, hiring managers and human resources can’t walk away blameless either.  They have a responsibility to partner with suppliers that are committed to taking the necessary steps to ensure the results are reliable..

That begs the question of whether the perception fair?   [...]

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Happy New Year!  I hope you all had a happy, healthy and restful holiday season.  I know I did.  When I said I was going to unplug for a couple weeks, I guess I really meant it.  We went on a family vacation and while I was connected via email, I literally didn’t open my laptop once in 14 days.  I figured after over 200 posts in 2012, we could all use a little break from the daily employment background check conversation.

We’re back and as I promised 19 days ago, it was my resolution to not blog angry this year.  So far, so good (easy for me to say since I haven’t posted anything since).  Anywho, I thought it was time to post something today and test my resolve.

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Many college students have employment background checks on the brain.  At this point, they know that they will be conducted when they go to look for a job and hopefully are taking the proper steps to make sure there are no surprises.  The biggest area we’ve noticed is vigilance in paying attention to what they post on social media sites and to who is able to view it.  And as Blogging4Jobs points out in their recent post, “Are Credit Checks an Effective Pre-Employment Screening Technique”, those who will soon enter the workforce are also concerned about credit checks.

“Financial literacy is important for college students because it can affect your life post-graduation. Credit checks by employers are up 6% over last year to 21% according to a 2011 report byEmployeeScreenIQ. No longer can college students get away with bad debt while in college. In the real world there are more obstacles to jump through when applying for jobs. First, you must get the interview. [...]

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I have a confession to make.  I’ve looked back on all of my blog posts from this past year and I’ve noticed a disturbing trend: I’m angry.  Angry at the the EEOC for introducing new criminal background check guidelines which I believe are unclear and unfair to employers.  Angry at fellow background screening companies when they don’t do everything in their power to ensure accurate employee background checks and for giving those that are against what we do fodder to oppose us.  And angry at organizations that fail to perform proper due diligence on prospective employees, especially those working with children.  I suppose someone could have staged an intervention when I started using the photo above on some of my posts or added “Rants” as a blog category (which is what I’m categorizing this blog as).

Why am I so angry?   [...]

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