**Shirin Rastgoufard** joined employeescreenIQ as a Background Specialist in June. Shirin is a Master of Business Administration graduate of Ohio University. Shirin has consulting experience in multiple industries, both domestic and international.

**Courtney Wells** joined employeescreenIQ as a Background Specialist in April. Courtney earned a BS in Sports Management with a minor in Business from Robert Morris University.

**Rita Huffman** joined employeescreenIQ in May as a Background Specialist. Rita is a Junior at John Carroll University studying toward a degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology with a minor in Business.

**Cristina Oligeri** joined employeescreenIQ in May as a Background Specialist. Cristina is graduating in September 2004 from John Carroll University with a degree in Communications.

**Kathy Caputo** joined employeescreenIQ in July as a Background Specialist. Kathy has a BA in Communications from John Carroll University and previously worked as a Justice System Advocate for the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center.

**Katrina Cashman** has been promoted to Senior Account Executive. Katrina has been with employeescreenIQ since September 2000.

**John Mosnja** has been promoted to Research Team Leader. John has been with employeescreenIQ since October 2002.

**Leanne Hickey** has been promoted to Senior Background Specialist. Leanne has been with employeescreenIQ since September 2003.
]]> http://www.employeescreen.com/theverifier/the-verifier-issue-iv-august-2004/verifieriv_new_faces/feed/ 0 http://www.employeescreen.com/theverifier/the-verifier-issue-iv-august-2004/verifieriv_blotter/ http://www.employeescreen.com/theverifier/the-verifier-issue-iv-august-2004/verifieriv_blotter/#comments Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:47:47 +0000 admin http://3bdesigngroup.com/?p=1353 News from various sources

State: Care home failed to check workers

ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP – The personal care home where a handyman is accused of sexually assaulting a 79-year-old resident over the weekend was cited in December for violating state regulations regarding criminal background checks of employees, a state official said Monday. Owner Chester Niedzwiecki and his daughter, Deborah, who is director of the home, could not be reached for comment. A staff member at the facility declined comment last night as four residents sat in a darkened common room watching television. Employee Dwight Hill, 44, who lives at the home, was charged Saturday with indecent and simple assault and criminal attempt to commit involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. He is accused of assaulting a woman who has dementia and uses a wheelchair. Stacey Ward, spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Welfare, which licenses personal care homes, said an inspection showed that while Scenery Heights had done background checks on some employees, it also accepted outdated checks of several others.

Minnesota to Offer Online Criminal Histories…..

Minnesota next month will begin posting an adult criminal history database online, allowing anyone surfing the Internet — your boss, landlord or latest love interest — to access it for a $5 credit card charge. Adult gross misdemeanor and felony convictions will be part of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension’s (BCA) searchable database. In Minnesota, convictions are part of the public record for 15 years after a defendant completes his or her sentence and probation. Minnesota joins at least a dozen states, including Wisconsin and Washington, to sell the public Internet access to criminal rap sheets for fees ranging from a few bucks to $25 a search. States whose Web sites are already running are fielding hundreds of thousands of queries each year.

Keeping Closer Tabs on Cabbies

Although the City of Monterey revoked the permits of four cabbies—for failing to disclose criminal convictions when they were hired—each has found work in counties nearby. The revocations were spurred by the arrest of Monterey driver Raymond Richard Whitall on suspicion of committing several assaults last March. While the Whitall arrest led police and transportation officials to revisit how taxi drivers are licensed in an area where many people, particularly tourists and the elderly, rely on cabs to get around, the aftermath suggests there is still more work to be done. The region’s patchwork of overlapping jurisdictions is ripe for abuse.

Door-to-Door Magazine Solicitor Kills Woman; Background Checks Examined

In response to the murder of a Dover Township woman in early June, the New Jersey State Attorney General’s Office is investigating firms that have door-to-door solicitors working in the area without permission. Azriel R. Bridge of Chicago is being charged with murder, felony murder and robbery, for the stabbing death of Shirley Reuter, 77, after she let him into her home. Bridge, 18, is employed by Phoenix Imaging, an Indiana firm that hires solicitors who travel the country selling magazine subscriptions door to door. Phoenix Imaging, which contracts with American Community Services of Michigan City, Ind., had solicitors in the NJ area last week without required permits. Say Dover Twp. authorities: “We trust that both American Community Services and Phoenix Imaging will conduct appropriate background checks of their sales force and will not unload people in this state who are dangerous.”

Group Wants Criminal Checks on Repairmen

Sue Weaver didn’t expect a twice-convicted sex offender to walk through her front door after calling for an air conditioning repairman from a well-known company. The repairman—Douglas McClymont—cleaned Weaver’s air ducts in February 2001, then returned six months later to rape and kill the Orange County woman. A criminal background check on the killer would have revealed a past riddled with felony convictions.

Insurance Industry Suggests That Church Conduct Background Checks

The Mulberry Street Methodist Church in Mount Vernon, Ohio, this month enacted a new policy requiring anyone who works with a minor to have a full criminal background check. “Nothing has happened in our church, but we want to make sure nothing happens,” said Pastor Rod Buchanan. The church didn’t need to take this measure, but it was suggested by their local insurance company, Dumbaugh Insurance. “We didn’t get any pressure, but as a part of our study we contacted the insurance company and they were thrilled that we were going to do something like this,” said Buchanan, adding that the Methodist church hierarchy is also recommending, but not requiring, these types of safeguards.

Why does it sometimes take so long to receive information?

Unlike a criminal record search, where we have more control, we are at the mercy of that company’s human resources department. Because many firms do not have employees dedicated to just this process, returning information in a timely fashion often comes down to professional courtesy. At employeescreenIQ, we are an extension of your company and are cautiously persistent. If that company shut us off because we have become an irritant, it limits our ability to give you information to make a hiring decision. It also reflects poorly on your applicant if he or she is looking to leave on good terms. That said, we make every effort to reach the “right” person as quickly as possible, and finish most of our employment verifications within 48 hours.

Why do some companies not provide all the information we’re looking for?

Internal company policy sometimes precludes releasing more information than dates of employment and title held. While we obviously disagree with those companies, we make sure to highlight for you which pieces of information we could not obtain. Sometimes, companies do not keep track of certain things, such as reason for leaving or rehire eligibility.

When I order a criminal check, I do not have to send the release form to you. Why do I need to send it when I order employment verifications?

Because of the sensitive nature of this information, many companies require signed proof that the applicant has given them permission to release this information. Some companies will give out information over the phone without a signed release. Asking you to send it over regardless allows us to have it on file in case it is required and speeds up the completed search.

Why do I need to fax or enter online, my applicant’s employment history?

There is no database out there that knows all company names, phone numbers, addresses, supervisors, salary information, etc. on your candidate. The only way to verify employment information is to compare directly with that company, exactly what your applicant told you.

Why do you want to call my applicant directly?

There are a myriad of situations that can arise during the course of verification. Clarifying extenuating circumstances or receiving additional information directly from the candidate serves two purposes. First, it removes from you the burden of tracking him or her down with our question, getting the answer, calling us back, and starting over again if we have a follow-up question. Second, you have other things to do. We have a team of researchers that handle just employment verifications; giving us permission to contact your applicant directly takes advantage of our expertise and will result in a more comprehensive, timely verification.

Did you attend the Society for Human Resource Management’s 56th Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA from June 27-30? If so, hopefully you stopped by the employeescreenIQ booth to say hello and picked up one of our bright white or yellow employeescreenIQ shoulder bags!

Great food, music, and fun were plentiful in this vibrant city. Each day at the conference was fast-paced with subject-matter experts speaking on current topics, and workshop sessions available to apply new laws and processes to real world scenarios. Over 800 companies set up shop in the Exhibit Hall to network with current and prospective customers.

At the employeescreenIQ booth, we welcomed many familiar faces and enjoyed the opportunity to discuss various aspects of employment screening with HR professionals from numerous industries. A steadily recurring topic of conversation, independent of the industry represented, was the expectation that hiring numbers were going to be increasing in the coming months. Many hiring managers commented on having done little or no hiring over the previous few years. Several indicated a coming shift from job- and cost-cutting to expanding again. The positive outlook meant the BIS booth was a busy place. As hiring processes are dusted off and employers look to bring screening processes up to date, the focus of many conversations was understanding what constitutes a reasonable and thorough background check in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

Legal compliance and the desire to identify the most qualified candidates were two main concerns. The fact that recent history for most companies involved significant budget-cuts and lay-offs means the demands on each individual have increased to unprecedented levels of productivity. Less time to devote to due diligence in hiring, coupled with increasing litigation risk resulting from workplace violence or unfair hiring practices means more and more companies are turning to screening professionals for help. Evidence of this is The SHRM 2004 Human Resource Outsourcing Report, which notes that background checks are the single most outsourced HR activity, with 73% of companies outsourcing this function at least partially, and 49% outsourcing it completely.

There were many employment screening vendors exhibiting at the conference. Another frequently asked question was “what is the difference between a hand-search of county courthouse records and the instant online checks available for a lower price?” This is the question every hiring manager should ask, and a valid question regardless of the state of the economy. The answer is that you simply cannot expect the same quality of information for a couple of dollars. Database technology is the shortcut, and quality and human oversight are sacrificed. The database checks are fast, but they do not comprehensively cover the territory they boast, and updates from counties that do provide records may occur once or twice per year. In the IT field, database managers refer to this type of data using the pseudo-technical term GIGO – Garbage-In / Garbage-Out. A hand-search of county courthouse records guarantees complete, accurate, and real-time information. For perspective, this type of information cannot be obtained for $10, but in most cases can be obtained for less than one day’s pay of the position being filled, and can be obtained in most cases in less than 72 hours.

The topic of using actual vs. stored data also provided a natural opportunity to discuss the results of a recent research project conducted in-house at employeescreenIQ, testing one of the largest national databases with current criminal records obtained from county courthouses nationwide. Going directly to the source, county courthouses, assures that information obtained is current and FCRA-compliant. Please don’t miss Kevin Bachman’s write-up of employeescreenIQ research results elsewhere in this issue.

We hope you found the 2004 SHRM Annual Conference to be as informative and enjoyable as we did. If you were not able to attend this great event in New Orleans, we hope to see you next year in San Diego!

Many of us remember a time in our past, when taking a short cut to pass an important test, cheating, was easier than giving a solid effort. Often times, it worked. Therefore, it’s no wonder that there are many people in today’s workforce that take the same approach to Substance Abuse Screening. However, unlike a pop quiz, this is one test you just can’t cheat. Common attempts to mask drug tests include diluting the urine sample, ingesting a masking agent or using another person’s urine. These attempts are easily detected and tell-tale signs that a person might have a problem.

Substance abuse in the workplace is crippling businesses across the country. It costs US employers billions of dollars each year. According to the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, “Over 70% of all illicit drug users are employed. Small and medium-sized firms employ 80% of the U.S. workforce where drug testing policies & programs aren’t in place. Absenteeism, increased health care costs and decreased productivity due to alcohol and other substance abuse cost your company $1,000 per employee per year.” Whether substance abuse leads to an increase in employee sick days or decrease in productivity, it is becoming a national epidemic. Even worse and often times more expensive for US businesses, is the escalation of incidents in the workplace where employees or customers are being harmed by incidents involving those under the influence of drugs and, or alcohol. In instances such as these, the employer is as much at fault as the employee and usually is held liable.

Given these facts, more and more businesses are looking to stack the odds in their favor when hiring employees and throughout the normal course of business. Substance Abuse screening is on the rise and as mentioned earlier, the opportunities to cheat the test are rapidly declining. For instance, urine temperature is taken at the time of collection. A specimen that was brought in would be colder than a specimen taken on site. Masking agents are easily identified because they leave behind easily detectable clues in the specimen. Lastly, diluted samples are also easy to spot because they have a lower concentration of bodily chemicals.

The most common form of testing is by collecting a urine sample. The urine is then tested for the most commonly used substances and results are usually made available within 72 hours. While testing a perspective employee before extending an offer is common, so too are tests that are randomly conducted throughout the year. Employers are also taking a proactive stance to workplace accidents by testing employees for substances at the time of the incident.

employeescreenIQ has recently partnered with North Carolina-based LabCorp, a national substance abuse screener with more than 1000 testing facilities throughout the country, to provide this vital service to our clients.

It sounds too good to be true. An instant “nationwide” criminal history check for less than $10? Countywide felony and misdemeanor searches take longer. A criminal court researcher physically walks into a courthouse, and we never know at the beginning of a search what they will find at the end of it. “National Database” searches are instant. They cover a larger geographic area and can be less expensive. They are also less accurate, cover only select parts of the country, provide unclear and inconsistent criminal record information, and offer few means to obtain additional details if needed.

employeescreenIQ recently tested a well respected “National Database” that houses millions of criminal records on prospective employees all across the county. As we continually look to identify and embrace best practices throughout the industry, evaluating this proposed method as a supplement to a standard background check was the necessary due diligence our clients have come to expect. It was our hope that we could find a database that we could use with confidence for our clients who were looking for “vacation criminals” and wanted a little extra security on their reports. We came away very disappointed.

Now, we did not pick a random database to search. employeescreenIQ selected a database that has a broad coverage area nationwide. But because there is no big computer with every countywide or federal court criminal record available, a “National Database,” in the truest sense of the word, is nothing more than a consortium of local county clerk’s offices, state penitentiary offices, etc., that have agreed to share their records. We chose the database that had the most “shared” records.

For starters, employeescreenIQ randomly selected 651 known criminal hits from actual county-level court research just to find 200 that could even be searched by this database. Put another way, this “National Database,” chosen specifically because it was among the largest, only covered about 30% of the country. Most records in Illinois, Ohio, New York, California, Missouri, Texas, Maryland, Massachusetts and Michigan are not available. Thus, two out of every three records found by walking into the courthouse would never be found using this database because the information was not “shared.”

For the 200 known criminal hits that were in searchable areas, more than 35% were missed completely, and the records were significant. Assault. Sex Abuse of a Child. Forgery. Kidnapping. Aggravated Drug Trafficking. Breaking and Entering. Making matters worse, 50% of the known criminal hits that actually were found contained incomplete or inconsistent information when compared to what our researcher found on site at that courthouse.

Even more discouraging is the lapse in time between when a court files records on site and when they are shared with this “National Database.” While we are confident our court researcher will obtain records within 48 hours of the case being adjudicated, many of these same courts only share records with the “National Database” on a weekly, monthly, or even bi-annual basis. Much of the appeal of conducting an onsite hand search is knowing that the most current information will be found.

employeescreenIQ truly cares about the well being and physical safety of our clients and their employees. Because of this commitment, we cannot in good faith offer a “National Database” search as a stand-alone product. We can offer this as an extra tool, but only when countywide felony and misdemeanor searches are performed. In addition, we will follow up with a county level felony and misdemeanor check on any possible hits found using a database. We believe this is the best way to make a hiring decision using the most accurate and updated information possible while maintaining full compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Remember the innocence of childhood? The world was simple, with clear divisions between good and evil. Behavior was influenced by the perceived rewards and threats of imaginary beings such as Santa Claus or the Boogie Man. When we reached school age and crossed the line of acceptable behavior we were quickly introduced to the concept of the “Permanent Record,” which would have all sorts of implications on the rest of our lives if we weren’t diligent caretakers of it. At varying points in our maturation, we all learned that there were logical, scientific explanations for most of these fantastic imaginary childhood notions.

With the advent of technology and the Internet, the concept of the “Permanent Record” has been reborn among adults, based primarily on the existence of many low-cost, instant background checks. A quick visit to any online search engine will reveal dozens of background check vendors advertising “proprietary databases” filled with “millions of criminal records” covering “statewide” or “nationwide” territories with “instant results” and $10.00 price tags.

In reality, there is no national database of “Permanent Records” which can be checked to “clear” a person of previous criminal activity. There is no inclusive list of all citizens where one could look to see if the “Permanent Record” of an individual remains unblemished, giving that person the “thumbs-up” for hiring. The primary source of criminal history information is the county courthouse, and the county courthouse only keeps records on those who have violated the law within its jurisdiction. When someone breaks the law and gets caught, they are typically arrested, prosecuted, and convicted or dismissed according to the laws and procedures of one of over 10,000 courts spread among over 3,500 counties across the country.

With this many local sources of criminal records, it would be extremely challenging to assemble a comprehensive statewide or national database containing current records of every arrest, conviction, disposition, and expungement within its defined territory. Even state-sponsored criminal history repositories lack the authority to mandate that every county within their jurisdiction report to them, or to regulate the timeliness of updates for those counties that do. To think a private company’s “proprietary database” could assemble better information is dubious at best.

Making sense of a sea of records

Think of a beach, just a small one, with each grain of sand representing a criminal arrest, conviction, disposition, or expungement, and each area of the beach representing a different area of the country. If I walk around that beach and collect random scoops of sand from several different areas, I now have a repository representing records from all areas of the beach, or, the country. I can call this a nationwide repository, and the less effort I put into updating it, the less I can charge for access to information within it. However, there are many, many records from around the beach that I do not have, from all areas, and I cannot even be sure that for any given arrest record that I also have the corresponding conviction record, which may have been plead down or dismissed. There are two significant risks with this repository:

1) You hire an applicant with a “clean” record based on a statewide or nationwide criminal history check. That employee then assaults a customer or co-worker, and a history of assault exists in a former county of residence, where records were not updated to the statewide repository. Your company could be held liable for not having conducted a reasonable, Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)-compliant criminal background check.

2) You deny employment to an applicant based on an arrest record reported by a statewide or nationwide criminal history check. The original charge has been plead down or the entire record has been expunged at the county level. The applicant could hold your company liable for not using FCRA-compliant information.

How then, do you conduct an efficient, FCRA-compliant criminal background check on a prospective employee? There is no feasible or cost-effective way to physically check every county courthouse within a state, or certainly nationwide. It would also defeat the purpose to rely solely on the applicant’s word to check only those courthouses where your applicant states he/she has lived. The best way to conduct a comprehensive, FCRA-compliant criminal history check is to obtain a 7-10 year address history through a Social Security Number Trace, and use that to identify counties the applicant has lived, worked, or gone to school in to check for criminal history at the local county level. This ensures that any record obtained is current and FCRA-compliant, and provides additional identifiers to ensure you are not pinning the rap on the wrong person based solely on a name match (which could also invite employment litigation). Statewide repositories should only be used in addition to a SSN/County search, and with a clear understanding of their limitations.

If you are subscribing to the myth that the “Permanent Record” exists by conducting statewide or nationwide database searches as your sole criminal history check on your applicants, remember: He’s making a list, and checking it twice…