The Pros & Cons of Googling Candidates
September 28, 2009
Kris Dunn, an outspoken HR Pro who blogs over at the hrcapitalist.com offers his take on using social media for employee screening.
Googling Candidates: The Trenches Say You Can’t Afford NOT To….
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Florida’s Flawed Background Screening System
September 28, 2009
Is your loved one in the care of a convicted felon? A six-month investigation by the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel into Florida’s background screening system found disturbing flaws that allow those with criminal records - offenses include child abuse, assault and murder - to work in day care centers, assisted living facilities and homes for the elderly and disabled. Employees are routinely hired before background checks are made. Even when criminal offenses are discovered, caregivers can still work with little more than a promise not to break the law again. Children and defenseless adults have been harmed and exploited while in the care of people with criminal pasts, their trust betrayed by a system that fails to protect them.
Source: South Florida Sun Sentinel and Orlando Sentinel
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Chris Miller is known for his expertise in employee screening and background investigations. His company, FYI Screening, Inc. helps employers improve the efficiency of their employee screening programs, minimize risk and hire smarter. He’s a licensed Private Investigator with over 30 years of experience in employment screening, retail loss prevention, corporate security and background investigations. For more information call 1-800-809-2419 or visit us online at fyiscreening.com.
Sex Offenders In Ohio
September 25, 2009
Congratulations to Ohio for being the first state in the country to reach “substantial implementation” of the provisions of a federal law cracking down on sex offenders (FYI Screening, Inc. is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.)
The state is largely in compliance with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, which is part of the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, according to Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006.
The legislation organizes sex offenders into three tiers:
- Tier 3 offenders (the most serious tier) must update their whereabouts every three months with lifetime registration requirements.
- Tier 2 offenders must update their whereabouts every six months with 25 years of registration
- Tier 1 offenders (which includes minors as young as 14 years of age) must update their whereabouts every year with 15 years of registration.
Failure to register and update information is a felony under the law. It also created a national sex offender registry and instructs each state and territory to apply identical criteria for posting offender data on the Internet (i.e., offender’s name, address, date of birth, place of employment, photograph, etc.)
States, tribes and territories must “substantially implement” the sex-offender law by July 26, 2010, or face a 10 percent reduction in federal Byrne Justice Assistance Grant funding.
Source: The Columbus Dispatch
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- Sex Offenders and Halloween Safety Tips
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More Background Checks
September 25, 2009
It’s not everyday that I see a headline like this in our local newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch.
Last night the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities voted to require background checks every three years on all their employees. Previously, background checks were conducted upon hiring and the county relied on the honor system for employees to report any offense after that.
This is a good reminder that your organization should have a Post-Hire Screening Program in place.
A Post-Hire Screening Program (also called recurring screening) is considered a best practice for employers. It ensures a safe workplace and helps reduce the risk of a negligent retention lawsuit. Conducting checks on all new hires is essential. Keep in mind, that a lot can happen in the years after a new hire comes aboard. Companies should consider protecting themselves with periodic post-hire criminal checks and drug screening.
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Judge Rejects Bid to Delay E-Verify Mandate
September 8, 2009
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Agencies across the federal government Tuesday will start ordering contractors to use an electronic immigration system to verify the legal status of their roughly 3.8 million workers, barring an emergency stay from a federal appeals court in Virginia.
The sweeping new mandate, crafted by the Bush White House but being implemented by the Obama administration, represents a significant expansion for the so-called E-Verify system, which government officials and independent experts expect to become mandatory for all private employers nationwide in the future.
About 169,000 federal contractors and subcontractors will eventually be covered by the program taking effect Tuesday.
U.S. District Court Judge Alexander Williams, Jr., of Maryland, rejected an 11th-hour-effort late Friday by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups to delay the mandate while a federal appeal is pending.
The rest of the story is here.
Read Porter Wright’s Employer Law Report - E-Verify: What Does This Mean For My Company?
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Truth and Lies On Resumes
September 3, 2009
Katie Couric reports on Andrea Stanfield, a woman who not only lied on her resume and was making over $100,000, she wrote a book about it, called “Phony! How I Faked My Way Through Life.”
“When we started working on a story about resume fraud and whether more people were lying on their resumes now because the job market is so tight, our biggest challenge was finding someone who would admit he or she lied on their resume. No easy task.
Andrea Stanfield said it’s not like she sat down and formulated a plan to lie. Locked in a battle for custody of her young daughter, she was desperate for a well-paying job but every position said “bachelor’s degree required, bachelor’s degree required,” she repeated during an interview outside her St. Petersburg, Florida home. So the Ohio native added “B.A. Business Administration/Akron University” to her resume when she only had a high school diploma. The college is actually called the University of Akron.
Ultimately, when her boss was accused of embezzling millions from the company and an investigation was likely, she quit because she feared she might get caught and could no longer handle living the lie. Her husband at the time was shocked by the revelation, she says, and their marriage, this her second, quickly came to an end. ”
A simple background check could have prevented all this.
Andrea has plenty of advice for anyone who might consider lying to get a job in the tight labor market: “Don’t do it.”
Read the entire story “Faking Your Resume” here.
