Making Informed Decisions - What’s Hot in Background Screening News
April 4, 2012
Welcome to our monthly edition of “What’s hot in employee background screening news”. If you want to become smarter about background screening, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some of the interesting items that caught our attention last month.
Match.com, eHarmony, Other Dating Sites To Screen For Sex Offenders
It’s been almost two years since women’s safety advocates began pushing online dating sites to begin screening their customers against available info for registered sex offenders. Yesterday, the operators of a handful of the most popular dating sites signed an agreement to do their best with the information they have access to.
Social Media Background Checks - Risky Business
Companies are using social media as part of their recruiting, candidate selection process, and everyday business operations. With more than 88 billion Google searches conducted monthly, chances are that your HR team, recruiters, or managers are searching the interwebs as part of the candidate sourcing and vetting process. You or members of your team search Twitter, build lists, make friends, and fill positions.
What Employers Are Thinking When They Look At Your Facebook Page
Like it or not, Facebook and other sites like it are becoming the digital proxies for our real world selves. Our profiles on Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, et. al. reflect our likes, dislikes, personalities, and best photo angles, and are likely more useful to employers in seeing what we might be like to work with than a short interview. If you don’t want employers (and love interests) to come snooping on your page to get a sense of who you are, set your privacy settings high; limit your content to “friends only.”
How to Build a Safer, More Dependable Workforce Using Background Checks [Infographic]
What Are Your Chances of Becoming a Crime Statistic?
Employee Theft: What Are People Stealing on the Job?
Workplace theft – from stealing merchandise to customer lists to money from the corporate safe – is serious business, exacting significant costs on companies, fellow employees and customers alike.
So what are employees stealing on the job?
When it Comes to Employment Screenings, Nobody Wants to Get it Wrong
Retailers have the legal requirement and moral responsibility to protect their consumers. End of story. But revised guidelines being contemplated by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission could suggest that pre-employment background screenings be severely restricted or not even part of the application process.
What Employers Need to Know About Conducting Criminal Background Checks in Massachusetts
Effective May 4, 2012, the Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) Reform Act (the Act), which was enacted in August 2010 with the controversial “ban the box” legislation, will significantly change the way employers access, use, and maintain information obtained through the Commonwealth’s CORI system. The Act will allow all employers access to a new online records system, but also imposes obligations on employers that acquire criminal history information from private sources, such as consumer reporting agencies (background report vendors such as FYI Screening). Employers should review their hiring and background check policies now to determine whether any updates are necessary.
How To Detect a Lie [video]
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What Employers Need to Know About Conducting Criminal Background Checks in Massachusetts
March 19, 2012
Littler Mendelson, the nation’s largest employment and labor law firm, has an important update for Massachusetts employers conducting background checks:
Massachusetts Employers Face New Obligations When Conducting Background Checks Involving Criminal History Records
Effective May 4, 2012, the Massachusetts Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) Reform Act (the Act), which was enacted in August 2010 with the controversial “ban the box” legislation, will significantly change the way employers access, use, and maintain information obtained through the Commonwealth’s CORI system. The Act will allow all employers access to a new online records system, but also imposes obligations on employers that acquire criminal history information from private sources, such as consumer reporting agencies (background report vendors such as FYI Screening). Employers should review their hiring and background check policies now to determine whether any updates are necessary.
Related article:
2010 CORI Reform Explained: How the law is changing, and when. (pdf)
Photo credit: Zoom Zoom
How to Build a Safer, More Dependable Workforce Using Background Checks [Infographic]
March 7, 2012
Employers Beware - What’s Hot in Background Screening News
March 2, 2012
Welcome to our monthly edition of “What’s hot in employee background screening news”. If you want to become smarter about background screening, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some of the news items that caught our attention last month.
FTC Warns Marketers That Mobile Apps May Violate FCRA
The Federal Trade Commission warned marketers of six mobile applications that provide background screening apps that they may be violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The FTC warned the apps marketers that, if they have reason to believe the background reports they provide are being used for employment screening, housing, credit, or other similar purposes, they must comply with the Act.
The Domino’s Effect: How Following the Letter of the FCRA Could Save your Business from a Litigation Chain Reaction
The recent decision of Singleton v. Domino’s Pizza highlights the danger for employers of not complying with the letter of the FCRA. Several delivery drivers filed a putative class action against Domino’s in federal court in Maryland. The case presented a number of issues, including whether Domino’s disclosure form complied with the FCRA despite also including a liability release.
Pepsi and Criminal Background Checks: Beyond the Buzz
Some of you may have heard in the news that Pepsi Beverages recently agreed to pay $3.1 million to settle a racial discrimination case brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) involving criminal background checks. It seems Pepsi used criminal background checks to screen out not only job applicants with criminal convictions, but also those arrested for or convicted of minor offenses. What does this case mean for employers? Do you conduct criminal background checks on your job applicants? Judging from the buzz in the media, the subject of criminal background checks for job applicants is a real hot button! Employers who do not screen candidates are vulnerable to negligent hiring suits if the employee either steals from the company or commits some other type of crime— especially if pre-employment screening could have prevented the situation.
Ohio Tries to Ease Job Hunts of Ex-Cons
Gov. John Kasich’s administration is working with private organizations to help knock down barriers created for past offenders by 800 sanctions attached to scores of laws. The state still will conduct criminal-background checks on job applicants, but only after initial screening based on qualifications.
Behind the Mask: How to Effectively Evaluate a Candidate Before Interviewing
Have you ever been surprised to find out that you were completely wrong about someone you thought you knew? This can happen in the workplace too, but with bigger consequences. Sometimes a great new hire doesn’t turn out to be the shining star they appeared to be during the interview process. There are some important factors to consider when making major hiring decisions that can help you avoid hiring a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The bottom line of the information you’re about to read is this: Get to know your hires as well as possible before you make them an offer and definitely before they show up to work and begin to display their true colors!
Colorado Trying to Limit Use of Credit Checks in Employment
Colorado Senators gave initial approval to a measure restricting employers from using consumer credit information against job applicants unless the job they’re applying for is in the financial or security sectors.
Illinois Online Dating Crackdown: Criminal Background Checks Could Be Coming To State Sites
Anyone who has ever joined an online dating site can probably speak about the risks: the creepy messages, bad dates and failed relationships. But Illinois lawmakers believe there is more than just emotional danger lurking online, and could muscle dating sites into requiring criminal background checks.
Photo Credit: twicepix
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Does Your Background Screening Program Need A Check-Up? - What’s Hot in Background Screening News
February 2, 2012
Welcome to our monthly edition of “What’s hot in employee background screening news”. If you want to become smarter about background screening, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some of the news items that caught our attention last month.
Pre-Employment Criminal Background Checks: Learning from Pepsi’s $3.13 Million Mistake
Pepsi has agreed to pay $3.13 million and provide job offers and training to resolve a charge of race discrimination filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Based on the investigation, the EEOC found reasonable cause to believe that the criminal background check policy formerly used by Pepsi discriminated against African Americans in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Screening Your Background Screener
The employee screening environment is rapidly evolving, making it hard for businesses to keep up. That’s just one reason why businesses are either outsourcing background checks to a partner or are not conducting screenings at all.
For those not conducting pre-employment screening, the case for reconsidering is air tight. If you’re working with an expert partner, it’s important to stay on top of the changing nature of background checks to be sure you’re working with the best partner for your business.
5 Reasons Why Criminal Background Checks Are a Perfect Storm for a Lawsuit
Criminal background checks of job applicants seems to have reached a tipping point as a topic in employment-law circles. So, what are the key components leading to this perfect storm of EEO laws and how can an employer avoid the perfect storm?
Former Domino’s Pizza Employees Allowed to Proceed with Class Action Against Company for Background Check Violations
On January 25, 2012, United States District Court Judge Deborah K. Chasanow denied Defendant Domino’s Pizza’s Motion to Dismiss in Singleton, et al., v. Domino’s Pizza, LLC, 8:11-cv-01823-DKC (D. Md.).
In a lengthy opinion, the Court ruled that the plaintiffs properly alleged that Domino’s violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by (1) running background checks on employees without proper authorization; and (2) “systematically” failing to provide employees with copies of their background checks prior to taking adverse employment action against them.
Following Deadly Stabbing, Restaurant Could Face Penalty For Hiring A Felon
The killing of a south Charlotte store manager – allegedly by a felon hired to work there – highlights the risks companies take when they hire an employee with a criminal record, or don’t do a full background check on applicants.
No Background Check Done: Bookkeeper Accused of Stealing $1 Million From Archdiocese
When a church worker was hired by the archdiocese in June 2003, it did not perform criminal background checks on prospective employees, as it does now. Church officials were unaware until recently that the bookkeeper had been previously convicted of grand larceny in one case and had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor in another.
Social Media Background Checks : Off-duty Conduct Laws :: Oil : Water
One report suggests that as many as 91% of employers use social networking sites to screen potential employees, with as many as 69% of employers rejecting a candidate because of information discovered on a social site.
Jon Hyman, from Ohio Employer’s Law Blog, has written about some of the risks employers face when conducting background checks on employees via Facebook or other social media sites.
He gives us one more risk to consider: off-duty conduct laws.
29 states have laws that prohibit employers from taking an adverse action against an employee based on their lawful off-duty activities.
Photo credit: JelleS
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