Best Employee Screening Articles For October & November 2009
December 2, 2009
In case you missed any of our employee screening articles for October and November, here’s a quick recap of our most popular:
- Florida Lawmakers Pledge Changes To Their Background Screening Program
- Sex Offender Safety Tips
- No Background Check? No Problem - Cracking Down On The Gun Show Loophole
- How A Woman Falsified Her Nursing Credentials For 18 Years
- University Removes New-Hire DNA Testing From It’s Background Check Policy
- Genes and Jobs: Can Employers Use Your DNA For A Background Check?
- 100% Of Companies Will Be Using Social Networks As Part Of Their Employee Screening Program By 2012
- How To Protect Your Company When Googling Job Applicants
Smart, Compliant Hiring Decisions Made Easy
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Genes and Jobs: Can Employers Use Your DNA For A Background Check?
November 18, 2009
Not anymore
Psychology Today has an excellent article on this subject titled “Genes and Jobs.”
The Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (GINA) comes into full effect this Saturday, November 21st.
Employers need to take note, and employees should be aware of their rights
Congress passed GINA almost unanimously, and President Bush signed it on May 21, 2008. Described by the late Senator Ted Kennedy as “the first civil rights bill of the new century of the life sciences,”
GINA protects individuals from genetic information discrimination in health insurance and employment
Even some well-informed commentators seem to have missed this landmark piece of legislation. So have some employers. The University of Akron (UA), for example, adopted a policy as recently as August that could require any candidate for employment to submit a DNA sample.
Read more about Genes and Jobs.
The Coalition for Genetic Fairness also gives the following guidelines for employers on how to comply with The Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (GINA).
GINA outlines the following activities as unlawful employment practices and discriminatory on the basis of genetic information:
- The use of genetic information in making decisions regarding hiring, promotion, terms or conditions, privileges of employment, compensation, or termination.
- Limiting, segregating, or classifying an employee, or depriving that employee of employment opportunities, on the basis of genetic information.
- The request, requirement, or purchase of genetic information of the individual or a family member of the individual except in rare cases, as outlined in the drop-down section below.
- The use of genetic information in making decisions regarding admission to or employment in any program for apprenticeship or training and retraining, including on-the-job training.
Furthermore, employers should be aware that it is unlawful for an employment agency, labor organization, or training program to fail or refuse to refer an individual for employment on the basis of genetic information, nor may the agency or labor organization attempt to cause an employer to discriminate against an individual on the basis of genetic information.
Related Post From FYI Screening:
The $50,000 Background Check
November 13, 2009
That’s one expensive background check…
The Los Angeles Times reports Sarah Palin says the McCain campaign billed her $50,000 for her background check.
Read the story here.
Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sskennel/ / CC BY 2.0
Kindergarten Teacher With A Criminal Record Teaches For 5 Years
November 6, 2009
Source: wsmv.com
On October 20, 2009, while on her lunch break, a Tennessee kindergarten teacher was cited for shoplifting $62 worth of wrinkle cream from Walmart. This past summer the teacher was convicted of stealing steaks from a Kroger. She has three DUIs and a citation for driving on a suspended license for excessive speeding tickets. She also has five aliases and she’s been teaching young children for the past five years.
As of November 5, 2009 she was still in the classroom teaching. Watch the video.
What’s wrong here?
The state only requires a background check at the time of hire.
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.
For more information please read:
How A Woman Falsified Her Nursing Credentials For 18 Years
November 4, 2009
This is a fascinating and also sad story of how a woman stole, lied and cheated her way through life.
Source: TheTelegraph.com
For years, she kept ahead of her lies, moving from state to state with false credentials that showed her to be a nurse. This week, the law caught up with Catherine Marie Connor.
The Grafton woman was sentenced Wednesday to a year and a day in federal prison in a wire fraud case in which she followed a trail of deceit to secure a nursing license and nursing or related jobs in multiple states.
Connor, 55, was sentenced this week in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
She pleaded guilty in July for a case that developed over a period of years, beginning in 1991 and ending in March 2009, court records state, during which time she made some $625,013.07.
A crucial element of the case was the woman’s background, dating to 1984 when, as Catherine Smith living in Virginia, she was sentenced to a two-year term on two felony counts of credit card theft and two felony counts of forgery, the indictment states.
Read more on How A Woman Falsified Her Nursing Credentials For 18 Years
Related Posts From FYI Screening:
- 3 Critical Reasons To Screen Health Care Employees
- 4 Ways That Employee Screening Boosts Employers’ ROI
- 4 Tips on How to Avoid Negligent Hiring Lawsuits
- More Background Checks
Photo credit: gbaku
No Background Check? No Problem - Cracking Down On The Gun Show Loophole
November 2, 2009
The man in the baseball-type cap was clear about his task. He was selling weapons at a gun show in Sharonville, Ohio. And he wasn’t troubled about the minutiae of the law.
“I don’t need your address,” he said, shaking his head and waving a dismissive hand across his face. “Nothing.”
“No background check?” asks a skeptical potential buyer.
“Just show me that you’re from Ohio,” the seller said.
The buyer sounded relieved. “That’s good about the background check,” he said, “because I probably couldn’t pass one.”
“I don’t care,” the seller said. Then, with a chuckle and a toothy smile, he added, “because I wouldn’t pass either, bud.”
Undercover investigators for the New York City mayor’s office secretly filmed this transaction earlier this year as part of a seven-city and three-state study on how easy it is for people who can’t pass a background check to get a gun. Just attend one of the thousands of local guns shows held every weekend across America. Odds are that if the money is green, the dealer will sell a gun. In most cases, no questions are asked.
Read the rest of the story here.
Best Employee Screening Articles For August & September 2009
October 1, 2009
In case you missed any of our employee screening articles for August and September, here’s a quick recap of our most popular:
- Recruiters Are Checking You Out On Facebook
- Top 10 Articles On Employee Screening
- The Secret of Successful Hiring
- Truth and Lies On Resumes
- More Background Checks
- Sex Offenders In Ohio
- Florida’s Flawed Background Screening System
- The Pros & Cons of Googling Candidates
Smart, Compliant Hiring Decisions Made Easy
FYI Screening, Inc. is a leading provider of on-demand, easy to use employee screening solutions.
- Subscribe to our blog to stay informed
- Follow on Twitter
- Connect on LinkedIn
Photo credit: net_efekt
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.
Related Posts From FYI Screening:
- 4 Common Lies Told By Job Candidates
- Can You Tell If Your Applicant Is Lying?
- Resume Fraud May Increase As The Economy Worsens
Dangers Of Using Social Networks On The Job Hunt In Australia
July 22, 2009
NEWS.com.au (Australia) reports about the Dangers of using social networks on the job hunt.
Employers using social networks to gather information on job candidates could be breaking the law.
Social networks have become hot recruitment tools but Harmers Workplace Lawyers warn that using such sources to gather personal information to screen would-be employees carries a number of legal risks.
Harmers senior associate Bronwyn Maynard says many employers and recruiters are not aware of their obligations under the existing Privacy Act let alone the “General Protections” section of the Fair Work Act that came into force on July 1, 2009.
Under the Privacy Act employers and recruiters must:
- Inform a candidate that they have collected personal information about them.
- Explain the purpose of gathering the information.
- Tell the candidate who else will see the information.
Luckily for recruiters and hiring managers, most candidates don’t realise that under privacy legislation they are entitled to see notes made about them during the recruitment screening process.
“The Privacy Act also dictates that companies must only collect personal information that is necessary for their business,” explains Ms Maynard.
Candidates can apply directly to employers and recruitment consultants to see the notes made and information gathered about them during a recruitment campaign. A candidate can request that inaccurate information be corrected. If the candidate considers the information irrelevant he or she can then make a complaint to the Privacy Commissioner.
Ms Maynard said while there is no set timeframe, to expect a reply within 30 days would be a reasonable.
Read more about the Dangers of using social networks on the job hunt.
Related Posts From FYI Screening:
Photo Credit: Hexadecimal Time
The Importance Of Accurate Background Checks
July 14, 2009
Last week I reported how a Post-Hire Background Check could have prevented a terrible crime.
On the front page of this morning’s Dispatch I read…
Rape suspect got 2nd job because of faulty vetting
Weapons charges should have disqualified caregiver
It looks like this suspect was able to get a second job with Goodwill Columbus because of two errors with his background check:
- Goodwill ran a background check through the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation (BCI) which incorrectly showed a weapons charges against him had been dismissed. Actually, the suspect pleaded guilty in Franklin County Common Pleas Court to reduced misdemeanor charges of carrying a concealed weapon and improper handling of a firearm in 2008 — convictions considered to be disqualifying offenses for working among people with developmental disabilities.That information was not on the BCI report, said Margie Pizzuti, president of Goodwill Columbus.
- Goodwill ran an additional background check through an online records-search service (I don’t know which company), but that report was confusing and Goodwill staff members apparently did not see that Quintero had been convicted, Pizzuti said.”This instructs us to be even more vigilant in finding out what’s in these reports and making sure we understand them,” she said. “If we had seen that and understood clearly, it probably would have been at least a red flag.”
Read the article here.
CONCLUSION
- A manual on-site search at the county courthouse by an experienced researcher is often the most accurate, and up-to-date criminal search available. Goodwill ran a BCI check which is the authorized central repository for all felony records for the state of Ohio. The bureau relies on police departments, sheriff’s offices, and courts of record to submit arrest and court conviction data to the bureau for record updates. The bureau did not have the most current information in this case.
- Your background screening provider needs to provide you with an easy to read report so there is absolutely no question about the status of the person being screened.
FYI Screening, Inc. is a leading global provider of employee screening solutions to corporations, government agencies, healthcare systems and educational institutions.
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