2008 Best Employee Screening Posts

Sex Offenders and Halloween Safety Tips

October 28, 2008 By Chris Miller

This morning I received the following Updated Sex Offender Notification via email alert from the Franklin County Sheriff’s office:

You have registered the following address to be monitored for the presence of registered offenders in your area. Our records indicate that the offender (s) shown below have registered a home address within the indicated distance of your address. This email serves as your alert to be aware of the presence of the noted offenders.

It turns out I’ve got a Tier II Sex Offender, that was convicted of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, living within 1 mile of my house. What’s even scarier…according to Watch Systems, which developed an offender management and community notification tool, “80 – 90% of citizens have a registered sex offender living within a one mile radius of their home, children’s school, or place of work.”

Do you know who the sex offenders are in your area?

I did some research and found quite a bit of useful information on sex offenders. Normally I write about sex offenders in the workplace, but I wanted to share these Halloween Safety Tips from SheriffAlerts.com:

“Halloween can be great fun for our kids, but unfortunately there are people out there who may harm them. Being prepared is the first step in assuring all goes well. Make a plan for the night and talk to your kids about how to stay safe. You can make the difference.”

To keep kids SAFE during Halloween follow these simple rules:

BE AWARE of sex offenders in your area. Use your state sex offender registry or the National Sex Offender Registry. Register for automatic email alerts if available.
NEVER let children trick or treat alone
ONLY trick-or-treat if houses are well lit
NEVER let kids enter homes without parent’s permission

I’ll post more on sex offenders later this week.

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Background Checks For The Education Industry

October 27, 2008 By Chris Miller

One of tragic ironies of the education industry is that it often fails to properly screen teachers. For example, a study conducted in 2007 found that most Illinois teachers who were hired prior to 2004 were exempt from FBI background checks. These educators have a dangerous level of exposure to children. Consider that many of them could easily hide a criminal past.

Chilling Examples

Newspapers are filled with hundreds of cases in which educators are hired, but are unsuitable to have exposure to children. For example, a high school teacher named Jaime Katheryn Steen was recently jailed for distributing pornographic pictures to her students. George Tolbert, convicted of sexually abusing 2 children, served 4 years in jail, only to earn his teaching credentials and teach for 10 years. Chassappasi Rain, convicted of shooting 2 people in 1978, earned his teaching certificate in 1990 and found a teaching job in the Chicago Public School System.

Comprehensive background checks should have been performed on each of these people prior to hiring them as educators. By failing to screen them properly and allowing them into the classroom, school administrators are gambling with the safety of the students in their care.

Pre-Employment Screening For Educators

As the number of criminal cases involving teachers continues to escalate, state governments are starting to require pre-employment background checks. The problem is that the scope of these background checks is usually inadequate. They’re often limited to running an applicant’s name through an FBI database and doing a child abuse registry search. Not only is this approach plagued with problems (i.e. misspelled names, out of date profiles, etc.), but they often fail to uncover past criminal convictions.

School administrators need to implement more thorough pre-employment screening protocols. Even if funding seems to be a obstacle, it’s important to realize that properly screening teachers and conducting wide-ranging criminal background checks is relatively inexpensive. In fact, it can usually be done for less than what that teacher will earn during their first day on the job.

Limiting Risk And Protecting Students

Doing the bare minimum when screening educators is no longer a viable option. There is simply too much risk to the safety of the students. Allowing convicted felons to gain all-day access to children is a recipe for disaster. In fact, the education industry has been buffeted by high-profile incidents for years. It’s time for school administrators to take control by conducting extensive background checks on all personnel.

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The Importance of Employee Screening for Nonprofits

Do You Have a Sex Offender Working For You?

Top 4 Things You Need To Know About Employee Screening

Six Background Screening Mistakes To Avoid

Photo Credits: krispdk, aprilzosia

Background Checks For Temporary Employees

October 21, 2008 By Chris Miller

Companies are becoming more aware of how a lack of employee screening increases their exposure to liability. As a result, they are taking measures to conduct background checks on all permanent staff. Oddly, many firms don’t use the same caution when bringing temp hires aboard. The main reason cited by many employers is that screening and background checks take valuable time. They slow the placement process, which is an important factor for short-term projects. But, sacrificing caution for expediency when hiring temporary staff can be catastrophic.

Screening Temporary Employees

A temporary hire can expose your firm to just as much risk as a permanent employee. After all, once they are on your premises, they will usually have the same level of access to computer files, customer databases, and other resources. The fact that a temp employee is only working on a short-term assignment is irrelevant. If you neglect to perform background checks, they still pose a significant risk.

Many employers think that since a temp hire receives a paycheck from a staffing firm, the employer cannot be held liable for that hire’s actions. So, they decide against screening temporary employees. That’s a mistake. And it can potentially cost an employer millions of dollars. In truth, employers can be held liable for the actions of a temp hire. If they disrupt the workplace and harm your staff or customers, your firm can be sued.

How To Avoid Unnecessary Risk

Hiring an employee always carries an inherent risk, regardless of whether that employee is hired on a temporary or permanent basis. You should take preventative measures to protect your staff, your workplace, and the core assets upon which your business relies. At the very least, screen temporary employees as carefully as you screen your permanent staff.

To further reduce your company’s liability, perform comprehensive background checks that search county court records for past criminal convictions. Studies show that temp hires often have criminal records and other issues that can lead to problems if you hire them. Remember, one bad temporary employee can lead to a million-dollar negligent hiring lawsuit. Insulate your business by screening them.

Does Your Company Do Employment Background Checks On Outside Vendors?

4 Tips on How to Avoid Negligent Hiring Lawsuits

5 Reasons To Do Employee Background Checks

4 Questions Employers Have About Employee Screening

Photo Credit: Bludgeoner86

Do You Have a Sex Offender Working For You?

October 8, 2008 By Chris Miller

The man accused of kidnapping and killing his niece in June will be entering a plea of not guilty today in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vermont.

Michael Jacques, has decided not to appear at his arraignment. Authorities say Jacques could face the death penalty in the death of Brooke Bennett, 12, whom they say Jacques drugged, sexually assaulted, strangled and smothered.

At the time of Brooke Bennett’s death, Michael Jacques was working for a company that had not been doing employment background checks. If they had an employee screening program in place at the time they hired Jacques, they would have discovered a 1993 kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault conviction.

In this video, a company representative says “at the time our policy was we didn’t do background checks…that’s changed, over the last couple of months, we’ve actually changed our policy.”

Employers’ Obligation
Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment for their staff. By hiring someone with a criminal record, they could be exposing their staff to an unnecessary risk.

Do You Have A Sex Offender In Your House?

Does Your Company Do Employment Background Checks On Outside Vendors?

Four Red Flags To Look For In A Credit Report

September 5, 2008 By Chris Miller

Red Flags

Last week one of our clients asked me if there are any “red flags” to look for on credit reports when used in the employee screening process. I thought our readers could benefit from this so here they are…

Four Red Flags To Look For In A Credit Report:

What are the applicant’s total monthly payments? How does this compare to the projected salary and benefits? If the total monthly payments are significantly larger than their income it may be a red flag.
How many negative items are listed, such as late payments, collection actions, writeoffs or an account closed by the credit grantor?
Are there any negative public records and are they related to employment? For example a tax lien may indicate someone has not paid attention to their financial affairs or is under financial stress. If there is a bankruptcy in the credit report, then the employer should NOT utilize the bankruptcy without talking to an attorney. Federal law expressly prohibits a private employer from discrimination solely on the basis of a person exercising their rights under the bankruptcy laws. Refer to 11 USC 525.
Are there alerts from the credit agencies? Some bureaus issue fraud alerts if there is a suspicion of fraud or abuse.

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Photo by rvw