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2010 Best Employee Screening Posts

Using Background Checks Wisely- What’s Hot in Background Screening News

May 30, 2012 By Chris Miller

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.

How Should Employers Use Criminal History in Employment Now That The EEOC Has Issued Enforcement Guidance?

Criminal history information can be a crucial tool in the employment decision process. During the past few years, federal agencies and state governments have been limiting, employers’ use of criminal history information in the employment process through regulation, litigation, and legislation. On April 25, 2012, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) issued new guidance in an effort to limit employers’ options with respect to their use of this tool.

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Using Background Checks Wisely

Businesses can be legally liable if they don’t check out workers who go on to commit crimes while on the job. And no company wants the embarrassment of finding out later that high-profile employees fibbed on their resumes, as happened recently with Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson.

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Would You Fire Someone Over a Past Crime?

A Wisconsin bank employee lost her job after her employer discovered she’d shoplifted—40 years ago.

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Bills Would Prohibit Employers From Requesting Access to Employees’ Email and Social Networking Sites

Members of the House and Senate introduced legislation on May 9, 2012 that would ban employers from requesting individuals’ usernames, passwords, or any other means of accessing their social networking sites and from taking adverse action against job applicants and employees who refuse to provide such information.

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Terminated CFO Illustrates the Confidentiality Risks Social Media Pose

According to a recent survey by Intel, 85% of American adults share information about themselves online, while 90% think others are sharing too much. Maybe the former CFO of Francesca’s Holdings Corp., Gene Morphis, should have heeded the latter and shared less about his company’s inner workings.

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A 12-Word Social Media Policy

  • Don’t Lie, Don’t Pry
  • Don’t Cheat, Can’t Delete
  • Don’t Steal, Don’t Reveal

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Background Checks, Screening and Your Nonprofit

The term “background check” means different things to different people. Some nonprofit leaders use the term loosely to refer to a variety of screening tools, such as criminal history background checks, credit checks, reference checks, or the verification of prior employment and higher education.

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Ban the Box Update: Ex-convicts in Massachusetts still face tough sell in job market

The fortunes of former convicts seeking employment have changed little since the passage of a 2010 law that overhauled the state’s criminal records system, according to a report released by two Boston nonprofits.

The report, written by the Boston Foundation and the Crime and Justice Institute at Community Resources for Justice, compiled the experiences of 28 employers, advocates, criminal records officials, landlords, and legislators. It gives a first look at the real-world effects of changes to the Criminal Offender Record Information system, widely known by the acronym CORI, which had been lauded by activists as a game-changer for people with criminal records looking to reintegrate into society.

The law’s “Ban the Box’’ provision prevents employers from asking about criminal records on initial job applications. That has allowed more former convicts to get interviews, but has seldom translated into jobs, the report said.

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Filed Under: 2010 Best Employee Screening Posts, Background Checks, Sex Offenders, Uncategorized Tagged With: Employee Background Checks

The Importance of Quality Background Checks – What’s Hot in Background Screening News

December 1, 2011 By Chris Miller

fire_breathing

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.

Unauthorized employee recommendations, references on social media may put employers at risk

Employers are beginning to realize that their employees are sending or receiving recommendations on social media sites, such as LinkedIn, about co-workers’, vendors’, and customers’ work performance or services that are inconsistent with the employer’s policies.  Worse yet, they may even be providing false or fraudulent information.  Employers need to take a hard look at their employees’ recommendations on social media.

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Woman on a crusade for change after her sister was murdered by an air duct cleaner in Florida

When you have work done at your home, do you know who’s coming to your door?

Two local women thought they were safe calling Sears to have their air ducts cleaned.But it turned into a nightmare after a convicted felon with a history of harassing women showed up to do the work.

This could happen to you too, even if the company you hire does background checks.

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Background check law could get some Pennsylvania teachers fired

A new Pennsylvania law requiring all school workers to disclose their criminal history could see some employees who have been convicted of various crimes lose their jobs.

The law, signed by Governor Tom Corbett in June, went into effect in September and mandates background checks for all employees of public, private and vocational schools. Administrators must notify employees of the law and have them return a form reporting any criminal history by December 27.

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Employer held responsible for negligent hiring: Kansas City-area lawyers win $7M verdict over truck crash

A group of Kansas City-area lawyers won a $7 million verdict Thursday for the family of an Arkansas truck driver killed in a 2008 accident.

The truck driver who caused the accident — a driver whose license had been twice revoked — was hired negligently, said lead attorney Kent Emison.

In a statement, Emison said the company could have learned of Quisenberry’s driving history in 15 minutes through a simple background search. He said the verdict is part of a growing trend of employers being held responsible for negligent hiring.

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How effective are background checks in protecting children from abusers?

Experts point a various problems that make it difficult to truly protect children.

Many molesters fly under the radar and don’t have contact with law enforcement for years. Many organizations only do a criminal background check when someone is employed and don’t re-check periodically. Offenders at times plead to lesser charges that might not raise flags. And even Megan’s Law, designed to create as sex-offender registry, has loopholes.

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Cracks in background check system give drug abusers, mentally ill access to guns

Gaps in the Federal Background Check system may be putting guns in the hands of killers, according to a new report by Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

The report finds two huge gaps in the National Instant Criminal Check System (NICS). The biggest one, and hardest to fix, boils down to a communication problem. Many states and state agencies do not cooperate with the system. The blame doesn’t fall on solely on state agencies, federal agencies don’t comply with the background check system either.

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Texas state criminal database is flawed

According to a recent report by the Texas State Auditor’s Office, nearly one out of every four criminal records is incomplete, while some are completely missing for the state’s database.

Thousands of Texas businesses, day cares, schools use the state’s database for criminal background checks.

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Photo credit: Johan AP

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Filed Under: 2010 Best Employee Screening Posts, 2011 Best Employee Screening Posts, Employee Screening, Job Search, Social Networks Tagged With: What's Hot

Credit Checks and the EEOC: What’s Hot in Background Screening News

November 1, 2011 By Chris Miller

campfire

Welcome to our monthly edition of what’s hot in employee background screening news. If you want to stay up-to-date with background screening, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some of the news items that caught our attention last month.

Connecticut Limits Use of Credit Checks in Employment

A new Connecticut law that took effect on October 1, 2011 (Public Act 11-223) makes it unlawful for most Connecticut employers to require employees or prospective employees to consent to requests for credit reports that contain information about their credit scores, credit account balances, payment history, savings or checking account balances, or account numbers. Connecticut is one of only a few states that have enacted such a law.

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National Retail Federation Releases Research on Retailer Use of Background Screenings

Today NRF released its first piece of research on the topic of background screening. We polled retail executives from 96 of the nation’s leading department stores, mass merchants, discounters, drug stores, grocery stores and restaurants to examine their use of background screenings before and during the application and employment process.

The findings? Nearly all retailers – a whopping 97% – utilize background screenings in some form during the application, hiring and employment process, according to the survey. Additionally, a majority of retailers surveyed report that human resources (56%) and loss prevention departments (39.4%) are most often charged with criminal background screenings and similarly are the same departments that can override employment decisions to ensure a fair and open process for all applicants and employees.

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Criminal Records May Not Appear on Background Checks in Texas

Background checks used to screen people in crucial occupations may not turn up criminal records because of gaps in the Texas records database, a new state audit shows.

Prosecutors and courts have failed to submit to the state disposition records on about 1 in 4 arrests in 2009, the audit found. While that is a slight improvement from a 2006 audit, it still means agencies doing the checks can’t rely on the Department of Public Safety Computerized Criminal History System for complete information, the audit found.

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California Joins Other States in Placing Restrictions on Employers’ Use of Credit Checks

On October 10, 2011, Governor Brown signed into legislation Assembly Bill No. 22, which generally prohibits employers from using an applicant’s or employee’s credit history in making employment decisions.  Prior to this legislation, employers could request a credit report for employment purposes if they provided prior written notice of the request to the person for whom the report was sought.  Assembly Bill 22 significantly changes this landscape by prohibiting employers from using credit reports for employment purposes unless the report is used for one of the limited purposes enumerated by the statute.

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Using Arrest and Conviction Records for Hiring. What Does the EEOC Say?

The Peace Corps asked the EEOC for an opinion on the legality of its use of conviction and arrest records to screen potential volunteers. In response, the EEOC published an informal opinion letter, which offers guidance for employers who are considering using conviction or arrest as part of their screening processes.

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Hot Topics in Pre-employment Screening (two-part series on pre-employment screening)

An increasing number of employers are conducting some form of pre-employment screening on job applicants. Employers are researching not only a candidate’s educational qualifications and prior job history, but also a candidate’s criminal history, credit history and online presence. At the same time, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and various states have begun scrutinizing the legality of some of these practices.

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Legal Issues Surrounding Social Media Background Checks

The legal risks of making employment decisions using the Internet have become a real concern for businesses, especially when you consider that 54% of employers surveyed in 2011 acknowledged using the Internet to research job candidates. The actual number of employers using the Internet is probably higher, and sometimes companies may not even be aware that their employees are researching job candidates and factoring that information into their evaluations. This is yet another reason to establish an internal procedure for researching job candidates, and communicating your procedure to employees who are participating in the employment process.

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Filed Under: 2010 Best Employee Screening Posts, 2011 Best Employee Screening Posts, Best Practices For Employee Screening, Employee Screening Tagged With: What's Hot

EEOC Examines Arrest and Conviction Records as a Hiring Barrier

July 26, 2011 By Chris Miller

jail

On July 26, 2011 the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held a public meeting to discuss the employment barriers faced by individuals with arrest and conviction records.

A recap of the meeting can be found here.

Photo credits: Cosima’s Digital Designs

Filed Under: 2010 Best Employee Screening Posts, 2011 Best Employee Screening Posts, Best Practices For Employee Screening, Employee Screening, Legal Compliance Tagged With: Background Check, EEOC

Is It Legal For An Employer To Charge A Potential Employee For A Background Check?

March 16, 2011 By Chris Miller

question_valerie_everett

I recently checked out Quora which is getting a lot of buzz lately (with mixed reviews). What is Quora you ask? The best way to describe it is it’s a Q&A social networking site. I’m not sure if Quora is going to be social media’s newest “it” platform, but I did find some questions on employee background screening that you might find helpful.

Here’s one question that I recently answered:

Q – Is it legal for an employer to charge a potential employee for a background check? If a business requires employees to be screened for past criminal behavior, is it acceptable to charge potential employees for the cost of the screening?

A- There is no federal law that prohibits employers charging a potential employee for a background check but the following states (and Washington, DC) have laws that limit this practice:

  • California, Minnesota, Washington,DC – the employee cannot be required to pay for a background check as a condition of employment.
  • Vermont – limits an employer charging a potential employee for a background check if they are using specific sources.
  • Kansas – employers can’t require potential employees to obtain their own records and give them to the employer.

What questions do you have about background checks?

Photo credit: Valerie Everett

Filed Under: 2009 Best Employee Screening Posts, 2010 Best Employee Screening Posts, 2011 Best Employee Screening Posts, Background Checks, employment background checks, Legal Compliance, Negligent Hiring, Sex Offenders, Social Networks Tagged With: Background Checks, Legal Compliance

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