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Employee Screening Articles For June & July 2009

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In case you missed any of our employee screening articles for June and July, here’s a quick recap of our most popular:

Smart, Compliant Hiring Decisions Made Easy

FYI Screening, Inc. offers a complete portfolio of employee screening services that will help you work smarter while providing the industry’s fastest turnaround and the highest quality results. This will allow your company to focus on what really matters:  hiring and retaining the best employees possible.

The Importance Of Accurate Background Checks

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anonymous_gunLast 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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

  • Contact us for a 10 minute online demo of the easiest, most cost-effective and reliable solution for employee screening.

New Employee Screening Trend -Second Chance For Ex-Offenders

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There is a growing trend in employment screening that places more responsibility on employers to analyze a past criminal record to determine whether there is a business justification not to hire a person.

From The Columbus Dispatch:

Schools Could Hire Former Criminals

Custodians, bus drivers, secretaries and cafeteria workers could work in schools even with a past drug or theft conviction under a new rule being considered by the State Board of Education.

Committing a sex crime, kidnapping and murder still would prevent someone from working in a school. But some people who have committed nonviolent crimes — including robbery, cultivating marijuana or drug trafficking — could show they have been “rehabilitated” under the proposed rule.

The proposal would allow people with those less-serious convictions that occurred well in the past — ranging from five to 20 years, depending on the type of crime — work in a school if they can show evidence that they have walked the straight and narrow since. It would apply to new applicants and current employees.

Read the article here.

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Photo Credits: krispdk

Background Checks For The Education Industry

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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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Related Posts:

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

The Importance of Employee Screening for Nonprofits

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Recently a Cincinnati nonprofit that teaches children hired a volunteer without doing an employment background check.  It turns out the volunteer is a Tier III sex offender – the most dangerous kind.  A Tier III sex offender is required to register every 90 days for life.   The nonprofit only did background checks on the full time staff and not the volunteers.

It is an industry best practice to thoroughly screen all applicants for employment and volunteer positions at nonprofits.

A recent study of nonprofit organizations revealed these key findings:

  • Each day 144 individuals with criminal records applied for employment or a volunteer position with a non profit.
  • Every 11.5 hours, a registered sex offender attempted to obtain a position at a nonprofit.