Check out the FTC’s newly revised Background Checks brochure for answers to common questions http://t.co/OngCpg4yjW pic.twitter.com/R1pY5JkF6N
— FYI Screening (@fyiscreening) April 2, 2015
Employee Background Checks
Spring is Here – What’s Hot in Background Screening News
Happy Spring! Welcome to another edition of “What’s hot in employee background screening news”. If you want to make smarter business decisions, you’ve come to the right place. Here are some of the interesting items that recently caught our attention.
Obama Administration Warns Employers About Overzealous Background Checks
“The Obama administration continues to warn employers about doing criminal and other background checks that could disparately impact minorities and other groups protected by discrimination laws.” – bizjournals.com
Colorado Employers Increase Testing For Drug Use
“Some employers are taking a tougher stance against workers’ drug use since recreational marijuana became legal in Colorado, according to a new workplace survey. One in five Colorado employers reported that they have implemented more stringent drug-testing policies in the wake of passage of Amendment 64 in 2012.” – brushnewstribune.com
New York Law Prohibits The Automatic Disqualification Of Job Applicants Based Solely On Criminal History
“Four national consumer reporting agencies have agreed to change their background check practices for job applicants with criminal convictions to comply with New York law, announced state Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman. The agreements prohibit the agencies from automatically disqualifying applicants with criminal convictions and require the agencies to stop issuing automatic rejection letters and instead defer hiring decisions to employers, who must individually consider candidates. New York law prohibits the automatic disqualification of job applicants based solely on criminal history.” – westfaironline.com
Who’s Gathering Your Personal Information?
“The bottom line is that your personal information is most assuredly being collected and stored. Just take a minute to think about who knows what you’re doing at any given moment and whether you care if your actions are being recorded.” – techlicious.com
Background Checks: What Employers Need to Know
“The new brochure, Background Checks: What Employers Need to Know, offers nuts-and-bolts guidance from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) when employers consider the background of applicants and employees in hiring, retention, promotion, and reassignment.” – business.ftc.gov
Recent Lawsuit Highlights the Importance of Fair Credit Reporting Act Compliance
“A recent proposed class action lawsuit against Whole Foods Market California provides a reminder to employers to review their disclosure and authorization forms for FCRA compliance.” – nylaborandemploymentlawreport.com
Should Background Checks Be On Your New Employee Checklist?
“In light of the EEOC’s increasing opposition to the use of criminal records in hiring decisions and the compliance issues arising under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, employers must stay current on the law in this area and be able to show that the use of backgrounds checks is either directly related to job performance or justified by a legitimate business necessity.” – akerman.com
Your Job Search and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA)
A refresher for employers and employees on credit checks in the hiring process. – hrbartender.com
About FYI Screening
Organizations trust FYI Screening to dig deeper and deliver thorough, accurate and compliant background checks. We focus on providing a remarkable client and candidate experience in every step of the background screening process. Our innovative background screening technology and practices allow companies to make better hiring decisions, reduce risk and improve productivity.
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SHRM Survey: Background Checking—The Use of Criminal Background Checks in Hiring Decisions
Using Background Checks Wisely- What’s Hot in Background Screening News
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A 12-Word Social Media Policy
- Don’t Lie, Don’t Pry
- Don’t Cheat, Can’t Delete
- Don’t Steal, Don’t Reveal
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.
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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Making Informed Decisions – What’s Hot in Background Screening News
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
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