Mar
12
The American entrepreneur and department store executive, John Wannamaker, once said that “Half of all the money I spend on advertising is wasted. I just don’t know which half.”
Sounds to me like what you face with resumes these days. You know there may be falsehoods mixed in amongst the truth. But it’s hard to tell […]
Feb
22
To credit check or not to credit check?
Filed Under Employment screening, Credit checks | Leave a Comment
The popular KnowHR blog recently ran a post that generated lots of comment from HR types. The title was A Master’s Class in Hiring a Person With Credit Wrecked By Bad Health and Being Laid Off.
The blogger shared the story of a person who’d been out of work for some time because of medical problems. […]
Feb
11
Fitting Your Background Check to Your Hiring Strategy
Filed Under Employment screening, Background checks | Leave a Comment
The Macon Telegraph recently ran a story with this provocative headline: “Problem principals: Bibb school leaders had problems at previous jobs.” Here’s the lead.
In the past 18 months, four Bibb County principals were investigated for allegations ranging from choking a student and mismanaging federal money to testing blunders and having an affair with a subordinate.
Three […]
Feb
2
How do they steal? Let me count the ways
Filed Under Employment screening, Criminal checks | Leave a Comment
Theft you will always have with you. The fact is that people steal. They will steal from you. They will steal from you no matter what you do.
You can throw up your hands and let the thieves have their way. Or do something about it.
Start by being aware of some of the many ways […]
May
2
Preventing workplace violence
Filed Under Employment screening | Leave a Comment
Labor attorney Todd Wozniak, writing in QSR (Quick Serve Restaurant) lays out a program that will help you reduce the threat of workplace violence, beginning with conducting background checks on all applicants. His article is titled “Violence in the Workplace.”
Wozniak starts by sharing a few stunning statistics. Did you know that assaults and violent […]
Apr
17
Watching out for the weasel words
Filed Under Employment screening, Criminal checks, Privacy | Leave a Comment
“Oh, the irony of the background check!” was the headline on a story in the Pocono Record in February. One of their readers offered the following.
A few months ago, I applied for a job at the new distribution center in Gouldsboro. I had the interview, got hired, passed the urine test, then they do a […]
Apr
1
Bad communication can wreck a good policy decision
Filed Under Employment screening | Leave a Comment
The headline pretty much said it all: “CMS: ‘We blew it’ on staff memo.” CMS? That’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Here’s the story of what happened.
The school system has been doing criminal background checks on new hires for years. When a teacher was caught shooting heroin on school property and when it turned out that same teacher […]
Mar
27
Look, I’ve got my background check right here
Filed Under Employment screening, Criminal checks, True crime | Leave a Comment
WBNS-TV10 in Central Ohio reports on a really horrific story. It involves an unusual twist on the issue of criminal background checks as part of hiring. Here’s how it goes.
Karen Carter applied for and got a job as business office manager at a nursing home called the Sanctuary at Tuttle Crossing in Central Ohio. According […]
Mar
25
Expediency is no excuse
Filed Under Employment screening, Background checks | 1 Comment
Under the headline, “Officials mandate screening staffers“, Florida Today reports the following.
“Effective today, no employee will be hired by the city without undergoing a criminal background check.” Here’s the background.
On January 15, the City Council of West Melbourne voted to hire Doug Wyckoff to a three-year contract as city attorney for more than $100,000 […]
Mar
19
New background check policy
Filed Under Employment screening | Leave a Comment
The Parthenon, the student newspaper of Marshall University, reports on the adoption of a background check policy by the University. Here’s the lead.
Employees who apply for jobs at Marshall University or Marshall Community and Technical College must now undergo background checks.
The Board of Governors passed the background check provision, Policy No. HR-14, during its Oct. […]
Mar
7
Background checks and more in hiring
Filed Under Employment screening, Background checks | Leave a Comment
Advance, a web site for health information professionals, asks: “What’s more expensive than the time and money invested in hiring and training a new employee?” Their answer: “Doing it again, when a new hire exits unexpectedly.”
Then they lay out several strategies, including background checks, for doing a better job of hiring. The article is […]
Mar
5
See the government. See the government move slowly.
Filed Under Employment screening, Government | 1 Comment
Sometimes I wonder what my government does with all the money I send them. I’ve been following the background check process of the Federal Government, hoping that I’d learn something about how to use background checks more effectively. Boy was I looking in the wrong place.
There’s an article in Government Executive about how “by Oct, […]
Feb
25
Balking at background checks
Filed Under Employment screening, Background checks, Privacy | Leave a Comment
The Dallas Morning News reports that completing required background checks on non-educational school workers is turning into a real nightmare. The title of the article is “Costly fingerprinting required for Texas public school workers.” Here’s an excerpt.
Red tape and resistance have tripped up the state’s first crack at collecting fingerprints for an estimated 1 million […]
Feb
17
Learning from the banks
Filed Under Employment screening | Leave a Comment
Bank Info Security just ran a great article titled: 6 Steps for Better Background Checks. You need to register to see the article which shows this arresting subtitle: “Stopping the Insider Threat Starts With Screening Your Job Applicants.”
As the article notes, more and more organizations are doing background checks for internal security and to protect […]
Jan
30
Use background checks, but follow the rules
Filed Under Employment screening, FCRA, Legal | Leave a Comment
There’s an excellent article at In-House Counsel titled: Conducting Employee Background Checks: Navigating Current Rule. Here’s the lead.
In recent years, an ever-increasing number of employers are conducting some form of background checks on job applicants and employees. In fact, in a 2004 study, the Society for Human Resource Management reported that 96 percent of human […]
Jan
29
The Christian Science Monitor says that “More companies are using sophisticated background checks to root out lies on résumés.” What does that mean?
Well, it depends on what you mean by “sophisticated.” Most of the checking is pretty basic stuff. Here’s a quick review of some things you can do.
Start with a pre-interview phone screening. I […]
Jan
22
Your mother may have told you not to lie, but evidently some of the people sending out resumes never got that good advice. Several surveys indicate that lots of people lie when they apply for a job.
One screening service used by employers reports that in 2006, 41 percent of their background checks turned up a […]
Jan
9
Thinking about using Facebook or MySpace for background checks?
Filed Under Employment screening, Background checks, Privacy | Leave a Comment
The SmartMoney web site has lots of good advice for job seekers. But in an article titled “Facebook Profiles Can Foil Job Searches” I found some good advice for employers, especially those considering using the social networking sites for part of background check on younger applicants.
Jeanine DeBacker, an employment lawyer with Wendel Rosen Black & […]
Jan
9
Thinking about using Facebook or MySpace for background checks?
Filed Under Employment screening, Background checks, Privacy | Leave a Comment
The SmartMoney web site has lots of good advice for job seekers. But in an article titled “Facebook Profiles Can Foil Job Searches” I found some good advice for employers, especially those considering using the social networking sites for part of background check on younger applicants.
Jeanine DeBacker, an employment lawyer with Wendel Rosen Black & […]
Dec
31
Are pre-employment credit checks discriminatory?
Filed Under Employment screening, Credit checks | 39 Comments
Sometimes you hear people complain about the use of pre-employment credit checks as part of the hiring process. They say, “My bad credit shouldn’t be an issue in whether I can do the job. I’m being discriminated against.” Are they right?
Kansas City Star business columnist Diane Stafford takes up that issue in her recent column […]



