It can happen to anyone
Just when you were thinking that big, sophisticated, organizations have so many resources that they don't have background check problems, you catch sight of an article in the Washington Post with the title: "Clinton Campaign Cites Flawed Background Check." Here's the core of the article. A spokesman for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign yesterday blamed a faulty background check for the campaign's failure to raise any questions about Norman Hsu, a previously unknown businessman who suddenly became one of its biggest fundraisers. Though a commonly used public record search shows that Hsu had multiple business lawsuits filed against him [...]
Thoughts from a pro
Sam Paris is a professional background checker who contracts out to large companies. There's an article about him and his views of reference checking today in Mass High Tech. You'll need a subscription to read the story that's titled "Lie Detection." If you don't have a subscription, here are some of the interesting and helpful points. How many applicants do you think misrepresent their education or employment history? Paris says it's about 30 percent and that many of them go to great lengths to do so. Lesson: make sure you dig deep enough. Paris also tracks trends in the background [...]
Hiring advice
Texas business columnist Dave Beck just wrote a piece for the San Antonio Express-News headlined: "Watch for 'red flags' when hiring." Here's the lead. The rewards of smart hires are generally well-known. Longer retention, reduced turnover, increased employee satisfaction and morale, and decreased human resources costs are a few of the more obvious benefits. Less obvious is how to secure the right people. In fact, finding that right fit for your business sometimes seems more difficult than ever. To improve your hiring processes, you should learn to recognize the proverbial 'red flags.' By knowing the warning signs, both before the [...]
Hiring today
Tara Muck wrote a fine article for the Northwest Arkansas Morning News about the changing nature of the job search. The title is "Who Are You?" Here's a clip. Background checks are becoming a staple of the hiring process conducted by companies big and small. The importance boils down to risk management -- stopping a potential problem before it starts. This is the sort of article that job seekers will be reading, so it makes sense for you to read it as well. Here are a few highlights. Muck points out that Depending on the job and the company, background [...]
Accidental felons
If you watch this space and read the news, you might think that everyone is ramping up their use of background checks in hiring. You'd be wrong. An example of someone who's resisting the trend is Steve Mangan, general manager of Indiana Memorial Union Dining Services at Indiana University. In a story titled, "Hiring practices might ‘burn’ IMU Dining Services," the Indiana Daily Student (IDS) tells us that Dining Services is one of the few university departments that doesn't do background checks on everyone. Mangan and his supervisors do background checks when the law or university policies mandate it. That [...]
Dodging a bullet
Lots of organizations begin an aggressive or comprehensive background check program because of something that happens to them. A violent attack or a charge of sexual misconduct or theft against an employee provides a wake-up call and the organization starts or improves a program of background checks. The case at the University of Colorado is different. They're going to start checking the background on all employees because of something that didn't happen. An editorial in the Canon City Daily Record titled, "Universities need to look into background for all employees" tells the story. Here's a summary. Kenton Drew Astin was [...]