Yearly Archives: 2008

Preventing workplace violence

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 acts account for 14 percent of workplace deaths? Did you know that workplace violence costs employers $36 billion a year? Did you know that almost three quarters of employers have no formal program that addresses workplace violence? What about your company? There are lots of [...]

By |May 2nd, 2008|Categories: Employment screening|0 Comments

Check me out

Many of the stories I see about background checks have a familiar theme. "Background checks are a good idea, but I don't want you to check on me." That's why a story out of Rapid City, South Dakota stands out. The headline reads: "Ice cream vendors embrace background checks." Here's the lead. Details of Rapid City's proposed background-check requirement for ice cream vendors are still being hashed out, but truck operators say they won't have a problem with the new rule if it is implemented. The first question is: "Why do background checks on ice cream vendors?" They may not [...]

By |April 30th, 2008|Categories: Background checks|1 Comment

Check ‘em all

A story in the Muskogee Phoenix headlined: "Wanted: Students, not felons" describes how some colleges are now including criminal background checks in their application process. Here's an excerpt. Along with their grades and residence status, high school seniors face another important question on their college applications: 'Have you ever been convicted of a felony?' And many colleges, including the University of Oklahoma and nursing programs at Connors State College and Northeastern State University, back that question up with criminal background checks. In other words, what happens is that the college asks an applicant if he or she has a felony [...]

By |April 29th, 2008|Categories: Criminal checks|0 Comments

Watching out for the weasel words

"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 background check which they find a misdemeanor theft charge from two years ago, which was over some coins. I was accused of stealing, but since I was there, I could not prove I did not. Anyway, they told me they could not hire me. [...]

By |April 17th, 2008|Categories: Criminal checks, Employment screening, Privacy|0 Comments

Hello, I love you, let me check your background

To background check, or not, is online love's latest question, at least according to the Salt Lake Tribune. The course of true love has never run smooth, but who ever thought it would come to this? There have been plenty of stories lately about men and women using background check services like SentryLink to check out prospective dates. But now the battle has moved to the online dating services. According to the Tribune story: The contentious issue of the moment - pitting one of the three biggest companies, True.com, against its major rivals - is whether online dating services can [...]

By |April 15th, 2008|Categories: Background checks|0 Comments

Beware the thumb drive

Several newspapers recently carried the story of an outside firm doing background checks for the Nevada Department of Public safety lost the personal data of over one hundred applicants. It seems that an employee of the firm had the data on a thumb drive and lost the device. "Thumb drive" is the name given to little memory devices that hold a lot of data and plug into a USB port on your computer. They're sometimes called "keychain drives" or "flash drives." Thumb drives are about the size of your index finger and can hold up to 16 gigabytes of data. [...]

By |April 8th, 2008|Categories: Privacy|0 Comments
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