Background checks and more in hiring
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 aimed at people who hire for positions called "medical coders." If that's not you, skip the article and read what follows. Here are a few highlights, along with my comments. "Know exactly what you need." Far too few companies do this. I'm not taking about [...]
See the government. See the government move slowly.
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, 27, 2007, federal agencies were supposed to complete background checks for employees with 15 years' or less experience and begin issuing new identity cards." Want to guess how many Federal agencies met the deadline? The answer is none. Zero. Not one. And this was [...]
Background checks on chaperones?
I confess that when I read the headline, "Livonia schools runs criminal checks on chaperones," I found myself thinking that some people might be going overboard. But the article reminded me of an important thing about background checks and how you use them. You use them as part of a process of judgment. You decide whose background should get checked. The Livonia schools thought it was a good idea to check on chaperones because they're in positions of trust with young people they could easily take advantage of. Who should you be checking out? Who will be in a trusted [...]