Monthly Archives: April 2010

Organizational justice

The April 2010 issue of Risk Management has a great article titled: Finding and Fixing Corporate Misconduct. After noting reports that misconduct had declined during 2009, the Corporate Executive Board (CEB) says the following. According to the results from more than 300,000 employees in over 75 countries, this "decline" in misconduct during 2009 is actually misleading, as it pertains to less severe and risky behaviors such as the misuse of company resources or other 'inappropriate behavior.' In other words, no matter what you may have heard, there's pretty good evidence that more serious forms of misconduct actually increased last year. [...]

By |April 27th, 2010|Categories: Uncategorized|0 Comments

Why are they publishing those awful stories?

If you spend time online or watching television, you could get the idea that the media don't want you to use credit checks as part of your hiring process. Here are two examples. The Wall Street Journal ran an article titled: Bad Credit Derails Job Seekers. The lead told the story of Rosa, a single mother of three, who wasn't hired because of (she thinks) a poor credit report. MNBC had Bad Credit Sidelines Some Jobless Workers. They led with the story of a woman who "believes an unpaid medical bill cost her a full-time job." You're going to see [...]

By |April 21st, 2010|Categories: Credit checks, Employment screening|0 Comments

It takes a village to catch corporate fraud

The question, "Who blows the whistle on corporate fraud?" is also the title of an article that will be published in the Journal of Finance. To find the answer, the authors studied "all reported fraud cases in large U.S. companies between 1996 and 2004." Here's the answer they came up with. "We find that fraud detection does not rely on standard corporate governance actors (investors, SEC, and auditors), but takes a village, including several non-traditional players (employees, media, and industry regulators)." That's good news. It means that you've probably got honest employees on the payroll who may spot fraud, even [...]

By |April 16th, 2010|Categories: Employment screening|0 Comments

Lessons from Sandra Bullock

Normally, the world of screening and security has me reading reports on fraud and stupid corporate stunts. Every now and then, though, my Google Alerts throw something juicier up on my screen. That's what happened this week. A blog named MomLogic published a post by Dr. Wendy Walsh with the title, "Sandra Didn't Believe the Background Check." The supermarket tabloids could not have done better. Here are the basics of the tawdry story. When Sandra Bullock met Jesse James, her tattoo-sporting, biker husband, he was married, for the second time. His wife was pregnant. He had two children by his [...]

By |April 7th, 2010|Categories: True crime|1 Comment

Scarecrows and background checks

"Are you a scarecrow?" my mother would ask, usually arching one eyebrow. The correct response was, "No Ma'am." The scarecrow my mother was referring to was the one in the Wizard of Oz. If you're not familiar with that tale, let me refresh your memory. Dorothy, a young girl living in Kansas, is picked up by a tornado and whisked away to a different place. To get home, she will have to follow the yellow brick road to Oz where the Wizard can send her home. Dorothy makes the trip with three friends who all want something from the Wizard. [...]

By |April 5th, 2010|Categories: Background checks, Employment screening|0 Comments
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