Tell customers about your background check policy
The other night, a friend told me about a debate in his homeowners' association. Some members wanted the association to require contractors to certify that they conduct criminal background checks on all new hires. Others think that's extreme. My friend asked me what I thought. I referred him to the Sue Weaver CAUSE website. They can make their point better than I can. August 27, 2001, Sue Weaver was brutally raped and beaten to death by a twice convicted sex-offender hired to do service work in her home. Sue had contracted with a major department store to have the air [...]
Lessons from the federal government
The Federal Drive, a show on Federal News Radio recently offered the following advice to job seekers: Background check in your future? Don't lie! One of the things that I got out of the material is the difference between the federal government and other employers. The show included comments from Debra Roth. She's a partner in the firm of Shaw, Bransford and Roth, that specializes in Federal employment law. Here's just one comment. "Lying to the federal government almost always, in current times, will get you criminal charges." That's probably not true for your company. The biggest stick you've got [...]
The danger of not checking
PI Newswire, a news service for private investigators, splashed the following headline across the screen of my computer. Jury Finds Housing Authority Negligent in Elderly Woman’s Murder after Tenant Background Check Misses Neighbor’s Criminal Past. Here's part of the lead. A jury recently ruled that negligence by the Housing Authority in a North Carolina city led to an elderly woman’s death at the hands of her crack cocaine addicted neighbor in 2007. The sons of the woman asked for more than $10 million in damages. The "negligence" was not conducting a proper background check on the neighbor. If you're a [...]