Background checks slow down airport hiring
The News-Tribune in Tacoma, Washington weighs in with a story about the impact of the anti-terrorism background checks on businesses. These businesses are connected with airports like Sea-Tac.
Problems with a new federal background check for potential airport employees could slow baggage delivery, delay cargo shipments and cut the hours of airport vendors at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and other airports throughout the country as the holiday travel season approaches. At Sea-Tac alone, more than 400 new hires are awaiting clearance from the federal Transportation Security Administration before they can be issued badges that allow them to work beyond the airport’s security checkpoints. Some of those newly hired workers have been waiting since Oct. 1 to see whether they passed the federal government’s security muster to work in secure areas of the airport. That’s the date that the TSA imposed a requirement that new hires pass not only a regular criminal background check but a new terrorism database search before they receive a security clearance.
If you’ve got a business that’s tied to an airport, you should dig deeper on this issue. You may have to do some contingency planning.
If you don’t have an airport-connected business, there’s no direct impact of the Homeland Security requirements, but there are lessons to be learned.
Even if your background check process isn’t as rigorous as what the government’s going for, it can still pose a dilemma for you. You don’t want your background check to get in the way of hiring someone you want, but […]
Embezzlement: it could happen to you
Susan Gunn wrote an excellent article that appeared in the September 2007 issue of Dental Economics. Her title: “Embezzlement Wake-up Call.” You have to register to see the whole article, but the registration is free.
She surveyed dental practices and asked them about embezzlements. Then she analyzed the responses.
She found that the embezzler could be anyone: “assistants taking cash payments chairside, front office managers taking patient checks, spouses and family members taking from other family members, CPAs diverting funds, even the dentist!”
Losses ranged from $35 to $900,000. They averaged $104,585. But Gunn points out that the money loss was only part of the problem.
Discovery and recovery time ranged up to 360 hours of work. And then there is what Gunn calls the real cost: “destroyed trust, time spent in discovery and recovery, shattered relationships, lost patients and revenue, bad press, and last, but certainly not least, health issues resulting from the ongoing stress.”
What are the warning signs of embezzlement? They’re pretty standard and you’ve probably heard them before. Watch out for unchecked control of operations with no independent checks. The embezzlers also worked long hours and never took sick days or vacation.
What about prevention? Your accountant can help you put systems in place that will provide checks on the work of individuals who handle money. Remember that they only work if you implement them.
That’s part of a two-pronged prevention program. The other part is background and reference checking. Referring to the cost of embezzlement, Gunn says, this. “It takes much […]
Records security is your job
Here’s a chilling story from MSNBC:
Two laptop computers with detailed personal information about commercial drivers who transport hazardous materials across the United States are missing and considered stolen. The laptops belong to a contractor working for the Transportation Security Administration and contain the names, addresses, birthdays, commercial driver’s license numbers and, in some cases, Social Security numbers of 3,930 people, according to an Oct. 12 letter from TSA to lawmakers.
It seems like we see a story like this every few weeks. Sensitive personal information, including payroll records, social security numbers and the results of criminal background checks and credit checks are put on a laptop. Then, the laptop is lost or stolen and the people whose information was on it find out that they’re at risk.
You’ve got sensitive information about the people who work for you. You’ve got their personnel records. You’ve got the results of background and credit checks for employees and people you’ve considered hiring. You also have records on your customers and prospects. You’re responsible for keeping those records secure.
Use the available technological tools. Use passwords to keep records out of reach of the casual browser. Use encryption to make them even more secure.
Treat your entire computer like a sensitive record. Keep it safe. Chain it down. If it’s hooked up to another computer or to a network or the internet, make sure you’ve got cybersecurity systems in place and working.
If you must put sensitive records on a laptop make sure you keep the laptop […]
New Jersey wants to license individual mortgage solicitors
The U.S. mortgage crisis is touching just about every area of society, both here and overseas. You can bet that legislators at all levels are lining up to hold hearings and propose legislation. After all, that will often get them TV coverage which seems to be the object of so many political activities.
In New Jersey the mortgage crisis has spawned a call for background checks, this time on mortgage brokers. The Press of Atlantic City reports that there are bills working their way through the New Jersey Assembly and Senate that would raise the requirements bar for people who want to become mortgage brokers.
Currently in New Jersey you don’t need a license to solicit mortgage business as long as you’re working for a licensed mortgage company. The proposed legislation would change that by requiring the mortgage solicitors obtain individual licenses.
The licensing process would require taking an examination, undergoing a criminal background check, and completing instruction in “the legal, ethical and business aspects of the field.” I’m not impressed.
Legislators would do us all much more good if they would delve into the entire process of securitizing mortgage loans. Securitization removes any incentive for the loan originator to be concerned about whether a loan will be paid back or not.
Legislators would also serve us better if they looked into the deceptive practices of the industry. I’m talking about offers that entice unsophisticated people who want to own a home to take out loans they won’t be able to afford.
But since the […]
Felons on the KU payroll
I love how official spokespersons try to slide around issues. Consider the case of Kansas University and background checks.
The Lawrence Journal-World and News reported on October 14, 2007 that there were felons employed at the university. They also reported that “the University does not conduct criminal background checks on most employees.”
The University sprang into public relations action. Universities have been very sensitive about security issues since the Virginia Tech shootings.
A University spokesperson, Jill Jess, noted that “the university does review the sex offender registry and asks for voluntary disclosure of previous convictions before offering employment.” Personally, that statement would make me very nervous because everything rests on the expectation that a person with a criminal record will be honest about disclosing it, knowing that the University wouldn’t be checking.
Jess told the paper that “An employee who has a conviction but does not disclose it on the application would be subject to immediate termination.” The question is, how would you find out that they’d lied without doing a background check?
In most cases, that would only happen if they committed another crime and were caught at it. Let’s say a young man was convicted of attacking someone else and that he lied about having a conviction when he applied for employment. At the University that’s all he’d have to do. There’s no rule about letting the University know of a conviction after he’d been employed.
Then, one day, the young man gets angry and attacks someone. That would trigger an investigation and […]
You have no privacy
Back in 2001, Scott McNealy, the CEO of Sun Microsystems, roused the media with a zinger delivered at a new product introduction. “You have zero privacy anyway,” McNealy told a group of reporters and analysts, “Get over it.”
That may not have been exactly true then, but now an Iowa University professor, Mark Andrejevic, says that “the data trail left by technology users allows public and private monitoring agencies to track users’ locations, preferences and life events for purposes including consumer marketing, targeting groups of voters for campaigns, background checks and government surveillance.”
Andrejevic’s recently released book is titled iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era. He’s concerned about two things.
His big worry is that technology is advancing much faster than privacy laws. There’s probably not much any of us can do about that. The history of technology is that it runs far out in front of the laws and regulations that ultimately develop to deal with it.
His other worry is that the technologies allow people to become “do-it-yourself private investigators.” He’s right and wrong about that.
On one hand, people everywhere are using new technologies to check each other out. Dating couples Google each other to see what can be found. Job applicants research companies and companies head to MySpace and Facebook to check out applicants.
Where Andrejevic is wrong is the idea that there are no rules and no controls. If you use background checks as part of your hiring or tenant selection process you know he’s wrong. There […]