Hiring today
Tara Muck wrote a fine article for the Northwest Arkansas Morning News about the changing nature of the job search. The title is “Who Are You?” Here’s a clip.
Background checks are becoming a staple of the hiring process conducted by companies big and small. The importance boils down to risk management — stopping a potential problem before it starts.
This is the sort of article that job seekers will be reading, so it makes sense for you to read it as well. Here are a few highlights.
Muck points out that
Depending on the job and the company, background checks could include criminal, credit history, references, resumes and degrees. If there’s something someone is trying to hide, it’s likely to be found if the potential employer wants to find it.
Think of that as a checklist. Which ones are you doing? Which should you be doing?
The article describes how several types of businesses hire and what they look for. Beyond what we’ve already mentioned, there are drug tests and physical requirements for some jobs. What about you? Are your standards up to date?
The article doesn’t say much about Internet checking, such as using Google or social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. But you should have those tools in your hiring toolbox as well.
The process of hiring and reference and background checks has changed a lot in the last few years. This is a good time to review your hiring process and the way you evaluate applicants.
Accidental felons
If you watch this space and read the news, you might think that everyone is ramping up their use of background checks in hiring. You’d be wrong. An example of someone who’s resisting the trend is Steve Mangan, general manager of Indiana Memorial Union Dining Services at Indiana University.
In a story titled, “Hiring practices might ‘burn’ IMU Dining Services,” the Indiana Daily Student (IDS) tells us that Dining Services is one of the few university departments that doesn’t do background checks on everyone. Mangan and his supervisors do background checks when the law or university policies mandate it. That means they check the criminal history of anyone who handles money, takes inventory or serves in a supervisory role.
Mangan isn’t worried about hiring a convicted felon or two. According to the paper, “he has done just that on multiple occasions – both knowingly and unknowingly.”
For me that’s really scary. Hiring decisions should be made on the basis of qualifications and fitness. You may choose to hire someone with a criminal past, but that should be a conscious decision after weighing all factors.
Another thing that’s scary is that Dining Services isn’t doing background checks because of the cost. I would ask: “Compared to what?”
Saving money on background checks is great, right up to the time an employee lifts money from the till or attacks someone else. It seems like a cost saving right up till the moment you get sued.
Personally, I’d want to err on the side of caution. What […]
Dodging a bullet
Lots of organizations begin an aggressive or comprehensive background check program because of something that happens to them. A violent attack or a charge of sexual misconduct or theft against an employee provides a wake-up call and the organization starts or improves a program of background checks.
The case at the University of Colorado is different. They’re going to start checking the background on all employees because of something that didn’t happen.
An editorial in the Canon City Daily Record titled, “Universities need to look into background for all employees” tells the story. Here’s a summary.
Kenton Drew Astin was hired by the University of Colorado to work at the University Memorial Center. He was no longer employed by the university when he was accused of stabbing a university freshman.
University officials probably first heaved a sigh of relief when they realized that Astin used to work for them. Then reality set in and they also realized that it just makes good sense to do everything you can to prevent people who may be violent from working for you in the first place.
According to the Daily Record, a news release announced that the university will now check the background of everyone they hire. Not only that, they’ll “continue to do background checks on a number of existing employees.”
Don’t wait for an incident to happen. Take the time today to check out your policies about using background checks for new hires and for existing employees. Make any changes you think are prudent.
Foster-grandmas get background checks
A story titled “New rules expand background checks” on Kentucky.com picks up information off the Knight Ridder newswire about the increased use of background checks by AmeriCorps. Here’s a quote from the article.
Senior citizens and others participating in the help-your-neighbor AmeriCorps program will now submit to background checks before getting certain assignments, under new federal rules. Volunteers working with the young, the old and the disabled will all be investigated.
AmeriCorps is part of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which, in turn is an independent federal agency. It was created in 1993 to connect Americans of all ages and backgrounds with opportunities for volunteer service. More than 400,000 men and women have participated. Full time members who complete their service can earn money for college via a federal grant.
According to the news story, AmeriCorps will being doing background checks on volunteers who will be working with the young, the old and the disabled. That includes foster grandparents and senior companions. In all, some 75,000 volunteers will be checked out.
This isn’t entirely new. Some AmeriCorps affiliate programs have been conducting background checks on volunteers in sensitive positions as part of their routine screening process. The new rules make background checks mandatory and set minimum standards that all affiliate programs will need to meet.
For businesses, background checks can prevent hiring crooks or others who might embarrass the company down the road. The reason for the checks at AmeriCorps is much more human.
Mercedes Padilla, who works with the Foster Grandparents […]
Time for a Gen Y reality check
Two recent news stories highlighted for me just how interesting and strange the world of job hunting and background checks can be in this Digital Age. First there was story on MSNBC that underlined something that I think we all know: employers use online search engines like Google and social networking sites like MySpace to check up on prospective hires. Here’s a quote:
According to a March survey by Ponemon Institute, a privacy think tank, 35 percent of hiring managers use Google to do online background checks on job candidates, and 23 percent look people up on social networking sites. About one-third of those Web searches lead to rejections, according to the survey.
I don’t know about you, but I figured that, as tech-savvy as kids are, they’d be aware of what was going on. Then I read a piece in Inc. magazine.
Two-thirds of job applicants under 30 are not aware that employers conduct online searches of candidates, although they are the age group most likely to say their Web presence might need to be cleaned up, according to a new survey.
Job Hunting in the Digital Age, a poll of about 600 current employees conducted by Harris Interactive for Adecco USA, found that 66 percent of workers in Generation Y (ages 18 to 29) are oblivious to the online background checks employers do to research potential employees.
Maybe it’s the fact that when you’re young, you don’t realize how important reputation is. They haven’t stopped to think how some of […]
Check ‘em all, check ‘em all
The trend to do background checks for all employees is spreading in government. Recently two counties in different states joined the bandwagon.
Montgomery County, Texas, just north of Houston, and Lee County, Florida are two of the most recent converts to the “check ’em all” movement. There are two big reasons why more and more government agencies and private employers are following suit.
Companies and government agencies want to protect their people and their assets from employees who may abuse their position of trust. They also want to make sure that they’re doing everything they can as part of due diligence hiring, just in case they wind up getting sued.
Lee Country has gone farther than most government agencies. Here’s how the Sanford Herald puts it.
According to an ordinance unanimously approved by the Lee County Board of Commissioners Monday, all final applicants, volunteers, interns and any person working in any youth sport, program or activity in the county will be subjected to a background check to be administered by the Lee County Sheriff’s Department.
Before the ordinance was passed, the county only required background checks on potential employees in the county Department of Social Services, Sheriff’s Office, animal control officers and “key positions in governance.” Changing the rules means that the hiring procedures will have to change as well.
“It will pretty much change the whole way we make a hire,” said Lee County Human Resources Director Joyce McGehee. “But in today’s world, it is very important to know who we are hiring […]