RWHBLOG21
Employee Background Checks Give You the “Fair Chance” in the Ban-the-Box Movement
“Ban the box” is gaining ground as a movement to remove the checkbox on employee applications asking about criminal history in order to give applicants with a criminal history past a fair chance. That is great! I believe in second chances and that people who have made mistakes in the past can change but that does not mean that we as employers can just ignore that past or just hope that someone has changed. We are betting our business on that “hope” as internal theft or mistreatment of our customers can kill our business. The prospective employee has an advocate for a “fair chance.” What about the employer? Employee background checks are an employer’s “fair chance.”
It makes sense that we should have an opportunity to get to know the whole person when they apply for one our positions and not just eliminate them because they checked a box. I have no difficulty with that and the intent of “ban the box.” Getting to know the whole person, however, must include pre-employment screening by a reputable background check company. It is then that we get the picture of the whole person and are able to use the information gained along with our interview and other screening tools to determine what level of risk we are willing to assume. We know there is risk with every hire but we also know that past performance is the best indicator of future success and that, for some positions, we cannot afford to assume the risk of having a convicted felon in that position. Employee background checks give us the opportunity to at least get the information so we can make that intelligent decision.
Because companies do not have access directly to police records through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) we have to rely on a background check company to access the information for us through databases and visits to court offices to view original records. It is important that we have the right partner in conducting the pre-employment screening so that all the requirements of state and federal law are met and the information that is obtained is accurate.
I have worked with a variety of background check companies in my career and believe you have to do some pre-screening yourself before taking on that partner. You should what you want in that background check company. Many offer these services and you need to know which ones you want:
• Misdemeanor and felony criminal records for county, state and national jurisdictions
• Sex offender status
• Social Security number trace and validation
• Employment verification
• Reference checks
• Credit checks
• Civil record checks
• Motor vehicle records checks
• Military records verification
• Worker’s compensation history
• Address history.
Once you determine what services you are interested in pursuing you can look at the background check company and ask some important questions:
• Can the company provide the services you are looking for?
• Does the company provide proof that there is Fair Credit Report Act compliance?
• Are the costs reasonable for what you want?
• Does the company provide forms either in paper format or on-line for the applicant to complete?
• How long is it going to take to get the results? There should be a window here varying from a “clean” check to one where they have to do manual records and you should have them provide those extremes as well as the average time.
• Are the results easy to read or do you need to have a lawyer review them to understand them – which you don’t want?
• Does the firm have accreditation through the National Association of Professional Background Screeners?
• Does the company provide you a web portal or link to your on-line application process or is it all done by paper and fax, email or regular mail?
Once you have done your due diligence and have engaged a background check company as a partner you can begin your pre-employment screening process with confidence. You then have your “fair chance” to make intelligent decision to protect your business and your customers. The “ban the box” movement is not the enemy. They just make it more important that we meet the applicant’s fair chance with a fair chance of our own!
For more information about employee background checks contact us at www.backgroundcheckexperts.net or call 1-770-426-0547.
“Ban the box” is gaining ground as a movement to remove the checkbox on employee applications asking about criminal history in order to give applicants with a criminal history past a fair chance. That is great! I believe in second chances and that people who have made mistakes in the past can change but that does not mean that we as employers can just ignore that past or just hope that someone has changed. We are betting our business on that “hope” as internal theft or mistreatment of our customers can kill our business. The prospective employee has an advocate for a “fair chance.” What about the employer? Employee background checks are an employer’s “fair chance.”
It makes sense that we should have an opportunity to get to know the whole person when they apply for one our positions and not just eliminate them because they checked a box. I have no difficulty with that and the intent of “ban the box.” Getting to know the whole person, however, must include pre-employment screening by a reputable background check company. It is then that we get the picture of the whole person and are able to use the information gained along with our interview and other screening tools to determine what level of risk we are willing to assume. We know there is risk with every hire but we also know that past performance is the best indicator of future success and that, for some positions, we cannot afford to assume the risk of having a convicted felon in that position. Employee background checks give us the opportunity to at least get the information so we can make that intelligent decision.
Because companies do not have access directly to police records through the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) we have to rely on a background check company to access the information for us through databases and visits to court offices to view original records. It is important that we have the right partner in conducting the pre-employment screening so that all the requirements of state and federal law are met and the information that is obtained is accurate.
I have worked with a variety of background check companies in my career and believe you have to do some pre-screening yourself before taking on that partner. You should what you want in that background check company. Many offer these services and you need to know which ones you want:
• Misdemeanor and felony criminal records for county, state and national jurisdictions
• Sex offender status
• Social Security number trace and validation
• Employment verification
• Reference checks
• Credit checks
• Civil record checks
• Motor vehicle records checks
• Military records verification
• Worker’s compensation history
• Address history.
Once you determine what services you are interested in pursuing you can look at the background check company and ask some important questions:
• Can the company provide the services you are looking for?
• Does the company provide proof that there is Fair Credit Report Act compliance?
• Are the costs reasonable for what you want?
• Does the company provide forms either in paper format or on-line for the applicant to complete?
• How long is it going to take to get the results? There should be a window here varying from a “clean” check to one where they have to do manual records and you should have them provide those extremes as well as the average time.
• Are the results easy to read or do you need to have a lawyer review them to understand them – which you don’t want?
• Does the firm have accreditation through the National Association of Professional Background Screeners?
• Does the company provide you a web portal or link to your on-line application process or is it all done by paper and fax, email or regular mail?
Once you have done your due diligence and have engaged a background check company as a partner you can begin your pre-employment screening process with confidence. You then have your “fair chance” to make intelligent decision to protect your business and your customers. The “ban the box” movement is not the enemy. They just make it more important that we meet the applicant’s fair chance with a fair chance of our own!
For more information about employee background checks contact us or call 1-770-426-0547.
JD Blog-002 Pre-Employment Screening-3 (Secondary: Background Check Company-3)
Pre-Employment Screening Saves Profits
The most effective way to predict future behavior is to look at previous behavior; that’s where pre-employment screening comes in. Employee background checks are a low-cost way to protect profits and, more importantly, a company’s image. There is a lot of fear about conducting background checks, so a lot of companies don’t do it. The best way to avoid all of the legal pitfalls is to use a company that specializes in employee background checks. They know the laws and most importantly, all of the best sources of information.
When a person is involved in stealing from their employer, it’s usually not the first time they’ve done it. After nearly 20 years of conducting internal theft investigations, I’ve found that most cases involve people who’ve been caught before. Effective screening can remove these risks from the applicant pool. As a person becomes more experienced at stealing from their employer, they become bolder and less fearful of the consequences, causing them to steal more in a shorter time frame. The employee with a history of theft is a greater loss risk and using a background check company can weed them out during the application process.
Address verification is a key component of employee background checks. A long time ago, I noticed that an applicant had addresses mostly in the local area, but suddenly moved hundreds of miles away into a very rural area with the same address for several years, then recently moved right back to his previous address. The rural address hundreds of miles away………when address verification was ran, it was found to be a State Prison where the person was incarcerated for credit card fraud. Had we not found this out through pre-employment screening and the person subsequently began stealing customer credit card numbers, we would have faced not only liability and losses, but also a lot of negative publicity.
An often over-looked area in employee background checks is the company image. I once worked for a company that began to receive phone calls that they had a known sex offender working behind the counter in a store that served families with children. Our concern was that in these particular locations, the employees worked alone or with one other person. A review of our screening showed that no criminal background was found in the county he lived in. We quickly decided to ask a background check company to take a look and found that he was on the Sex Offender Registry in another state, and had moved without notifying them. Can you imagine the liability for a company if something happened at the store? We immediately made the decision to begin using a background check company on 100% of our employees.
The cost of an effective pre-employment screening program is far less than the cost of employee theft, fraud losses, liability costs, and lost revenue through negative publicity that can occur without it. Think about the return on investment by investing a little up front versus the cost of the loss incurred, the time and money invested in investigation (cameras and personnel), and the fact that the odds of recovering money after a loss from the suspect are incredibly low; employee background checks are the better route.
For more information about pre-employment screening contact us or call at 1.770.426.0547.
The most effective way to predict future behavior is to look at previous behavior; that’s where pre-employment screening comes in. Employee background checks are a low-cost way to protect profits and, more importantly, a company’s image. There is a lot of fear about conducting background checks, so a lot of companies don’t do it. The best way to avoid all of the legal pitfalls is to use a company that specializes in employee background checks. They know the laws and most importantly, all of the best sources of information.
When a person is involved in stealing from their employer, it’s usually not the first time they’ve done it. After nearly 20 years of conducting internal theft investigations, I’ve found that most cases involve people who’ve been caught before. Effective screening can remove these risks from the applicant pool. As a person becomes more experienced at stealing from their employer, they become bolder and less fearful of the consequences, causing them to steal more in a shorter time frame. The employee with a history of theft is a greater loss risk and using a background check company can weed them out during the application process.
Address verification is a key component of employee background checks. A long time ago, I noticed that an applicant had addresses mostly in the local area, but suddenly moved hundreds of miles away into a very rural area with the same address for several years, then recently moved right back to his previous address. The rural address hundreds of miles away………when address verification was ran, it was found to be a State Prison where the person was incarcerated for credit card fraud. Had we not found this out through pre-employment screening and the person subsequently began stealing customer credit card numbers, we would have faced not only liability and losses, but also a lot of negative publicity.
An often over-looked area in employee background checks is the company image. I once worked for a company that began to receive phone calls that they had a known sex offender working behind the counter in a store that served families with children. Our concern was that in these particular locations, the employees worked alone or with one other person. A review of our screening showed that no criminal background was found in the county he lived in. We quickly decided to ask a background check company to take a look and found that he was on the Sex Offender Registry in another state, and had moved without notifying them. Can you imagine the liability for a company if something happened at the store? We immediately made the decision to begin using a background check company on 100% of our employees.
The cost of an effective pre-employment screening program is far less than the cost of employee theft, fraud losses, liability costs, and lost revenue through negative publicity that can occur without it. Think about the return on investment by investing a little up front versus the cost of the loss incurred. The time and money invested in investigation (cameras and personnel), and the fact that the odds of recovering money after a loss from the suspect are incredibly low; employee background checks are the better route.
For more information about pre-employment screening contact us or call 1.770.426.0547.
