Checking out Santa for a store near you
Some days I think I’ve lived too long. One of them was when I caught a story in Florida today about the new reality of being Santa. “Santa gets a makeover” was the title, but the story wasn’t about fashion at all.
It was about the changing reality of being Santa Claus. Today it seems, Santa not only undergoes a background check, but needs insurance and has a very strict code of conduct.
You would hope that if there was anyone you can trust it would be Santa Claus. But the companies hiring people to play that role today don’t want to leave anything to chance.
I read the same news you do, so I understand what’s going on. You don’t want somebody who played Santa at your store to turn up as a pedophile on the evening news or get nailed by a sting operation putting his hand where it shouldn’t go. You don’t want some “jolly old elf” to slip and fall in your mall and then sue you for every penny of profit you’ve made in the last two decades.
I understand it all, but it makes me sad. I grew up in a simpler time when you took your kids to see Santa without wondering if the store did a thorough background check on Old St. Nick. Today, pedophiles and predators abound and they’d like nothing more than a job where they can touch kids and find out personal information.
Just because I’m sad, though, doesn’t mean I don’t think […]
More background checks for aviation workers
Under the headline “Aviation workers soon to get more criminal checks,” USA Today writes about changes that are coming for workers at America’s airlines.
“More than a million aviation workers — including pilots, mechanics and flight attendants — will begin undergoing more thorough background checks in January as the U.S. focuses on preventing insider terrorist attacks.”
The government is trying to head off terrorist attacks, but there are side benefits to the background checks that are the same as what you get when you incorporate criminal background checks in your hiring process. You get a safer workplace and a lowered likelihood of insider theft.
The additional background checks will be done by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Up until now, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been the agency handling this kind of security.
The TSA will be doing things the FAA didn’t do. Most important, they’ll be checking backgrounds every time the Terrorist Screening Center’s database is updated. That happens at least daily. There’s a lesson there for you.
Nobody’s suggesting that you run a check on your people every day. But the reason that the TSA does it is that files get updated and things change. If the changes are important, you need to make sure they don’t slip by you.
Here’s what I suggest. Check the background of anyone who works for you in a sensitive position every year and whenever there’s a significant change in job function. And make it a matter of policy that people who work for you let […]
What if you hired Wendy Adcock?
You probably don’t know who Wendy Adcock is, but right now she’s the focus of a lot of attention in Columbus, Ohio. That’s the home of the Ohio State University (OSU) who hired Adcock in 2005 as an accounts clerk at the university libraries.
The OSU student paper, the Lantern, describes the situation in a story headlined “Adcock’s case reveals flaws in OSU employee background checks.” It might reveal some flaws in your system as well.
When she was accused of stealing $13,500 from the university libraries, it turned out that she had been convicted of stealing $11,000 from a previous employer. The Lantern wants to know how that could happen. The answers should get you thinking about your process.
When Adcock was hired by OSU she hadn’t been convicted of the $11,000 theft. She was still being investigated.
If you look at the report for a criminal background check, you’ll see the word “sentenced.” You won’t see “investigated for” or even “arrested.” That’s because we live in America.
The way we conduct our legal affairs, a person who is charged with a crime or investigated as a suspect is presumed innocent until a court declares that he or she is guilty. That’s a good thing overall, but it’s very likely why Adcock slipped through the cracks at OSU.
It turns out that the university ran a background check on her later, too. It was after the date of the conviction. But the conviction didn’t show up then, either. Most likely that’s because different jurisdictions […]
Who’s driving your kids?
The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune recently carried a story that made me sit up and take notice. I forwarded it to my children, who have their own children, and to all my friends who are parents of young children. The story wasn’t about toxic paint on toys or any of that other stuff that’s been in the news lately.
It was about van drivers. The subject was the lack of mandatory background checks on van drivers. Here’s an excerpt.
More than 2,000 minivans and passenger vehicles carry special education and other students in Minnesota every year, and the only requirement for their drivers is to have a valid regular driver’s license. Those drivers are not subject to the rigorous requirements set for drivers of school buses, said Capt. Ken Urquhart, pupil transportation safety director for the State Patrol. State and federal laws require school bus drivers to have annual physicals, undergo random drug and alcohol tests and criminal background and driving record.
Wow. Think about who rides in those vans. It’s kids who are in pre-schools or participating in after-school programs. It’s the developmentally-disabled and senior citizens. It’s travelers going to and from the airport.
And think about what they’re riding in. Vans have some of the nastiest crashes because they carry more passengers than a car and their higher center of gravity means they’re more likely to roll over.
Don’t wait for legislators to act on this one. Start with your own family and people you know.
If you’ve got children or aging parents […]
Should you do pre-employment credit checks?
A recent Associated Press piece discussed the use of credit checks by employers as part of pre-employment screening and background checks. The writer cited an interesting statistic.
“In its most recent report on reference and background checking, in 2004, the Society for Human Resource Management found that 19 percent of organizations conducted credit checks.”
This is one case where I think you should join the minority and use pre-employment credit checks. Here’s why.
If you’re hiring for a position where an employee has access to money, financial records or sensitive information, and credit check should be part of your screening. Financial problems can cause people to succumb to temptation to steal or use confidential information for profit.
I’d even go further than that. I think you should check the credit of anyone who’s promoted or transferred into a sensitive position with access to money or privileged information. I think you should run a credit check on all people in those positions on an annual basis.
But what about others? Remember that you run any background check to look for clues to things you want to investigate further.
Check the employers list on the credit report against the one on the application to make sure they match. Check basic personal information including any aliases or different social security numbers.
BE CAREFUL AND LEGAL: There are differing state laws on whether and when you can use a credit report as part of your hiring process. So check with your attorney to make sure you comply with the law.
You’re responsible for preventing workplace violence
In October, news media carried the story of an off-duty police officer who shot seven people in Crandon, Wisconsin, killing six of them. Normally that would not concern us here because we talk about issues related to the use of background checks by employers and landlords.
Earlier this month, though, organizational development consultant Daniel Schroeder wrote a piece in the Milwaukee Small Business Times answering a question sparked by the Crandon shootings: “What is a reasonable approach for a company that wants to make sure that it does what it can to minimize the chances of a violent act occurring?”
Schroeder points out that, if you’re an employer, you have a legal responsibility to prevent workplace violence. He says, “the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Act 181 of 1993) has a general duty clause that tasks employers with ensuring the health and safety of employees, as follows: ‘Every employer shall provide and maintain, as far as is reasonably practicable, a working environment that is safe and without risk to the health of his employees.'”
He’s got some good ideas about what you should do, but I’m not sure they go far enough. Here are mine.
Make sure you have a specific policy that not only prohibits workplace violence, but makes it a firing offense. You may want to offer mandatory counseling to first-time offenders through your EAP.
Make background checks a part of your hiring process. Pay special attention to violent acts in the past.
Make sure you do the background check on every person […]