Study: Background screening uncovering more problems with potential hires
How bad is it?
Hiring managers are forever complaining that the quality of candidates simply isn’t what it used to be. When it comes to the information in a criminal background check or driving record check, they just might be right.
Kroll Inc. is a private investigation firm. They also study topics such as background screening, forensic accounting, bodyguard services, corporate restructuring, and technology services. They just released a study of employment screening “hit ratios” for 2006. Hits are nothing more than the percentage of searches in a specific area that turn up something. For example, if you conduct a criminal records search as part of your background investigation of a prospective employee and turn up a criminal conviction, that would be a hit.
Here’s the scary part. Just about every category had more hits in 2006 than the year before.
Hits on criminal records checks increased from 8.5 percent of searches to 9.1 percent. That means that almost ten percent of the people applying to you for a job are likely to have a criminal past.
This varies a bit from industry to industry. Two of the highest hit rates on criminal checks are in construction and retail.
The hit rate is lower in financial services, healthcare, and education. But that’s small comfort since those are industries where hiring a criminal can have the biggest impact.
Checks on driving record searches reveal that almost half of all applicants for constructions jobs have some mark on their driving record. You certainly want […]
A dangerous world
Like many parents, I have followed the story of Madeleine McCann with strong emotions. For the very few of you who are not familiar with the tale, a brief recap: Four year-old Madeleine visited a resort town in Portugal with her parents and one year-old twin siblings. On May 3 her parents went to dinner with friends at a restaurant 100 yards away, from which their apartment was at least partly visible, but they left the children alone. (The resort facility, at Praia de Luz, offers babysitting and day care but the McCanns did not use these options.) The door to the apartment was probably unlocked. Every thirty minutes a parent would come back to check on the children. At 10PM, they discovered that Madeleine was missing from her bed. She is still missing.
The story has received worldwide media attention. Why does it affect us so? As tragic as the story is, dozens of children are lost every day. Part of it, no doubt, has to do with the behavior of the parents. In America at least, deliberately leaving children so young unattended is not generally accepted — in some states it is illegal. But almost everyone leaves a child alone in their own bedroom at night, and what if something were to happen? As a parent, you watch your young ones like a hawk, but somewhere in the back of your mind […]
What is the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC) program?
In the wake of September 11, the U.S. government has set up a number of customized background check programs to control access to sensitive positions. One of the greatest areas of concern has been container ships, with the fear that dangerous material could be shipped into the United States. In addition to port safety legislation, and concern over foreign ownership of American ports, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) launched a worker credentialing program to help maritime security.
This program, called TWIC, will limit access to port facilities, outer continental shelf facilities, and vessels regulated under the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) as well as all U.S. Coast Guard credentialed merchant mariners. Anyone who goes to these areas will require a TWIC credential. According to the TSA this will affect over 750,000 people, and as such represents a very large background check program. A “tamper-resistant biometric control” will be used, which appears to include fingerprints at a minimum. The rules have not been finalized; the enrollment process, once defined, will be rolled out over 18 months and all U.S. merchant mariners are required to have one by September 25, 2008.
A few items here are relevant for the background check industry as a whole. First, it is possible for a standard criminal history to bar someone from TWIC. A murder conviction will do it, as will some less obvious candidates such as certain incidents involving rape and sexual abuse […]
Data mining to stop crime, or support it?
The New York Times had an interesting pair of articles yesterday about the use of data mining and its effect on criminal justice. The first one described the expansion of business intelligence software beyond its initial role in the retail world. Business intelligence software examines patterns in large amounts of data. For example, this allows Wal-Mart to optimize inventory in each store by taking into account local variations in taste.
In 2005, the police chief in Richmond, Virginia decided to try similar software to predict criminal activity. They analyzed 911 calls, arrests, and other data points. They found that crime increased in Hispanic neighborhoods on payday. The reason? Many residents do not use banking services, making the extra cash a tempting target for thieves. Using analyses like this, the police were able to better deploy their forces in advance of problems, and crime fell 20%.
The second story, entitled “Bilking the Elderly, With a Corporate Assist”, showed a darker side. Data mining has found a lucrative home in consumer marketing, allowing advertisers to target their pitches to the people most likely to buy. InfoUSA is an example of a list broker, a company that sells names of people that fit categories such as new moms, motorcycle owners, and so on. They also had some more questionable lists:
InfoUSA advertised lists of “Elderly Opportunity Seekers,” 3.3 million older people “looking for ways to make money,” and “Suffering Seniors,” 4.7 million […]
Florida to restore date of birth identifier to court records
Via the National Association of Professional Background Screeners newsletter, it appears that Florida has decided to restore access to dates of birth in court records. As we posted earlier, this is an extremely important issue for performing accurate criminal checks. The date of birth is needed to prevent confusion between defendants with the same name, especially since access to social security numbers is becoming ever more restricted. Specifically, this is what is happening for Florida:
By a 5-4 vote, the committee voted to recommend to the Court that full dates of birth be available electronically as part of the progress docket information for defendants in criminal matters. The four voting “no” wanted full dates of birth for both criminal and civil parties…Phase I of the pilot should launch by mid-June. That is not the public access phase, but the court users phase.
It is not altogether clear to me if the pilot includes background check providers but I think that is likely soon.
The date of birth issue has popped up elsewhere as well. In Utah, the Daily Herald recently argued for keeping birth dates in public view. Their concern is analysis of voter rolls. In order to find voter fraud, the date of birth is needed to distinguish between the same person voting multiple times versus multiple people with the same name. It can also be used to identify dead people and felons who are not legally permitted to vote.
I […]
Court rules Google background checks are legal
From Techdirt, we learn that the search engine background checks discussed in an earlier post have now been officially made legal — at least to a limited degree. An employee at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was fired for misusing government property, a decision that was apparently made easier when an online search revealed that he had been fired two previous times as well. The employee, David M. Mullins, admitted that he had forged travel receipts to receive reimbursement, and an investigation determined that he cost taxpayers $6,419.83. No criminal charges were filed. But when Mullins was fired, in modern fashion he decided to sue.
Mullins argued that the online background check (done via Google) violated rules of fundamental fairness. The appeals court disagreed. In their opinion, the investigator was not unduly influenced by the online search, and decided to terminate him based on the other evidence, including a list of 102 documented violations. (Whatever else one might say about the government, they know how to document things before letting someone go.) Therefore the online search did not in and of itself render the decision capricious.
It is not clear what the situation would be if the Google check had been the primary cause of termination. It certainly seems a risky course for an employer to take. Online information can be inaccurate, and identity confusion is common. There is no consumer dispute process. A full