No background check is perfect
According to a headline in the Waco Tribune, “Bus driver charged with assault aced background check”. In the story, the claim is even stronger. “Hillsboro schools Superintendent Jerry Maze said the 64-year-old school bus driver accused of propositioning a 14-year-old student for sex passed the school’s ‘very comprehensive’ background checks.'”
There are people out there who will trot out stories like this one to prove that background checks are a waste of time and money because they don’t actually catch any bad guys. Those people are wrong.
The first thing to agree on is what everyone means by “background check.” The schools Superintendent refers to “very comprehensive background checks” but doesn’t describe them.
If you’re hiring, a background check ought to include verification of credentials, reference checks, a pre-employment credit check and a national criminal background check.
Let applicants know up front that you do these checks and you’ll find that some choose to go no farther. That’s usually because they know that a background check will reveal things they’d rather you didn’t know. Just having background checks as part of your process has a deterrent effect.
It’s important to do a national criminal background check, too. People move a lot these days. A check of local records won’t tell you about a criminal past that occurred in another state.
Even so, people will slip through the cracks. A criminal background check only shows convictions. It won’t tell you about times a person was charged with a crime but not convicted. And no background check […]
Balking at background checks
The Dallas Morning News reports that completing required background checks on non-educational school workers is turning into a real nightmare. The title of the article is “Costly fingerprinting required for Texas public school workers.” Here’s an excerpt.
Red tape and resistance have tripped up the state’s first crack at collecting fingerprints for an estimated 1 million people who work in Texas public schools. School districts across Texas have reported paperwork delays in hiring new janitors, bus drivers and other non-educational employees who must provide fingerprints to the state before they can start work this month. Most of the troubles are rooted in bureaucracy, but some bubbled up out of protest.
You probably will never fingerprint people, but you’re bound to run into resistance to background checks. Most of that comes from people who feel that they’re being treated like a criminal or that they’re not trusted.
That’s a legitimate feeling, but it doesn’t mean you can let those folks have their way. You’re doing background checks for two reasons. You want to keep your business safe from fraud and theft. And you want to keep the people in your business safe from violence.
Make that case. If you’ve got an applicant that balks, use a technique that counselors often use with their clients. It’s called “Feel-Felt-Found.” If an applicant tells you they feel like you don’t trust them because you’re running a background check, you can respond in something like the following way.
“I understand why you might feel that way. I know […]
Learning from the banks
Bank Info Security just ran a great article titled: 6 Steps for Better Background Checks. You need to register to see the article which shows this arresting subtitle: “Stopping the Insider Threat Starts With Screening Your Job Applicants.”
As the article notes, more and more organizations are doing background checks for internal security and to protect themselves against negligent hiring lawsuits. While the article is written for banks, it includes some tips that are good advice for any business. Let me pick out a few.
Managing editor Linda McGlasson suggests that you start with verifying the resume. You can use a pre-employment credit check for some of that work and handle the rest with a couple of phone calls.
She also suggests that you include a statement on your application where candidates can attest to the fact that the information on the application and resume are true. I agree with that. Just having to swear to the fact that they’re not lying keeps some people honest.
Another suggestion is to have the candidate agree that it’s OK to speak to anyone at their previous job, not just their boss or the HR department. I agree with that, too. Official sources might not tell you much these days, but co-workers will and getting explicit permission to talk to them is a good idea.
Finally there’s the suggestion to have candidates sign a release to the effect that “I waive my rights to sue a previous employer and allow them to give information about my job […]
Do background checks on prospective tenants for the good of the community
In Pikeville, KY, a community group is “urging property owners within Pikeville city limits to help build a safer community by doing background checks on potential renters“. Makes sense to me.
What’s unique about this story is that this is not a law enforcement agency or landlord’s association that’s urging the background checks. It’s a community group. They think that having landlords do background checks on prospective tenants is good for the community.
They’re right. You may have heard of the “Broken Windows” theory first named in an article by James Wilson and George Kelling. The theory says that neighborhoods don’t go bad all at once.
First there are some broken windows that don’t get fixed. Then trash starts getting thrown on the sidewalk instead of put into trashcans. The downward spiral starts with small things.
And those small things often start with tenants who are criminals. They don’t just trash your place and jack up your maintenance and repair costs. They bring in their friends who aren’t exactly model citizens, either.
One cop once put it this way to me, “Look,” he said, “Criminals have this whole lifestyle that says they can do what they want regardless of how it affects other people. Do you really think that some guy who’ll steal your wallet or break into your house will pause to throw trash into the proper container? Not likely. He’ll throw it on the ground.”
Here’s the bottom line. Doing the kind of background criminal and credit checks that are good for your […]
Checking out the coaches in Bucks County
In Bucks County, PA, the Bucks County Courier Times reports on how “Parents urge board to make background checks a must.” Here’s what’s going on.
Pennsylvania laws require employees of schools and daycare centers submit to background checks. It requires foster parents to get checked. The idea is that people in those positions have privileged access to children.
But the state laws don’t cover coaches and other people working with sports teams, even though they have the same access to children. That’s why the Upper Southampton Board of Supervisors took up the issue and wound up passing a resolution to require background checks on people who work with children in the sports organizations that use public property.
The local sports organizations showed up at the Supervisors’ meeting to voice support for the resolution. But they had some concerns that “the background check results might take too long, not allowing coaches to be out on the field for practices and games.”
That shouldn’t be a concern. First, getting the appropriate background checks is an easy and straightforward process these days. Second, getting the checks done in time is more a matter or administrative procedure than anything. Third, it’s more important to keep kids safe than it is to get coaches on the field.
Finally, the Supervisors allowed for the fact that an organization might be caught short on time in exceptional circumstances. According to the article “if the activity has started, the organization needs to obtain the required clearance as soon as possible.”
The regulations are […]
Background checks can help prevent fraud in your small business
Recently SMB Finance magazine published a couple of articles about fraud and small businesses. SMB Finance is a bi-monthly magazine that provides news and resources specifically for financial executives in small and midsized businesses. The magazine is not available online.
One article pointed out that small businesses lose five percent of their annual revenue to fraud. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it could be the difference between thriving and going under for many small businesses.
Think about it. How much do you have left over after you’ve paid all the expenses? If your business took a hit for five percent of revenue where would it come from? For many small business owners, that five percent would come straight out of their own pocket or income.
The truth is that if fraud hits your small business it will probably be more than five percent of revenue. That figure is the average which means that most of the businesses who do get hit with fraud lose a lot more. That’s why you need to take some simple steps to prevent fraud.
Another article from SMB Finance suggests that having a background check as part of your hiring process is one of the best ways there is to keep fraud away from your door. It’s a simple and inexpensive solution.
Make a criminal background check part of your hiring process. Be sure to use a service, like SentryLink, that provides a check of national records.
Make a pre-employment credit check part of your wall of […]