There are several issues that I have with this article, because while it is a factual statement that background checks aren’t foolproof, there is a better method of conducting them. I really do not think that everything is being done to protect the children, if they are not exhausting all avenues of background checks, instead of relying on a cursory check at the beginning of their employment. There is a new trend out there, called progressive screening and has the same methodology as random drug screening. This could be a suggestion to the school district. Read more…

This is the second article in a series by our Guest Blogger Jack Thomas.

In the first of this series, I asked you to keep separate notes on each job or educational experience. Now you’ll find out why. Whether you decide to proceed with the resume yourself, or if you have to decided to have someone else do it for you, I want you to follow the same instructions. Part of selling yourself is to see things in a bigger picture frame of mind. You need to really focus on each experience and describe in detail, or at least expound on what the experience is. If you do it yourself, you should write it out first. If you’re having someone else do it, be sure you can at least explain it to them for the purposes of putting it in writing. Read more…

This article comes to us from our guest blogger Jack Thomas. Mr. Thomas is a Manager for a National Company, Certified Facilitator for Advanced Management, and a Consultant to other Agencies.

With all the changes in the way people communicate, we knew it was just a matter of time before the face to face applying for a job would become a thing of the past. There are a few exceptions out there, but far and large, more and more companies are using electronic media to at least start the process. So, how does this pertain to you? This is the first in a series of articles about how to address the process. Over the next few days I hope to share enough with you to make the process less cumbersome and more productive.  Let’s get started. Read more…

California legislature is dangerously close to passing a law that changes the use of pre employment credit reports by employers. 

The current law allows for the usage if it is substantially job related.  Under the reason of substantially job related, the current reasons are as follows:

• The position is a highly compensated or managerial one
• The position is one in which there is access to customer or employee personal or financial information.
• The position involves fiduciary responsibility or the handling or managing of money or requires travel.

The newly proposed law would eliminate the second two reasons, thus prohibiting an employer from pulling consumer credit reports for these types of positions.  We urge you to contact your state senator if you have business, employees or potential applicants in the State of California.  Below is a link to do so:

http://napbs.com/members_rep_letters.php

This article is a very scary reminder that the so-called statewide criminal databases are enough of a check for employment purposes. Far too often, employers rely on these “statewide” systems to make important hiring decisions and are not aware of the huge holes left in the system. Read more…

This article comes to us from our guest blogger Jack Thomas a HR manger from a large multi-national corporation.

There are a lot of buzz words floating around in business these days. Mentoring, Coaching, Paradigms, Teamwork, etc… But I’d like to give you the scoop on really impressing someone who is interviewing you for a position. I like to call it the New Buzzword- WORK ETHIC.

I’ve interviewed numerous people for positions and fellow colleagues ask me what it is that impresses me the most from applicants. It is too easy to ask people to tell if they’re a team player or if they’re coachable. There is really no way to verify the answer. The applicant can make up just about anything and you either believe them or you don’t. There’s also a lot of talk about generation X or generation Y personalities and how they determine how people will fit into the workforce.

While all of these have merit, the bottom line is this: A person has to be willing  to come to work, on time, do the job you’ve requested and trained them for, and help the company produce a profit from the work being done. That’s as simple as I can break it down. So when I’m interviewing someone, or if you are the person doing the interview, you want to find out what their work ethic is. What those in Human Resources are finding across the country is this- All the training and coaching mean nothing if you can’t retain people that won’t come to work!

A good work ethic, or lack thereof, also has great economic ramifications. Every time  anew person is hired, the employer assumes costs related to training, orientation, and a learning curve while the person becomes acclimated to their job. Every time someone fails to live up to the expectations, the process must repeat itself, costing the employer time and considerable resources. Think about it. Have you ever heard someone say of an employee, “They do a great job-when they’re here.” Then why are they still there? In these economic times, there are too many people who are willing to come to work to compromise and retain those who are not.

It is in many cases, however tough to get rid of people once they have their “foot in the door.” Therefore, it is imperative to select the right person in the first place. I’d like to give you some tips to assist in assessing someone’s work ethic, including your own. Here are some sample questions-

1.) Can you give me an example of when you went beyond the scope of your responsibility to either assist a customer or complete a task? Who can verify this?

2.) I want you to give me an example of what you consider to be good attendance.( Upon responding, ask the follow-up)- Does your work record reflect that you have good attendance following the guidelines you just described for me?

3.) Use an example- Employee A is an outstanding worker, but has a tendency to be late 2 or three times a week. Employee B is steady, but not outstanding, but is always prompt and pays attention to detail. Which employee would you describe yourself as? Give me specific examples from your previous employment that could verify this. (What you really want of course is the combination of both. The person who is outstanding AND has a good attendance record.)

4.) I’ve assigned a task to you that has a 2 week deadline. At the end of week one, you realize you may not get the job done in time. What would you do? ( This one allows them to be creative, and although you may not be able to verify the answer,a person’s true work ethic is exposed under pressure. If they can’t come up with a good answer now, they won’t when it comes to crunch time either.)

5.) Instead of asking if they are trainable, or coachable, ask them to describe a time when they were working and knew nothing about the task assigned. Have them tell you how they learned what to do and how the contributed to the success of the task.( This will encourage them to speak not only of how they were trained, and if it was effective, it also gives insight into how hard they tried themselves to learn. It may also bring out some personalities that show drive and initiative, which are things that are near impossible to teach!

I hope you’re getting the idea. WORK ETHIC involves the total scope of how someone views their employment and  responsibility to the task at hand. It relieves the pressure of having to find out,mostly too late, if the person selected really can fit into the position being offered. Of course use a quality pre-employment screening service so that nothing slips through the cracks, and to ensure there is not other reasons to pass on the hiring of the applicant. If you would like to read more tips about the hiring and interview processes, check out the free advice at http://www.safeemployer.com

The author of this article sites a problem with retention in the call center industry cites a FurstPerson white paper discusses methods of raising the retention rate for this industry. One the ideas is to conduct pre employment screening and offer various pre employment screening tools for a call center to employ. A pre employment screening program can give you a better understanding of who you are hiring. Read more…

A group of high school girls in Boston sat stranded while waiting for their limo drive to return. He never showed back up. Turns out that while being stopped for being parked in a closed lot before picking the girls up, he was arrested. His license had been suspended for 2 years.
Yet their story was not as bad as others I researched. In February of 2007, according to the Rocky Mountain News, a 17 year old girl lost her leg when the limo driver,charged with careless driving ran over her. It was revealed that the driver had 2 prior DUI citations and was a registered sex offender barred from contact with minors.To their credit, Colorado now requires limo drivers to undergo background checks, both criminal and from the DMV.

The story repeated itself in June of this year in Newburyport, Ma. The driver there had been convicted of aggravated felonious assault on someone under the age of 13! The problem had also surfaced across the pond. In Wales, police are pushing for mandatory background checks of all limo and taxi drivers! Their fear? Forty percent of limo rental business is from teenagers or their parents for things like proms and graduation parties.

I am not suggesting all drivers are bad. In states where checks are mandatory, the largest majority of applicants pass with no problems. However, the problem is the regulations vary from state to state and in some cases, county to county within a particular state. For instance, in California, where background checks of drivers are mandatory, there is a much lower instance of arrests with limo drivers than in states where no such regulations exsist. So what can be done? Well other than mounting a political rally within your county or state legislator’s office, officials in all the cities researched share the same sentiments. Make sure the driver is licensed.
(In most states this is called a right to carry passenger license,or some other terminology close to that.) Also, especially where young people are involved, ask the questions you would when your child is with a stranger. Has this person been cleared for this activity? Does your company perform criminal background checks on all drivers? Or as one parent from Boston put it- If you need to, check their breath yourself, and have someone else check everything else. Sounds like good advice.

With all the celebrities getting into trouble, celebrity mug shots come a dime a dozen. Plus, most of the time, the celebrity’s mug shot is displayed every where, giving the celebrity even more notoriety. Crimcheck.com is taking that idea and twisting it a little bit. Crimcheck.com is offering an awesome contest, and the challenge is quite simple, use your investigative skills to figure out which celebrity’s mug shot this is. Enter for your chance to win a 16G iPod Touch and accessory kit (retailed value of $449.95). Hurry though! The contest is ending on August 23rd! Good Luck!

Click Here To Enter The Contest

1. Resume Fraud. An estimated 52% of applicants lie on their resumes. If you are able to determine which applicants have misstated their credentials, you can eliminate them from the get-go without wasting any more time in the process. Read more…