Do you have a blog, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Twitter, or other social media profiles active? If you don’t certainly many of your employees and candidates who have at least one of these things. The penetration of social media into the lives of people is getting higher.

There is a growing trend to start looking for these profiles by employers (both current and future) to check out current and future employees. People in HR that I know who do this say it is an extra insurance policy. If someone is bragging about illegal activity on their Facebook page, it could be an indicator of things to come.

Read more…

Have you been through airport security lately? I have and it isn’t much fun. And if you fly regularly, you know the routine:

• Put everything you can into your bag
• Keep your boarding pass and ID out
• Take off your shoes
• Take out your laptop
• Empty your pockets
• Take off your belt
• Take off your jacket

Then do a quick prayer and march yourself through the metal detector. Hope nothing goes wrong and your through. Read more…

Russia, Iran , Syria. These places got nothin’ on your own IT department. That’s right, according to The National Association of State Chief Information Officers the majority of cyber attacks on a company’s computing infrastructure comes from within the companies own IT staff. You may remember Terry Childs the network engineer that locked out the City of San Francisco’s IT department from it’s own computer network. That one example got major media coverage but it happens a lot more than many would think at companies all over the country. Also consider corporate espionage, disgruntled employees, identity theft and employees just out to “have some fun”, it’s enough to give you shivers down your spine. Read more…

One of the really interesting things to me about background checks is what services people use and why they choose to screen certain employees in certain ways.

Just for a quick example, a former employer of mine used to screen everyone exactly the same no matter what the position entailed. So a financial controller gets the same level of scrutiny as our janitor. The amount of background checks some lower level staff went through was excrutiating to them. The janitor candidates would shake their heads at the amount they would have to go through. We lost many others because of past credit problems as well.

Read more…

By Jack Thomas

Today’s installment comes to us courtesy of the Des Moines, Iowa Register. Tim Martin, a Prairie Meadows trainer is puzzled by the labor issues surrounding his barn. The industry has become dependent on immigrant help, due largely to the fact that the jobs are so low paying. American workers just do not want the jobs, and the animals must be serviced at an affordable cost. Read more…

New Series- The Nifty Fifty
By Jack Thomas

Welcome to the first in an ongoing series of articles revealing the intriguing and sometimes just bizarre stories surrounding the arena of background check related stories from across the country. Weekly, I will be sharing stories from one or two states. Please check back often to see if you’re state has made the list yet! Read more…

I realize that a limited number of times, I may be sarcastic in my posts. You may have not noticed this because it is hard to detect sarcasm on the net.

So you’ll just have to take my word that when I say that the Fair Credit Reporting Act is your friend, you’ll take me seriously this one time. Because I am telling you HR person and hiring managers scared of these initials (and I know who you are), the FCRA will bail you out in times of trouble. You just have to play by the rules.

Quick primer on why you need to know anything at all about FCRA: Read more…

Since the September 11th bombings the FBI has made some surprising discoveries. Hundreds of terrorist suspects and insurgents that have been rounded up in Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa have criminal records here in the United States. Many of the suspects have multiple felony records including drug, assault and weapons charges. Read more…

This legislation that was signed by the governor is exciting news to the background screening industry. In past, the school districts have only been able to run their background checks through the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Read more…

In this article, the Department of Children and Family Services failed to conduct a pre employment background check on an employee after he was arrested on suspicion of child pornography. This article underscores the importance of conducting background checks on all employees. While there may not have been any sexual related offenses in the applicant’s background, the check may have revealed some other disqualifying information. A proper background check will verify the applicant’s social security number, and then determine their residential history. This residential history is used to search for any felony or misdemeanor convictions.
Read more…