Author: Site Staff

Background screening must be conducted in accordance with both the applicable Federal and State laws.

On the Federal level, this is primarily the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Some states have their own FCRA requirements and privacy laws as well.

Generally speaking, background screening must be conducted on the same basis for all applicants seeking a particular position or type of position. In other words, all applicants for a particular position must be subject to the same screening.

Limits on screening
Background checks can legally be conducted only for permitted purposes only, not simply because someone wants to gather information on another person. Background screening as part of pre-employment evaluation is one of the most common purposes recognized by law.

In addition, screening must be done with the knowledge and written consent of the applicant, as required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). In fact, the FCRA requirements pertain about 80 percent to investigative reports and only about 20 percent to credit reporting. Employers must follow those procedures to the letter, or they can be subject to invasion of privacy suits.

In most states, an employer is also prohibited from seeking from any source whatsoever a record of arrest that did not lead to conviction.

Finally, as a limitation on background screening, it should be remembered that merely finding derogatory information about an applicant is not necessarily sufficient to disqualify that person from employment. The deficiencies found must be shown to be “job-related,” according to the EEOC.

Source: InfoLink Screening Services

The information contained here is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion.

The following could be placed in every applicant’s file prior to applicantcoming onto premises:

Applicant:
Position:
Location:

Task	Yes/No	Date/Initial	Notes
Application Process
Did applicant sign consent for background investigation?
Is application complete?
Did applicant sign and date application?
Did applicant leave criminal questions blank?
Did applicant indicate a criminal record?
Did applicant explain why he or she had left pas jobs?
Did applicant explain gaps in job history?
Did applicant clearly identify previous employers?
Did applicant provide supervisor names?
Were there excessive changes?
Interview
Did applicant explain excessive changes?
Leaving past jobs: Did applicant explain satisfactorily?
Leaving past jobs: Was reason consistent with application?
Employment gaps: Did applicant explain satisfactorily?
Employment gaps: Explanations consistent with application?
“Our firm has a standard policy of background checks and drug tests on all applicants. Do you have any concerns you would like to share with me about our procedure?”			Response:
“When we contact past employers, pursuant to the release you have signed, would any of them tell us you were terminated, disciplined, or not eligible for rehire?”			Response:
“When we contact past employers, pursuant to the release you have signed, what do you think they would tell us about you?”			Response:
“When we contact the courthouse or police department, would we locate any criminal convictions or pending cases?”			Response:
Reference Checks (by employer or third party)
Have references been checked for at least the last five years, regardless of whether past employers will give details?
Have efforts been documented and placed in the file?
Discrepancies between information located and what applicant reported on application: a. dates/salary/job title/duties b. reason for leaving
Background Check
Submitted for background check?
Check completed?			By:
Background check reviewed for discrepancies/issues
NOT CLEAR or SATISFACTORY, action taken per policy and procedures.			Describe:

Notes (Use back of sheet, if necessary. Initial and date all entries):

 

 

©Lester S. Rosen, Employment ScreeningResources, 2001

The information contained here is intended to provide useful information on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice or a legal opinion.

The perfect fit between a background checking vendor and an employer depends on the employer’s objectives.

There are vendors that will provide a low cost, “down and dirty” search to provide some protection from negligent hiring liability at a low cost. Other vendors provide more extensive and accurate services focused on assisting employers concerned with safety and security or on making the most informed hiring decision.

Regardless of the whether the employer wants the minimum or something more, it should make sure that the vendor complies with all federal and state laws governing employment background checks. The background-checking company should be able to demonstrate its knowledge of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the EEOC, and other federal and state regulations that address employment background checks. It should also be able to demonstrate compliance procedures in place in its company.

One quick measure of compliance with the FCRA is whether or not the company requires you to have an applicant-signed release authorizing the background check before conducting the search. This is an FCRA mandate (along with several other requirements) and no check conducted by a vendor should be completed without having first obtained this authorization.

Additionally, employers should ask the vendor about the legality of its data sources. You certainly don’t want to be the recipient of illegally obtained information.

Of course, make sure you have an attorney familiar with the FCRA review your service agreement, making sure that it specifically describes the services provided, liability, and compliance roles of the parties involved.

Other common selection factors are:

• Can the company provide all the data that you need to make a hiring decision based on your goals?

  
  

• Can it provide the information in a timely manner?

  
  

• Is the data collected the most accurate available (primary sources)?

  
  

• Does it have a national or regional scope?

  
  

• Does it have sufficient staff to handle the volume they service?

  
  

• Does it offer convenient methods of ordering (Web, software, fax, phone, e-mail, etc.)

  
  

• Does it offer customer service hours for the full business day in your region?

  
  

• Can it provide regulatory guidance (especially the FCRA)?

  
  

Source: HireCheck

Peacekeeping HR, tech trends for 2002, the power of envy, and more – all in this month’s issue of Workforce magazine! Subscribe Now!

Features Lessons from a Crisis: How Communication Kept a Company Together Aon Corporation faced a catastrophe on Sept. 11. In the face of confusion, death, and destruction, its partly planned, partly improvised crisis communication network helped keep the company on its feet. Here are some lessons from Aon’s HR and IT crisis team. By Patrick J. Kiger In Uneasy Times, HR Renews Its Peacekeeping Mission The faces of terrorists fill newspapers and television screens, heightening tensions that can spill over into hate in the workplace. Now is the time for HR to rededicate itself to keeping the peace, through training and open lines of communication. By Monica Ballard Make Smarter Business Decisions: Know What Employees Can Do Developing systems that track employee skills and competencies, from word-processing, to the knack for managing change, is an HR necessity now. By Samuel Greengard Why Deep Layoffs Hurt Long-term Recovery The worker-cutting frenzy pleases Wall Street, but companies that slash too deeply hurt their chances for a strong recovery. HR can help set a saner course. By Eilene Zimmerman Special Advertising Section Technology Trends 2002 Technology is helping organizations recruit, train, run benefits, and manage workflow. It has fundamentally changed how HR does its job – for the better. Departments Between the Lines HR’s work in a darker world. Mailbox Getting the Hispanic story right • It takes more than money to motivate The Buzz Jim Martin goes from HR hotshot to Jesuit priest • Well Done: Better reviews yield great results • HR & Pop Culture: The unbearable strangeness of temping. On the Contrary Shari Caudron remembers a summer of courtesy folds, the Karens she hated, and reflects on the gifts that envy brings. What Works It only took a lemonade stand to turn Tom Terez into the kind of command-and-control manager he hates. But his two young business associates set him straight. Dear Workforce: Should they rehire the marijuana man? • Sept. 11 aftermath: Who helps HR? • Help for the chronically tardy Small, Medium, Large Traditional benefits administration is a paperwork blizzard, and guess who is buried in it? Here’s how HR in three companies dug their way out by putting their processes online. They saved money, time, and untold amounts of aggravation. Legal Insight Relocations that move into legal quagmires • A harasser who makes house calls • Discharge after an FMLA leave Think Twice You don’t have to move mountains to make a difference in your company. Todd Raphael has some suggestions for quietly radical HR ideas that work.

Q

Dear Workforce:

Our start-up company, which provides corporate communications services, wantsto hire a person for a commission-only business development position. Whatguidelines would you suggest to help us calculate a fair commission rate?

— Lacking sufficient historical data, executive,publishing/communication/advertising, Cresskill, New Jersey.

A Dear Lacking:

Be prepared to consider the following issues:

1. What influence does the business development person have on sales? Doesthe incumbent open doors, close sales, or generate leads?

2. Does the business development person (if selling) have control oversetting prices and ultimately profitability or does this come from elsewhere?

3. Is the business one that requires selling, or will the businessdevelopment person merely be involved in order taking?

4. What is the length of the selling cycle?

5. Are sales recurring, or one time only?

These fundamental issues affect the design of commission plans regardless ofwhether it is in early stages of development or after there is cash flow. Asliding scale generally works better when successive sales are easier or moredifficult (remember, the scale may slide in either direction depending on thebusiness needs).

Conceptually, the commission program is about sharing a portion of theprofits from a sale with the individual who generated it. The degree of sharingis typically driven by the unique expertise required to produce results withinthe confines of what a business developer can control. For instance, the greaterthe value success is to the company in this area, the larger the commission thatwill need to be paid. It’s also important to remember that should any of thefactors that influence commissions change, the underlying commission schedule ormethodology may change also.

A good starting point is to determine what an appropriate pay would be foraverage performance, model it into sales and profit objectives and then leverageit for better-than average and less-than average results. If the businessdevelopment person also has control of pricing and/or profitability the scheduleshould be adjusted to reflect this.

SOURCE: Howard Goldsmith, VicePresident, The SegalCompany, New York, N.Y.,May 30, 2001.

LEARN MORE: See “HR 101: Compensation“

The information contained in this article is intended to provide usefulinformation on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice ora legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

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Dear Workforce Newsletter

The future of your organization is directly linked to your employees’depth of experience and their skill sets, especially with those employees whoknow the business inside out and can solve difficult problems. What will happenif one or more key players leave the company? Are you equipped to identify andprepare talented candidates for succession?

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    By leveraging technology, you can reduce time to hire,cost per hire, and have a plan in place to deploy the right person in the rightposition at the right time. Web-based applications can integrate every aspectof these processes to simplify and streamline the process.

    This technology can allow your HR team to collect essentialfacts about potential and current employees (performance, education, competencies,training, and career paths, for instance) and then seamlessly analyze and disseminatethe information. Recruiters in any location around the world can then sharethe information, enhance productivity and quickly place the right people. Thefinal result: your organization will expend fewer resources to attain, train,and retain critical talent. Call Peopleclick today for your recruiting, organizationaldevelopment and affirmative-action needs: (877) 820-4400.

At this time of national crisis, Workforce interviewed clerics throughout thecountry about what they would say or do if they were a director of human resources.

The Rev. Pamela Harvey is a minister at the Riverside Church, aninterdenominational, interracial and international congregation in Manhattan.

 

“We’ve got to find ways in corporations to be helpful to people andto learn from this. Employers need to be aware that times will get worse beforethey get better. There probably will be more incidences of bad behavior atwork, and we have to be prepared to deal with it. We have to be attentiveto people’s pain.

 

“New York is a war zone. As the Novocain wears off, the tooth reallystarts to hurt. Then there is more fear and rage. The fragile people are fallingapart. The caregivers are more stressed.

 

“Also, everyone is downsizing. If I were director of human resources,I’d encourage people to go to their mosque, their church, or their synagogue.I would give them time off. I would invite people in to talk about interfaithand interracial issues.

 

“If there are a lot of different faiths in the workplace, talking isimperative. You can’t separate people from their faith places. Those placesoffer people both big strengths and deep biases.”

Muzammil Siddiqi is one of the religious leaders who spoke at thepresidential ceremony at the National Cathedral three days after the terroristattacks. He is a past president of the Islamic Society of North America, andserves as director of the Islamic Society of Orange County in Garden Grove,California.

 

“I would emphasize how to be good to each other in the workplace — how toshow more courtesy and kindness to people who don’t look like you or havethe same faith.

 

“We are living in a more dangerous world now. There is a lot of mistrust.We need to remove the fear. We must emphasize good, trustworthy relationshipsin the workplace. We should encourage people to discuss different opinions.And we must do more than say prejudice will not be tolerated. We have to doall we can to actually build relationships.”

Acharya (master) Judith Simmer-Brown is a professor and chairmanof religious studies at Naropa University, a liberal arts college with a Buddhistheritage in Boulder, Colorado.

 

“Since Sept. 11, I think we’ve all seen an incredible growth in kindnessand gentleness. A key in Buddhism is to work with one’s own anger and aggression.A single act of peace has to start with ourselves. We have to begin to seeourselves as a member of a large international family.

 

“You don’t have to enforce kindness in the workplace — merely encourageit. Workshops about dealing with conflict in a non-adversarial way, and mediation,are tremendously positive approaches in the workplace.

 

“We work on seeing the anger and initiating compassion rather than just reacting.I would take this time as an opportunity to appreciate the preciousness oflife. If you see people who are upset or angry and stressed, try to receivethem with as much kindness as possible.

 

“It’s good to reflect on one’s own experience about what has happened, andto work on not being reactive, as in, “This is my agenda, my projectis the most important.”

Rabbi Peter Rubinstein is the senior rabbi at Central Synagogue,largest reform congregation in New York City.

 

“If I were director of HR, I would bring the whole staff together. One, fora time of memorial — even if you don’t know anyone who was killed. It wouldbe conducted in a ritual voice, not necessarily a religious voice. Two, Iwould acknowledge the spectrum of emotions we are all going through — thesadness, the short temperedness, the anxiety — the very real impact it hashad on us.

 

“I would be proactive. I’d say to the employees, “We understand we areall creatures of emotions, and this may impact our feelings with our co-workers.If you are the object of someone’s anxiety, it may not be personal.”Anxiety is clearly there. Now we have mail and security issues. People areafraid, and they are vulnerable. They wonder, “Is my job going to last?”One anxiety triggers another.

 

“These are extraordinary times.”

Q

Dear Workforce:

We have a supervisor who is perceived as treating a majority of those underher in an unfair manner. What’s the best way to address this: Should she seeeach employee separately to discuss the problem, or have a meeting with allemployees to address any misunderstandings/issues?

— Quelling controversy, HR assistant, manufacturing, Newnan, Georgia.

A Dear Quelling:

Assuming that this perception has been communicated through 360-degreefeedback or some method in which the supervisor does not know whose perceptionthis is, she should not talk to employees either individually or together atfirst. Most likely, the question would sound more defensive than intended.

Instead, the supervisor first should think about what may be causing thisperception. In our coaching experience, we find that many times the supervisorhas some ideas about what the cause of the perception might be. In addition, bytrying to figure out what it may be, the supervisor becomes owner of theproblem. This is important, even when the problem is the perception of others.

If the supervisor knows what might be causing the perception, she has anumber of options. She can change the behavior, confirm it is the source of theperception, or explain the reasons for the differential treatment. If thesupervisor wants to confirm the source of the perception, she could ask forfeedback. For instance:

“I received feedback that some people believe that I treat othersunfairly. I do not know whether this is your perception, but I would like yourhelping in understanding this perception. When I give out assignments, does itseem certain people get assignments that have more exposure to higher managementthan others?”

The supervisor should wait for the response, which likely will either agreeor disagree.

If the person disagrees, the supervisor then should ask:

“If it is not that, could you give me some ideas about what might becreating this perception?”

It is critical that, when seeking clarification, the supervisor does notargue or defend herself. You are just searching for information. Decide whethera change in behavior is needed is a later decision.

SOURCE: Susan Gebelein,Executive Vice President for Personnel DecisionsInternational Corp. (PDI), May 29, 2001.

LEARN MORE: See “Managers MatterMost,” tolearn how managers should take the lead in helping retain key employees.

The information contained in this article is intended to provide usefulinformation on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice ora legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

Ask a Question

Dear Workforce Newsletter

Q

Dear Workforce:

I am the new manager of a 15-person technical group that always has been runin a traditional manner. I am trying to switch to a team-based culture byinviting people to volunteer for the first project. I was clear about theproject requirements, resources needed, and project life cycle. Short andfocused — yet nobody volunteered. What should I do next to convince people tojoin the team?

— Manager of technical resources, software/systems, Miami, Florida.

A Dear New Manager:

Congratulations on your new opportunity. It’s always a challenge for anorganization to switch its culture. Everyone resists change; it is our naturalhuman reaction to the unknown. The best way to ease this concern is to allowpeople to digest, question, and take ownership of the changes. You might want toconsider the following:

Hold a meeting to share ideas on the new outlook with the group and ask fortheir feedback. At the meeting, describe the culture change you envision and howthis change will improve current team efforts and the company as a whole.Discuss the reasoning behind this shift in focus. Explain how these changes willbenefit the employees. People will respond to your emotions and excitement, soshow enthusiasm for the future and the growth of the team.

After setting the context for the changes in culture, allow the group to talkit out. Ask them for thoughts and ideas on improving the group. (Of course, ifyou are going to ask, you must listen and respond to their ideas). Take notes ofall the suggestions and/or write them on a white board or flip chart ifavailable. Be open to adjusting your ideas to include the most reasonable andeffective products of this discussion.

Once the group has discussed the various issues surrounding theorganizational change, recap the goals and suggestions made and possibly outlinethe next steps. Then ask the group directly for volunteers for the task team youare forming.

Keep everyone in the loop once expectations and goals are clearly set.Determine your team’s most effective forms of communication, whether it ise-mail, regular group meetings, postings, or company newsletters. It isimportant to perpetuate the teamwork concept by continually updating the groupon its progress.

Taking on the task of switching to a team-based culture is a laudable one.Giving employees the opportunity to identify themselves as members of a trueteam is a great step toward your continued success. Congratulations again onyour new opportunity, and good luck.

SOURCE: Liz Petersen, human resources manager, Personnel Management Systems,Inc., Kirkland, Wash., May 20, 2001.

LEARN MORE: See “Five Effective LeadershipQualities“

The information contained in this article is intended to provide usefulinformation on the topic covered, but should not be construed as legal advice ora legal opinion. Also remember that state laws may differ from the federal law.

Ask a Question

Dear Workforce Newsletter

If your organization is developing people for senior management position,you’re going to have to have a well-defined profile of what you want in futuresenior leaders.

In a new book by William C. Byham, Ph.D., Audrey B. Smith, Ph.D., and MatthewJ. Paese, Ph.D. entitled Grow Your OwnLeaders, the authors contrast thecharacteristics of traditional leaders with contemporary leaders:

TraditionalLeader	ContemporaryLeader
Makesall major decisions; solves team problems; acts as expert	Sharesresponsibility with team members; helps team solve problems
Controlswork flow; responsible for work group’s results	Promotesself-management and responsibility as well as ownership of tasks/processes(e.g. direct reports measure own progress and take corrective action asnecessary)
Givesanswers; plays “expert” role	Asksthe right questions; allows direct reports to be experts
Laysdown the rules	Articulatesand rallies troops around a vision and set of values
Valuesunanimity/conformity	Valuesdiverse perspectives
Seeksto eliminate conflict	Seesconflict as an opportunity for synergy and enriched decision-making
Reactive;resists change	Proactive;initiates change; embraces change as necessary for organizational survival
Focuseson tasks, products, technical skills	Focuseson processes, people
Linear,analytical thinking	Non-linear,holistic thinking (systems)
Seeksfunctional, specialized expertise	Seekscross-functional, cross-cultural expertise
Concernedonly about own area of responsibility	Concernedabout total organization; tries to be good partner with other groupswithin company
Fiercelycompetitive	Fiercelycompetitive, but must often partner with competitors, vendors, customers
Concernedonly with domestic operations	Preparedto think on larger, global scale
Thinksof people as interchangeable resources	Thinksof people as organization’s most valuable resource, knows they aredifficult to replace
Putsorganization’s needs before employees’ needs	Seeksa balance between organization’s and employees’ needs
Avoidsrisk	Takesrisk
Usesfunctional, short-term thought process	Usessystematic, long-term thought process

© MMI, DevelopmentDimensions International, Inc. Reprinted with permission from DevelopmentDimensions International, Inc.