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Should You Screen Current Employees?

Should You Screen Current Employees?

Blog, Resources

Employees looking at a computer

You’ve hired a new employee. After sending them a job offer, you run a background check to search for any red flags. Their previous employment, education, and criminal history all come back clear. So you’re done with employee screening now, right? Well, not exactly. To continue to have a safe workplace and for your customer’s safety, it is good practice to rescreen your current employees regularly.  

Only eleven percent of companies consistently rescreen their current employees. For the remaining eighty-nine percent, if an employee commits a crime after being hired, then the only way they’re going to find out is when the employee starts missing days for court or disappears altogether when they go to jail. For this reason, many companies are beginning to adopt this rescreening policy.

Bring Issues to Light

Some employers only see it as an added cost to their business, but that is far from the truth. By implementing a policy of checking for criminal records or verifying credentials on an annual or semi-annual basis, employers can save themselves a lot of future time and money due to legal liabilities. 

The most convincing reason to rescreen is that it allows employers to keep their workplace safe. The most common issues that come to light in a rescreening are financial problems, revoking of a professional license or recent criminal activity. If these issues weren’t brought into the open through rescreening, then this could lead to severe liabilities for your business. This transparency allows for more trust and a safe workplace. 

Quarterly Watch® by SELECTiON.COM® allows employers to re-check their employees, volunteers, or sub-contractors quarterly, to make sure no new criminal activity has occurred since hiring. While most of our clients prefer to re-screen every three months, we also offer the option of annual and semi-annual checks. Quarterly Watch® is an innovative combination of our Search America® national criminal database and background check automation. 

Contact us today to add Quarterly Watch® to your company’s background screening process. 

NOTE: The contents of this article are not legal advice for your particular situation. You should neither act nor rely upon anything stated in this article without first consulting your legal counsel.   

These Important Steps Reduce the Risk of Employee Theft

These Important Steps Reduce the Risk of Employee Theft

Blog, Resources

Man puts money into his pocket.

Employees are given much responsibility and are essential to running a business. That can also create a significant risk. Employee theft is a big issue that small business owners face in the United States.  According to the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), nearly two-thirds of small businesses fall victim to employee theft and forty percent of employee theft is monetary. 

Most businesses that do have issues of employee theft will not seek legal action. Only sixteen percent of companies report employee theft to police because companies don’t believe it’s worth their time to pursue it. Large companies may think it’s not worth their trouble, but smaller businesses take a harder hit and can’t risk it. There are many ways to be proactive to stop employee theft before it even happens. 

Check Background

Criminal background checks are one way to prevent hiring employees with records of employee theft. While there is no way to protect against employee theft or prevent first-time offenders entirely, the best way to prevent employee theft is to make smart hiring decisions.   

Knowing the background of your applicant can be your greatest indicator of the ability to do their job with honesty and integrity. The only way to truly know is to check their criminal and work history for specific incidents that indicate such behavior. By conducting criminal background checks on job candidates, a company can be sure that applicants don’t have any previous record of misusing company property. 

Check References

Although criminal background checks will give you valuable information about an applicant’s criminal history, a character reference check is the best way to get others’ perceptions of your applicant. References will give you information on the applicant’s character. This is essential information when making a hiring decision that will reflect on your business and ethical values.  

It’s a good idea to consistently look out for any red flags, such as unexplained debt or missing financial records throughout employment. 

SELECTiON.COM® will develop a pre-employment and post-employment system to mitigate the risk of employee theft. Our pre-employment background check options along with our Quarterly Watch®, which can be run yearly as well, will help keep you on the right track.  

Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can take your employment background check process to the next level.   

NOTE: The contents of this article are not legal advice for your particular situation. You should neither act nor rely upon anything stated in this article without first consulting your legal counsel.  

Why Background Checks are an Essential Part of Hiring Seasonal Employees

Why Background Checks are an Essential Part of Hiring Seasonal Employees

Blog, Resources

ackground checks in the retail industry

With the weather warming up and students finishing up their school year, businesses are starting to hire temporary employees for the summer. These workers are vital to companies where business grows during certain months of the year.   

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, amusement parks, museums, restaurants, spectator sports, and fitness centers, all experience spikes in employment during the summer. Similarly, jobs in the retail industry rise during the winter.  

A seasonal employee is hired for a position that lasts six months or less. Typically, these employees are employed at the same time each year. Many temporary workers are high school or college students with little work experience.   

Workplace Safety Concerns

Since these employees don’t always have an employment history to check and are unlikely to have a criminal record, some businesses think it’s safe to slack off background screening for all seasonal hires. However, this is not helpful in the long run. These kinds of blanket policies help keep the door open for criminals and bad employees.  

Sometimes seasonal employees have little loyalty to the company, a lack of training and are less supervised, which could lead to unreliable employees, attendance issues, and theft. Even though seasonal employees usually have limited access to company information and facilities, they still can pose safety threats to full-time workers and customers and can have a detrimental effect on the business’s reputation.  

An employee is 5.4 times more likely to steal from their company than a customer is. As a result, employee theft alone costs U.S. businesses $50 billion annually. Seasonal workers can be apathetic and may tend to fall into this category more often because they do not have a long-term relationship with the employer.  

Being Proactive

Many companies use seasonal hires as a pool of employees to choose from to keep on year-round. Observing performance in-person is a great way to find the staff you’d like to keep on. However, if they didn’t properly screen their summer workers, then they could have missed something as important as a pattern of aggression in the workplace or criminal charges. This kind of behavior could ruin the company’s reputation or cause the loss of customers.  

Employers run background checks to protect the safety of their employees and customers. According to a National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) national survey, 89 percent of employers stated that public safety was the top reason they conduct background checks. Workplace safety is a top concern for employers. If it is compromised, then the employer will be held accountable for it.  

Although this isn’t true for most seasonal employees, when it comes to the safety of your workforce and customers, it is better to be proactive.   

Use a Third-Party

Outsourcing the responsibility of background checks to a professional screening firm is the right choice. By using a third-party, this allows the experts to provide your potential hire’s criminal record accurately. It also saves the company time, so you don’t have to call past employers and check references. Background screening candidates can help businesses make smart and knowledgeable hiring decisions.  

Background screening companies are compliant with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) regulations and labor laws, and many are accredited with the NAPBS. A right background check partner should provide all the documents you need to stay compliant.   

According to an NAPBS national survey, 96 percent of employers run background checks on employees, and only 67 percent of employers surveyed say they screen their part-time employees. Still, be thorough in your employment screening process and run a background check for all employees regardless of the length of employment.  

Smart Hiring

It is a huge responsibility to ensure a safe working environment for employees. The best step towards meeting this goal and preventing worker theft is by running background checks on all employees, no matter how long their employment will be. Employers will be protecting their reputation of a safe, secure work environment if they have screened qualified employees. Background checks are the final step to ensure smart hiring and protect employers from possible hidden risks.  

Employers will have peace of mind when they know that they are hiring the best candidates. A business’s name is just as important to employers as attracting the most qualified workers. If they want to make sure that they’ve chosen the right person, then running a background check is just as important as the rest of the hiring process.   

Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can take your employment background check process to the next level.  

NOTE: The contents of this article are not legal advice for your particular situation. You should neither act nor rely upon anything stated in this article without first consulting your own legal counsel. 

New York City Bans Pre-Employment Testing of Marijuana in 2020

New York City Bans Pre-Employment Testing of Marijuana in 2020

Blog, Resources

New York City will soon prohibit employers from requiring job applicants to submit to testing for the presence of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is the active ingredient in marijuana.  

This bill, Introduction No. 1445-A, was approved by the New York City Council on April 9 and was enacted after the 30-day deadline passed without a signature from the mayor. It will go into effect in a year.  

This is the first law of its kind to ban pre-employment testing. While other states have permitted medical or recreational use of marijuana, none have passed laws that ban employers from testing job candidates. The state of New York is among the group of states that have not legalized the recreational use of marijuana, which makes the passage of this bill a bit surprising. 

Introduction No. 1445-A amends the New York City Human Rights Law. It states that “except as otherwise provided by law, it shall be an unlawful discriminatory practice for an employer, labor organization, employment agency, or agent thereof to require a prospective employee to submit to testing for the presence of any tetrahydrocannabinol or marijuana in such prospective employee’s system as a condition of employment.”  

Exceptions

The following exceptions to this law are provided for safety and security sensitive jobs, as well as federal or state contract employees. 

  • Police officers, peace officers or any position with law enforcement 
  • Commercial drivers 
  • Construction or demolition workers 
  • Positions for which testing is mandated under federal law or contract 
  • Positions requiring supervision or care of children, medical patients, and persons with physical or cognitive disabilities 
  • Positions that significantly impact the health and safety of employees or the public 

Employers in New York City should review their policies on pre-employment drug testing. These procedures should be revised to comply with the new law. 

Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can take your employment background check process to the next level. 

NOTE: The contents of this article are not legal advice for your particular situation. You should neither act nor rely upon anything stated in this article without first consulting your own legal counsel. 

 

Employee Spotlight: Kurt Loy

Employee Spotlight: Kurt Loy

Blog, Employee Spotlight, Video

Kurt Loy has been a valued member of SELECTiON.COM® since 1999. Here’s a little more about him.

Favorite part of working at SELECTiON.COM®

The close-knit family environment

Favorite Hobby

Tabletop gaming

Favorite Quote

“On some nights, I still believe that a car with the gas needle on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio.” – Hunter S. Thompson

Favorite Sports Team

U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team

Bucket List Item

Visit Deadwood, South Dakota

Fun Fact

He has two amazing children that have a love of the theater, books, and family.

Exactly How Accurate Are Fingerprint Background Checks? 

Exactly How Accurate Are Fingerprint Background Checks? 

Blog, Resources

It is commonly thought that a fingerprint background check is an all-encompassing background screening. No two fingerprints are alike, so the background check would be accurate, right? However, the criminal records associated with the fingerprint are sometimes incomplete. We will go into detail explaining what a fingerprint background check is, the industries that use it, and its accuracy.  

What is a fingerprint background check? 

Fingerprints used to be stamped onto a paper card and sent to an expert who would compare the fingerprint to the others in the database. Now, fingerprints are captured digitally from a scanner. This process is cleaner and faster than what was previously done. Fingerprints are stored in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) database. 

What does it show? 

A person’s fingerprint can identify a lot of information about a person. A fingerprint can pinpoint a person’s birth date, name, address and employment status. It can also identify a person’s criminal record, which includes criminal arrests, charges, and dispositions of cases. Over 70 million criminal backgrounds along with fingerprints are stored in the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). 

Do companies still use fingerprint background checks? 

In short, yes. Many industries are mandated to include fingerprinting in their pre-employment background screening. Some of these industries that require fingerprinting are education, health care, and child care. Millions of Americans each year apply for these positions and are fingerprinted. 

 How accurate is a fingerprint background check? 

No two fingerprints are the same, which is why fingerprinting can be accurate. A fingerprint can’t be faked. However, the record that goes along with the fingerprint isn’t always complete. 

In the case of fingerprint background checks, some records, such as misdemeanor drug offenses, public intoxication and disorderly conduct, can be missed simply because the crime is a ticketed offense in that area and doesn’t require being fingerprinted in the first place. 

The associated information is oftentimes inaccurate or incomplete. For case dispositions, many records that are submitted to the FBI do not include the court’s final ruling. Sadly, there is no universal reporting methodology and local regulations vary, which is a big part of the problem. It is up to the states and local agencies to decide what is reported to the FBI database. 

What is a good solution? 

The best solution is not to depend solely on one source expecting to return a 100 percent accurate and completed criminal background report. Combined reports are the best options to get a thorough background check.  

That is why at SELECTiON.COM® we always recommend a thorough approach to your pre-employment discovery and background check procedure. 

We bundle reporting based specifically upon the needs of our clients, combining granular criminal reporting from the actual counties of residency and the most complete national criminal database in the industry. 

Contact us today to see how SELECTiON.COM® can take your employment background check process to the next level. 

NOTE: The contents of this article are not legal advice for your particular situation. You should neither act nor rely upon anything stated in this article without first consulting your own legal counsel. 

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