Getting a college diploma apparently no longer requires years of hard work, going to class, taking tests, paying tuition or even reading a book. Why bother going through the formalities when all a person needs is a credit card and a web browser in order to buy an authentic looking diploma that mimics real colleges, universities and even high schools across the U.S.? Go to any search engine and run keywords such as “Fake Diploma” and anyone can instantly “graduate” from nearly any school in America with a very handsome and authentic looking diploma suitable for hanging.

One such website advertises that it creates “very realistic diplomas/transcripts. These diplomas/ transcripts are extremely high quality printed on official parchment quality paper. You can show your employer and they will never doubt that you indeed attended college. You will not find better quality anywhere!!!”

Some of these sites “officially” caution that the diplomas and transcripts are intended for “Novelty and Entertainment Use Only.” However, the fake documents you receive do not have a disclaimer written any place on them.

With statistics showing that resume fraud is a significant issue, employers must be very cautious about accepting a physical diploma as proof of a degree. When presented with a physical diploma or transcripts, employers should fax a copy to the school to confirm its authenticity. Most background firms can tell stories of faxing copies of degrees, supplied by the applicant, to high schools and colleges only to be told the degree is a fake.

These fakes have not entirely escaped official attention. In Illinois, the legislature passed a law in 2004 aimed at addressing educational fraud. It is now a Class A Misdemeanor to knowingly manufacture or produce for profit or for sale a false academic degree, unless the degree explicitly states “for novelty purposes only.”

Employment Screening Resources (www.ESRcheck.com) has expertise in verifying legitimate education credentials and in spotting phony degrees and or worthless degrees from degree mills.

A new law in Hawaii effective July 1, 2009, regulates the use of employment credit reports by making their use an unlawful discriminatory practice except under certain circumstances.  This will impact Hawaii employment screening background checks significantly.  See the July ESR Newsletter and Legal Update for the full story. To sign up for the ESR Newsletter, go to: http://www.esrcheck.com/newsletter/ and see the full story by employment screening expert Lester Rosen.

On the surface, it is easy to see why a job board may see the  appeal in an excluisve integration with a background firm.   The idea is that an employer can use the job board to find the candidate and at the same time, perform a background check through the partner background firm.  From a business development perspective, it looks like a good arrangement for both the job board and the screening firm, and gives the job board an additional stream of revenue.  

The reality however, may turn out to be much different.  First, very knowledgeable observers of the recruiting world have predicted rough waters ahead for the big job boards.  The July 6, 2009 edition of Business Week noted that the job boards are losing ground to sites such as LinkedIn, Craigslist and Twitter among others.  According to one expert quoted in the article, “The big boards have peaked.”  

What that means is that recruiters are finding candidates from numerous sources.  Since all candidates need to be screened in a similar  fashion to prevent claims of disparate treatment, it make little sense to utilize  background services offered through just  one  job board for some candidates and to make other arrangements for all other candidates.  There is a lot to be said for uniformity of treatment of candidates.  

These types of tie-in arrangements also assume that Human Resources professionals are swayed in large numbers simply by the fact that there is a built –in economic association.  However, most HR professionals have an understanding that just because one firm enters into a business development deal with another does not mean that HR is getting the best deal or that their needs are being meet.  HR professionals do not sacrifice their own due diligence and blindly accept the recommended partner.  

The smart move for job boards that want to retain traffic, service thier clients  and increase business would be to allow employers to do their employment screening with whatever background firm the employer chooses.  That would make a job board even more valualbe as part of the hiring process.  Through standard integration tools, that is something job boards could easily allow.   Exclusive business development  deals with just one screening firm  carries with it the unstated premise that the job boards know better than  HR and recruiters what is good for them.   That  is the same “old school” thinking that may have gotten job boards in trouble in the first place.   Besides, HR professionals clearly understand that when a job board has an exclusive partner, that most likely there is some sort of economic sharing as well. 

For information on how to select a screening firm, a sample Request for Proposal (RFP) or how to audit your current screening firm, see information at http://www.esrcheck.com/ESRadvantage.php

The sample RFP is at: http://www.esrcheck.com/backgroundscreeningrfp.php and the article on how to select a screening firm is at: http://www.esrcheck.com/SelectingBackgroundScreeningFirm.php

An essential element of any due diligence plan is a yearly audit of your current practices.  In the event of a worst case scenario, and an employer hires someone that is unfit, unsafe or unqualified, the best defense is that the employer exercised due diligence in its hiring practices, including the choice of a screening firm.  ESR has developed a checklist, provided below, that can be used to send to a screening provider every year to document your due diligence and to measure the effectiveness of your current screening program.  For a Word version, contact Jared Callahan at 415-898-0044 or email him at jcallahan@esrcheck.com.  More information is at www.ESRcheck.com .

This is a yearly process to document that our company is utilizing due diligence in its employment screening processes.  Please fill out and utilize additional paper if necessary.

1. Have there been any material changes in the past year that would adversely affect your ability to provide industry standard employment screening reports?
2. Is all work performed in the USA to protect privacy and control quality (i.e., nothing sent offshore to India or other places)?  If not, please explain in detail how privacy is protected. (See: http://www.concernedc ras.com/)
3. Are all employment and education checks conducted by professionals in a controlled, call center type environment, so that nothing is sent to at-home workers?  If not, please explain how data privacy and the quality of work are monitored.
4. For employment verifications, are anti-fraud procedures in place, such as independent verifications of all past employer phone numbers instead of relying upon an applicant supplied number?
5. For education verifications, are steps taken to verify whether a college or university is accredited and to watch out for Diploma Mills?
6. Are criminal searches conducted using the most accurate means, which normally means on-site (no database substitutes)? (See: http://www.concernedcras.com/)
7. Do you search for both felonies and misdemeanors when available?
8. When a criminal hit is reported, does a knowledgeable person in your firm review the findings to determine whether there are any legal issues in reporting the findings to the employer (as opposed to having the information entered by a court researcher)?
9. When there is a criminal “hit”, do you contact the employer immediately to advise that there is a potential problem?
10. Does your firm take measures to ensure that ALL legal and relevant criminal records are searched, as opposed to just going back “seven” years?
11. If a client orders a “multi-jurisdictional” database search, do you re-verify any criminal “hit” at the courthouse level for maximum accuracy, instead of relying on notifying the applicant of a potential hit? 
12. Do you notify your clients of changes in the FCRA and other applicable laws?
13. Do you at least, on a yearly basis, conduct an internal FCRA compliance audit?
14. Do you offer international background checks? If “yes,” please describe
15. Is your firm “Safe Harbor Certified” to perform screenings of applicants from the EU (European Union)?
16. Do you have data protection, privacy security and data breach policies?  If so, please provide information.
17. Are you a member of the background screening trade association, the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS), and does your firm actively participate and support professionalism in the screening industry?
18. What is your average turn-around time?
19. If there is a delay for reasons that are out of your control, are your clients notified online with in-depth notes and the anticipated ETA of information?
20. Are your clients provided with written documentation and resources on safe hiring, due diligence and legal compliance issues?
21. Are your clients provided with upgrades in technology that would enhance workflow, such as the ability to have applicants consent online or integration with an ATS or HRIS system?
22. Please describe your initial training program for team members that work on our account, as well as any ongoing training.

Employment Screening Resources (ESR) has released a free web based interview guide generator to help employers build printed interview forms for any position. The tool allows employers to select from generic interview questions, or to create their own questions, and then create a printed form that can be saved or modified.

 The tool also gives employers the flexibility of adding their own question to different sections of the interview guide. 

This free tool solves several issues for employers. It helps employers and HR professionals produce a printed structured interview guide and focus on developing relevant questions for each position. Printed interview forms also help employers ensure that interviewers are asking the right questions every time, in the right way. It  helps to ensure that all applicants for a position  are treated fairly and uniformly  Using a “structured interview “guide helps employers ask permissible questions in a consistent fashion for all applicants for a position. An employer should only choose those questions that are valid predictors of job performance for a particular position.  The tool was created by employment screening background check expert Lester Rosen.

The tool can be found at:  http://www.esrcheck.com/Interviewgenerator.php