By Thomas Ahearn, ESR Staff Writer

A recent article in the Denver Business Journal reveals details about a little-known bill that may have a big impact on the business community in Colorado with regards to employer liability from negligent hiring.

House Bill 10-1023 ‘Employer Liability Negligent Hiring’, recently signed into law by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, prohibits the criminal history of an employee from being part of a lawsuit against the employee’s business unless that criminal history has direct applicability to the legal action.

According to the article, the bill was sponsored by Rep. Mark Waller (R-Colorado Springs) after he learned that businesses often do not hire applicants with criminal backgrounds no matter how long the ex-convicts have been clean or how unrelated their criminal histories are to the jobs for which they applied.

Since employers fear being sued for negligent hiring if workers they hire with criminal backgrounds do anything wrong, Waller wanted to help protect businesses from negligent hiring lawsuits while also giving ex-convicts a chance to find work. The resulting bill prohibits information concerning the criminal history of an employee from being introduced in civil actions if:

• The employee’s record is sealed;
• The employee received a pardon;
• The criminal history isn’t related to the facts of the case, or;
• The employee’s record is from an arrest or charge that did not result in a criminal conviction.

However, businesses still would be held liable for negligent hiring if they hired employees with criminal backgrounds unsuitable for their jobs, the example given the article being a person convicted of breaking and entering hired to install alarms in homes who then subsequently robs one or more of those homes. As usual, employers must use common sense in these matters.

With new laws like the one recently passed in Colorado, employers will want as much information as possible upon which to base their hiring decisions. Criminal background checks are a safe and effective way to reveal the criminal pasts of applicants and to help employers make future choices about which workers they want to hire.

For more information on criminal background checks, other methods of a safe hiring program, and the latest legal updates regarding negligent hiring, visit Employment Screening Resources (ESR) at http://www.esrcheck.com.

Sources:

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/capitol_business/2010/03/new_law_gives_ex-cons_a_better_chance_at_a_job.html

http://www.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2010A/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/33D8A2927B432FBA872576A80026AFC2?Open&file=1023_01.pdf

By Jared Callahan, Employment Screening Resources

Employment Screening Resources (ESR), a leading national employment screening firm based in the San Francisco area, announced today that free tools available at the ESR Resources Center to help employers hire safe, honest, and qualified applicants.

The ESR Resources Center provides employers with “All Things Background Checks.”   Employers can find among other tools:

• 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 in order to conduct structured and consistent interviews.
• The tools necessary for an employer to determine if a school is legitimate or a diploma mill.
• An internal safe hiring audit that employers can use to measure the effectiveness of their hiring programs.
• A summary of the letters issued by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that interprets federal law controlling background checks. 

The features are part of a commitment to provide a centralized location for employers to keep current on the critical task of hiring a workforce that is safe, qualified, and honest.  The site also allows Employers, Human Resources Leaders, Security Professionals, Recruiters, and Job Applicants to locate resources on employee screening in one place and to keep current on evolving issues affecting hiring.

Employment Screening Resources (ESR) is the firm that literally wrote the book on background checks, The Safe Hiring Manual, and provides pre-employment screening services and drug testing internationally.  The firm specializes in legal compliance expertise and industry leading technology, service, accuracy, and turnaround.

“Background screening is a critical part of the process in identifying the best employees and with these tools on the ESR Resource Center, employers are empowered to select the best candidates,” commented Jared Callahan, Director of Marketing, and a national speaker on topics related to safe hiring.  “We are very pleased to have the opportunity to provide these free tools to employers and consumers.” 

About Employment Screening Resources: Employment Screening Resources (ESR)  is a safe hiring partner and provides REAL background checks, not cheap database shortcuts or off-shoring that endangers privacy. ESR specializes in legal compliance and provides industry leading technology, service, accuracy, and turnaround.  For additional information, contact Jared Callahan by calling 415-898-0044 or emailing jcallahan@ESRcheck.com.

By Thomas Ahearn, ESR Staff Writer

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced three new initiatives to strengthen the efficiency and accuracy of the E-Verify employment eligibility verification system, including a new agreement with the Department of Justice (DOJ) that will make it easier to investigate E-Verify misuse and discrimination by participating employers.

Under the DHS and Justice Department agreement, both agencies will share information about potential abuses of the E-Verify system that employers are supposed to use only once they have hired an employee and not as a screening tool.  To ensure that E-Verify is used fairly by employers, the initiative will streamline the adjudication process to take action against employers violating civil rights laws, while also protecting the individuals authorized to work in the U.S. from national origin or citizenship-status discrimination.

E-Verify — a free, Web-based system that enhances the paper-based I-9 form — is operated in partnership by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) and allows employers to electronically verify the employment eligibility of newly-hired employees against information contained in government databases. More than 192,000 employers nationwide currently use E-Verify, and the system has processed more than six million queries since October of 2009.

While E-Verify participation is voluntary for most employers, the federal government requires its contractors to use the system and several states have passed laws requiring the use of E-Verify for state contractors and private employers. Those who wish to avoid potential cases of E-Verify misuse or discrimination need to maintain compliant with new DHS initiatives, which also include an informational telephone hotline for workers and new training videos focusing on E-Verify employee rights and employer responsibilities.

Because the I-9 form is an important part of a comprehensive safe hiring strategy, employers using E-Verify may choose a third-party provider to maintain compliance. Employment Screening Resources (ESR), an authorized E-Verify Designated Agent, can help employers virtually eliminate SSA mismatch letters, improve the accuracy of wage and tax reporting, protect jobs for authorized workers, and help maintain a legal workforce. For more information, please visit http://www.esrcheck.com/formi9.php.

Source: http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1268843939770.shtm

A California Court of Appeals decision filed March 23, 2010 held that a background screening firm has a constitutional right to report that an applicant has appeared on the Megan’s Law website (MLW) as a registered sex offender.  The Court further held that under the California law, the prohibition on the use of such information for employment does not apply where there is a person at risk. (more…)

By Thomas Ahearn, ESR Staff Writer

A series of recent surveys from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reveals that when it comes to reference background checks and criminal background checks, approximately three out of four U.S. businesses perform these two types of background checks as part of their pre-employment screening programs.

According to surveys conducted in November and December of 2009 and comprised from a sample of over 400 randomly selected Human Resources professionals from SHRM’s membership, 76 percent of organizations conducted reference background checks for all job candidates, while 73 percent of organizations conducted criminal background checks for all job candidates by reviewing consumer reports of candidates.

Surprisingly, despite recent controversy surrounding the use of credit background checks in pre-employment screening, the survey found that only 13 percent of organizations performed credit background checks on all candidates, while 40 percent did not conduct any credit background checks and 47 percent performed them on selected job candidates.

As for which job categories that organizations chose to conduct background checks on, the survey revealed candidates for positions with fiduciary and financial responsibility (handling cash, banking, and accounting) led in both credit background checks (91 percent) and criminal background checks (78 percent), while 76% of job candidates who would have access to confidential employee information had reference background checks conducted that included verifying information provided by the job applicant or communicating with people regarding the job applicant such as former co-workers.

In general, organizations responding to the surveys from SHRM indicated that the following policies and procedures were in place for conducting reference, credit, and/or criminal background checks on job candidates as of 2009:

• 95% had notified candidates that any false or intentionally misleading information provided in the application process was grounds for retracting job offers;
• 91% had policies that no criminal background checks were conducted without signed consent from the candidates;
• 89% had policies that only designated personnel would have access to reference, credit, and/or criminal background check information;
• 79% had written policies for employees to follow regarding conducting reference background checks; and
•  78% had standardized questions for the person conducting the reference background check on behalf of the organization, and written policies for employees to follow regarding conducting criminal background checks.

When asked if the number of reference, credit, and/or criminal background checks that their organizations conducted on job applicants increased, decreased, or remained the same as a result of the economic downturn, approximately three out of four respondents replied that the number had remained the same for reference background checks (74 percent), criminal background checks (73 percent), and credit background checks (71 percent). 

For more information on how employers can conduct an effective background check program, contact Employment Screening Resources (ESR).

Sources:

http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Pages/ConductingReferenceBackgroundChecks.aspx
http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Pages/BackgroundCheckCriminalChecks.aspx
http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Pages/BackgroundCheckingGeneral.aspx
http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Pages/BackgroundChecking.aspx