By Lester Rosen, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) President & Thomas Ahearn, ESR News Editor

Employment Screening Resources (ESR) – http://www.ESRcheck.com – a nationwide provider of background checks that is accredited by The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®), will announce its Fourth Annual ‘Top Ten Trends in Pre-Employment Background Screening’ for 2011 on the ESR News web page at http://www.ESRcheck.com/wordpress/ throughout the month of December 2010.  To see an updated list of the ESR Fourth Annual ‘Top Ten Trends in Pre-Employment Background Screening’ for 2011, visit: http://www.esrcheck.com/Top-Ten-Trends-In-Background-Screening-2011.php.  

“For the fourth consecutive year, Employment Screening Resources has identified new trends that are starting to make a difference as well as older trends evolving as the pre-employment background screening industry matures,” explains Lester Rosen, founder and President of Employment Screening Resources and author of ‘The Safe Hiring Manual – The Complete Guide to Keeping Criminals, Terrorists, and Imposters Out of Your Workplace,’ the first comprehensive book on background checks.

An article detailing each of the top ten trends will be published on ESR News in ascending order beginning in December 2010. The complete Fourth Annual ‘Top Ten Trends in Pre-Employment Background Screening’ for 2011 will be published in early January 2011.

Mr. Rosen, an Attorney at Law and recognized safe hiring expert, selected each trend after closely reviewing background screening news and developments from various sources, a practice that has helped him predict future background screening industry trends in the past.

“For example, the number one trend on the ‘Top Ten Trends’ list for 2010 was the increased focus on whether the use of credit reports and criminal records during employment screening would be seen as discriminatory,” says Rosen. “This topic was hotly debated during this year by jobseekers, employers, and the government.”

To see the Employment Screening Resources Third Annual Top Ten Trends in the Pre-Employment Background Screening Industry for 2010, visit: http://www.esrcheck.com/2010-trends-backgroundscreening-industry.php.

Founded in 1996 in the San Francisco Bay area, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) is the company that wrote the book on background checks with ‘The Safe Hiring Manual’ by ESR founder and President Lester Rosen. Employment Screening Resources is accredited by The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) Background Screening Credentialing Council (BSCC) for proving compliance with the Background Screening Agency Accreditation Program (BSAAP). For more information about Employment Screening Resources, visit http://www.ESRcheck.com or contact Jared Callahan, ESR Director of Client Relations and Business Development, at 415.898.0044 or jcallahan@ESRcheck.com.

By Lester Rosen, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) President & Thomas Ahearn, ESR News Editor

An interesting story about an alleged fraudulent academic claim serves to remind all employers, including academic institutions, how a simple background check can help uncover education fraud.

According to a news release from the Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS), after discovering that an instructor who taught workshops on human trafficking and counterterrorism misrepresented his academic credentials to the Institute, the MIIS is taking steps to ensure a similar case does not occur again by requiring that anyone teaching a course for credit to undergo a background check, effective immediately.

The instructor – who has not responded to requests from MIIS to provide supporting documentation – claimed in a resume and biography submitted to the Institute to be “a retired colonel of the U.S. Army Special Forces” who earned a Ph.D. at the University of Oregon. However, the Institute’s review found the instructor had not earned a Ph.D. at the University of Oregon, and was unable to obtain military records that substantiated the military service claims, MIIS officials stated in the news release.

Because the instructor served only as an independent contractor and never applied for a position as a faculty member at the Institute, he was not subjected to the pre-employment background checks MIIS requires of all employees, including faculty and adjunct faculty. As a result of this incident, effective immediately, MISS has changed its policy and extended the requirement for a full “pre-engagement” background check to any person who provides classroom instruction for academic credit, regardless of employment status.

Located in Monterey, California, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, a graduate school of Middlebury College, has prepared graduate professionals for global careers in the private, public, nonprofit, and educational sectors since 1955. For more information about the Monterey Institute, visit http://www.miis.edu.

Background checks that include verifications of education can help employers avoid hiring job applicants that make fraudulent academic claims. This case demonstrates how a failure to run an academic verification during a background check can allow a fraudulent claim of education to fall through the cracks. A simple phone call would have prevented this. 

Employment Screening Resources (ESR), a nationwide provider of background checks that include education verifications, has extensive procedures to ensure that any school is legitimate and not a so-called “diploma mill” (also known as a “degree mill”), an organization that awards academic degrees and diplomas with substandard or no academic study and without recognition by official educational accrediting bodies. The terms “diploma mill” and “degree mill” may apply to:

• A “real” degree from a fake college.
• A fake degree from a real college.

ESR also has a wealth of material on the subject of academic fraud including an article by ESR’s founder and President Lester Rosen, “The Basics of Educational Verifications,” at http://www.esrcheck.com/wordpress/1090/the-basics-of-education-verifications. In addition, the ESR Resource Center contains information on states with lists of fraudulent schools as well as how to find real accredited schools at: http://www.esrcheck.com/services/resources.php.

Founded in 1996 in the San Francisco Bay area, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) is the company that wrote the book on background checks with ‘The Safe Hiring Manual’ by ESR founder and President Lester Rosen. Employment Screening Resources is accredited by The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) Background Screening Credentialing Council (BSCC) for proving compliance with the Background Screening Agency Accreditation Program (BSAAP). For more information about Employment Screening Resources, visit http://www.ESRcheck.com or contact Jared Callahan, ESR Director of Client Relations and Business Development, at 415.898.0044 or jcallahan@ESRcheck.com.

Source:
http://www.miis.edu/media/view/21940/original/2010-1120_bill_hillar_release.pdf

By Thomas Ahearn, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) News Editor
 
A blog on Politico.com titled ‘Alternative to TSA pat-downs: More background checks’ proposes that if Americans don’t like the invasive techniques used by the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) to improve air travel security – such as full-body scans that can penetrate clothing and “enhanced” pat-downs some label groping – an alternative may be background checks that scrutinize information of airline passengers.

The blog’s author, reporter Josh Gerstein, writes that the vocal backlash against the body scanning and pat-downs by the federal government could pressure the government to introduce security measures such as background checks of airline passengers that would include in-depth interrogations of travelers at airports, government scrutiny of airline information of passengers, and the creation of a secure and standardized national ID card.

Many security experts favor background checks instead of body scanners and pat-downs as a method for screening air travelers. This alternative approach to airport security looks for terrorists in advance and calls for singling out suspicious passengers and subjecting them to intense questioning instead of spending equal time screening all passengers. By gathering background check information about passengers before they arrive for flights, security can focus more time on the careful screening of those who raise red flags and less time frisking the elderly, pregnant women, and young children, experts say.

The more intrusive pat-downs in particular – which “some passengers have compared to sexual molestation,” Gerstein writes – were seen by some as a tipping point in the fight against terror over the question of how much privacy should U.S. citizens relinquish in the name of improved security against terrorism. A security adviser said that American culture views “the laying on of hands by anyone in authority” as a more serious invasion of privacy than investigating a passenger’s travel history through a background check. Even so, an ABC News/Washington Post poll cited in the Politico.com blog found that public reaction was roughly split, 50-50, on whether the pat-downs were a good idea.

Employment Screening Resources (ESR), an accredited provider of background checks, believes effective background checks occur at the intersection of privacy and security. For more information about instituting background check programs, visit the Employment Screening Resources website at http://www.ESRcheck.com and read the ESR News blog at http://www.ESRcheck.com/wordpress/.

Founded in 1996 in the San Francisco Bay area, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) is the company that wrote the book on background checks with ‘The Safe Hiring Manual’ by ESR founder and President Lester Rosen. Employment Screening Resources is accredited by The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) Background Screening Credentialing Council (BSCC) for proving compliance with the Background Screening Agency Accreditation Program (BSAAP). For more information about Employment Screening Resources, visit http://www.ESRcheck.com or contact Jared Callahan, ESR Director of Client Relations and Business Development, at 415.898.0044 or jcallahan@ESRcheck.com.

By Thomas Ahearn, ESR News Editor

A recent news story on Star-Telegram.com, the website of the Fort Worth (TX) Star-Telegram newspaper, shows the importance of background checks for people who work closely with youths and other “at-risk” groups.  While coaches and officials with youth sports groups are entrusted to watch over children and serve as role models, the Star-Telegram discovered with background checks that some officials and coaches in certain youth sports associations and leagues in the area had criminal pasts and were being allowed to work with young people.

• The president of a Youth Association resigned after the Star-Telegram reported that the man operated several strip clubs and that, although never convicted of a crime, he was associated violations including prostitution and incidents with minors.
• One coach led his Girls soccer team to a silver medal in a tournament only two months after being arrested by police on a warrant alleging aggravated sexual assault of a child.
• Another Girls soccer coach was arrested by police on three charges of fraudulent possession of a controlled substance and also faces a charge of possession of child pornography related to material police found in his car during his arrest.
• Another man coached a Pee Wee football team even though he was once sentenced to four years in prison after his probation was revoked because he failed drug tests.

The executive director of the National Council of Youth Sports (NCYS) told the Star-Telegram that youth sports organizations are taking great risks if they don’t ensure that background checks are up to date and those who work with children have a huge responsibility to make certain that everyone involved is “tiptop.” Though many youth clubs stated they conducted criminal background checks on coaches and volunteers, experts say some background checks may not be thorough enough to identify potential concerns in some instances. While background checks are useful, running only local or statewide checks may not be adequate, experts say, and even a coach’s or official’s clean record should not give parents a false sense of security.

To help protect children from predators, the National Council of Youth Sports co-founded a national screening service – the National Center for Safety Initiatives – after discovering that some companies being used by youth sports organizations were sometimes providing incomplete or outdated information on applicants. The council created guidelines to be used as minimum standards when deciding who can coach or volunteer with children. The group recommends that youth associations reject those applicants with:

• Convictions for any felony or any lesser crime involving something of a sexual nature, including pornography;
• Force or threat of force against a person;
• Animal cruelty; or
• Controlled substances.

Employment Screening Resources (ESR) agrees with the NCYS and suggests thorough background checks for all people who work with youths and other “at-risk” groups to ensure the safety of everyone. Every coach, every assistant coach, every manager – anybody that comes in contact with children – should go through a criminal background check.

For more information from ESR on background checks for volunteer, youth, and faith-based organizations, visit http://www.esrcheck.com/services/Background-Screening-Solutions-Churches-Volunteer-Groups.php.

Founded in 1996 in the San Francisco Bay area, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) is the company that wrote the book on background checks with ‘The Safe Hiring Manual’ by ESR founder and President Lester Rosen. Employment Screening Resources is accredited by The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) Background Screening Credentialing Council (BSCC) for proving compliance with the Background Screening Agency Accreditation Program (BSAAP). For more information about Employment Screening Resources, visit http://www.ESRcheck.com or contact Jared Callahan, ESR Director of Client Relations and Business Development, at 415.898.0044 or jcallahan@ESRcheck.com.

By Thomas Ahearn, ESR News Editor

A recently signed California law appears to be the first in the United States to regulate the “offshoring” of Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of U.S. consumers used during background checks – such as names, dates of birth, addresses, Social Security numbers (SSNs), and financial data – overseas and outside the U.S. and its territories.

In September 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law California Senate Bill 909 (SB 909), which addresses the issue of personal information being sent offshore. SB 909 – which takes effect January 1, 2012 to allow time for background check companies to provide new releases to employers or modify online language – amends the California Investigative Consumer Reporting Agencies Act (ICRA) that regulates background checks in California and requires that a consumer must be notified as part of a disclosure before the background check of the web address for “information about the investigative reporting agency’s privacy practices, including whether the consumer’s personal information will be sent outside the United States or its territories.”

If a background check company does not have a web site, then the background check company must provide the consumer with a phone number where the consumer can obtain the same information. In addition, the background check company’s privacy policy must contain “information describing its privacy practices with respect to its preparation and processing of investigative consumer reports.” Specifically, background check companies in California (and firms that do business in California) must have a statement in their privacy policy entitled “Personal Information Disclosure: United States or Overseas” that indicates whether the personal information will be transferred to third parties outside the United States or its territories through the process of offshoring.

SB-909 defines “third parties” as including, “but not being limited to, a contractor, foreign affiliate, wholly owned entity, or an employee of the investigative consumer reporting agency” and also requires a “separate section that includes the name, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone number of the investigative consumer reporting agency representatives who can assist a consumer with additional information regarding the investigative consumer reporting agency’s privacy practices or policies in the event of a compromise of his or her information.” In the event a consumer is harmed by virtue of a background check company negligently sending data offshore, SB-909  provides for damages to the consumer.

As reported earlier on ESR News, the practice of offshoring – whether personal information or jobs – can have a negative impact on network security since, for all intents and purposes, once personal information is sent offshore outside the U.S. it is beyond the reach and protection of U.S. laws in cases involving identity theft or privacy issues. Also, offshoring of Information Technology (IT) jobs can lead to increases in data breaches.

According to a 2009 security survey of 350 network administrators and IT executives executed by Amplitude Research and commissioned by VanDyke Software, more than two-thirds (69 percent) of respondents felt outsourcing technical jobs offshore had a negative impact on network security while only 9 percent felt it had a positive impact. In addition, the security survey found:

• 25 percent of respondents in the survey belonged to companies that outsourced IT jobs to other countries.
• Of these outsourcing firms, about half said their security had been negatively impacted and 61 percent said their company had experienced a data breach.
• In contrast, only 35 percent of companies not outsourcing reported a data breach.

The security survey naturally raises questions as to the safety of sending Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of American job applicants offshore in order to prepare background checks. A group of more than 120 Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) called ConcernedCRAs opposes the practice of offshoring Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of U.S. citizens outside the country to be processed beyond U.S. privacy laws.

A member of ConcernedCRAs, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) does not offshore Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and all domestic background checks are performed exclusively in the United States. ESR does all processing and preparation in the U.S. in order to protect applicants and employers, the only exception being when performing an international verification using information residing outside the U.S.

To read more about offshoring on ESR News, visit articles tagged ‘offshoring’ at: http://www.esrcheck.com/wordpress/tag/offshoring/.

To read California Senate Bill 909, visit: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/09-10/bill/sen/sb_0901-0950/sb_909_bill_20100929_chaptered.pdf.

Founded in 1996 in the San Francisco Bay area, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) is the company that wrote the book on background checks with ‘The Safe Hiring Manual’ by ESR founder and President Lester Rosen. Employment Screening Resources is recognized by The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) as Background Screening Credentialing Council (BSCC) Accredited for proving compliance with the Background Screening Agency Accreditation Program (BSAAP). For more information about Employment Screening Resources, visit http://www.ESRcheck.com or contact Jared Callahan, ESR Director of Client Relations and Business Development, at 415.898.0044 or jcallahan@ESRcheck.com.