Pre-Employment Screening Background Check Blog for Employers, Human Resources and Security by ESR

In 2005, ESR produced the first comprehensive book written on safe hiring and background checks, The Safe Hiring Manual, by ESR President, Lester Rosen. ESR is pleased to announce its second book, The Safe Hiring Audit. The new book provides a blueprint to evaluate and improve a company’s hiring procedures. Companies of all sizes can identify potential problems and insure compliant hiring practices. This essential guide provides a step-by-step action plan to evaluate current hiring practices and make changes to strengthen their businesses and avoid potential problems. It was written by Lester Rosen, along with Michael Sankey.

The book:

• Assesses company procedures in the hiring process
• Establishes legally defensible practices for dealing with potentially problematic applicants.
• Provides help for both the small business owners and managers of large corporations.

The Safe Hiring Audit is targeted to employers, business owners, HR professionals, hiring managers, and security professionals – anyone with hiring responsibilities.

The Comprehensive 25 Step Audit Includes –

• Companywide hiring policies and procedures.
• Legal compliance and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
• Using EEOC-compliant employment applications and interviews.
• Employment and education verification.
• Access and use of criminal records, and what to do if negative information found.
• Using other screening tools.
• Working with Consumer Reporting Agencies.

The Safe Hiring Audit endorses the use of best policies, practices and procedures for hiring, and using professional pre-employment screening companies. It is available from Amazon and the publisher, Facts on Demand Press (www.BRBpub.com).

Some firms still hire by soliciting resumes. A question that has come up deals with a situation where the e-mail address from the applicant conveys something about the applicant that appears fundamentally incompatible with the job. For example, a firm that provides elder care received a resume from an e-mail address that included the term, “Angel of Death” in the e-mail address. Since the firm services a vulnerable population, they were naturally concerned that a person that chooses such an e-mail address may not be suitable.

Another recruiter tells the story of hiring for a professional firm, and receiving an e-mail that appeared to have come from an explicit adult type e-mail address. The recruiter felt that such a person may exhibit behavior or judgment that could damage the company’s reputation, hurt business interests or be inconsistent with business needs.

In both cases however, the recruiters were concerned whether they had crossed a line by not even considering those resumes.

First, it is strongly suggested by many HR professionals that firms should not accept or solicit e-mail resumes. A firm avoids many difficulties if it only accepts applications. (A future newsletter will discuss why applications are a better alternative then resumes.)

In both cases, it is noteworthy that the two e-mail addresses in no way suggested that the applicant was a member of a protected class, or they were being eliminated based upon facts such as ethnicity, race, religion, sex, marital status, physical disability or other similar categories. Nor did the e-mail address suggest they were being discriminated against on the basis of protected off-duty conduct.

Perhaps the real lesson is that applicants sometimes can show very poor judgment in the hiring process. After all, how difficult would it have been for the applicant to take two minutes and get a professional sounding e-mail address from Yahoo, Hotmail or numerous other services?

If you have had a similar experience, have a different opinion or have a question to ask about background checks and safe hiring, please e-mail Jared Callahan at jcallahan@esrcheck.com.

Although statistics vary widely, there is widespread agreement that a substantial number of resumes belong in the “fiction” section of the bookstore. The rate of fraud can be as high as 40% and higher according to different sources. Applicants certainly have the right to put their best foot forward, and puffing their qualifications is an American tradition. But when puffing crosses the line into fabrication, an employer needs to be concerned. When you hire an applicant who uses lies and fabrication to get hired, the issue is that the same type of dishonesty will continue once they have the job.

What are the six most common fabrications from job applicants?

Claiming a degree not earned: Yes, believe it or not, applicants will make up a degree. Sometimes, they actually went to the school but never graduated. Some applicants may have had just a few credits to go, and decided to award themselves the degree anyway. On some occasions, an applicant will claim a degree from a school they did not even attend. The best practice for an employer is to state clearly on the application form that the applicant should list any school they want the employer to consider. In that way, if an applicant lies, the employer can act on the lack of truthfulness regardless of whether the educational requirement is part of the job requirements.

Diploma Mills or Fake Degree: A related issue is diploma mills or fake degrees that can be purchased online. For those that actually attended classes, read books, wrote papers and took tests to earn a diploma, you apparently did it the old fashioned way. Now, getting a “degree” is as easy as going online and using your credit card. There are websites that will print out very convincing, fake degrees from nearly any school in America. In fact, the president of ESR obtained a degree for his dog in Business Administration from the University of Arizona—and the dog had been dead for ten years. A transcript was even obtained and the dog got a “B” in English! Some sites will even provide a phone number so an employer can call and verify the fake degree. Some of the degree mills even have fake accreditation agencies with names similar to real accreditation bodies, in order to give a fake accreditation for a fake school.

Job Title: Another area of faking is the job description or job title. Applicants can easily give their career an artificial boost by “promoting” themselves to a supervisor position, even if they never managed anyone.

Dates of Employment: Another concern for employers is applicants that cover up dates of employment in order to hide “employment gaps.” For some applicants, it may be a seemingly innocent attempt to hide the fact that it has taken awhile to get a new job. In other cases, the date fabrication can be more sinister, such as a person that spent time in custody for a crime who may be trying to hide that fact.

Compensation: A related issue is pay – applicants have been known to exaggerate compensation in order to have a better negotiating position in the new job.

Lack of Criminal Record: Nearly every application will have a question about past criminal conduct. Although employers may not “automatically” eliminate a job applicant without a showing of a “business necessity,” if the person lies, then the employer would have grounds to deny employment based upon dishonesty.

The common denominator in all of these: they can be all be discovered by a program of pre-employment screening. To quote a phrase popular in the 1980s. “Trust, but verify.”