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Business owners can perform background checks on job applicants without a great deal of expense to avoid “bad hires” of “employees from hell,” according to an article on the Santa Cruz (CA) Sentinel website that features suggestions from safe hiring expert Attorney Lester Rosen. The full article – ‘Employment Screening Resources: How to avoid hiring employee from hell’ – is available at http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/capitola/ci_22907219/employment-screening-resources-how-avoid-hiring-employee-from.
In the Sentinel article, Rosen – Founder and CEO of San Francisco, California-area background check provider Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) and author of a comprehensive background check guide titled ‘The Safe Hiring Manual’ – says the key tools to affordable pre-employment background checks are the application, the interview, and reference checking. Some of Rosen’s suggestions in the article include:
- While resume is “a marketing tool,” a job application should let “applicants know they need to be honest.”
- Job applications also should allow “applicants to sign statements that are important to the screening process, such as consent to a background check, including a check for criminal records, past jobs, and education.”
- Applications should contain “a statement saying criminal records do not automatically disqualify an applicant” to comply with new Guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on use of arrest and conviction records.
- According to the EEOC, employers should avoid rejecting an applicant due to “racial or ethnic stereotypes about criminality” and not qualifications and suitability for the job is “unlawful disparate treatment” that violates Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
- The application should contain a statement to let the applicant know “a lack of truthfulness or material omissions” may be grounds to terminate the hiring process or employment.
- Reference checks of past jobs can uncover gaps in employment that could be a “red flag.”
In addition, Rosen suggests in the article that employers check the courthouse in the county where the applicant lives for convictions since statistics show people are more art to commit crimes in counties where they reside. He also recommends asking job applicants about misdemeanors as well as felonies and pending cases since “misdemeanor convictions can be very serious” and avoiding online ads for background checks using only incomplete databases that are “as valuable as buying the Brooklyn Bridge.”
As reported previously on the ESR News blog, nearly seven in ten businesses were affected by a “bad hire” of a worker in the past year and nearly one in four employers reported a bad hire cost them more than $50,000, according to a CareerBuilder survey of nearly 2,500 hiring managers and human resource professionals that shows the cost of incorrectly choosing a new employee can be high.
The CareerBuilder study revealed that 69 percent of employers reported that their companies had been adversely affected by a bad hire in 2012, with 24 percent of those businesses saying a bad hire cost them more than $50,000 and 41 percent estimating the cost to be over $25,000.
The survey also found the most common reason associated with a bad hire was rushing the decision process with two in five hiring managers attributing a bad hire to pressure to fill the job opening. The top reasons for a bad hire were:
- Needed to fill the job quickly – 43 percent
- Insufficient talent intelligence – 22 percent
- Sourcing techniques need to be adjusted per open position – 13 percent
- Fewer recruiters due to the recession has made it difficult to go through applications – 10 percent
- Didn’t check references – 9 percent
- Lack of strong employment brand – 8 percent
For more information about background checks, visit Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) – ‘The Background Check Authority®’ and nationwide background screening firm accredited by The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) – at https://www.esrcheck.com or call Toll Free 888.999.4474. For information about ‘The Safe Hiring Manual’ by ESR Founder and CEO Attorney Lester Rosen, visit https://www.esrcheck.com/SafeHiringManual.php.
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About Employment Screening Resources® (ESR):
Founded by safe hiring expert Attorney Les Rosen in 1997, Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) – ‘The Background Check Authority®’– provides accurate and actionable information that empowers employers to make informed hiring decisions for the benefit of their organizations, employees, and the public. CEO Rosen literally wrote the book on background checks with “The Safe Hiring Manual” and ESR is accredited by The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®), a distinction held by a small percent of screening firms. Employers choosing ESR know they have selected an agency meeting the highest industry standards. To learn more about ESR, visit https://www.esrcheck.com or call toll free 888.999.4474.
About ESR News:
The Employment Screening Resources (ESR®) News blog – ESR News – provides employment screening information for employers, recruiters, and jobseekers on a variety of topics including credit reports, criminal records, data privacy, discrimination, E-Verify, jobs reports, legal updates, negligent hiring, workplace violence, and use of search engines and social network sites for background checks. For more information about ESR News or to send comments or questions, please email ESR News Editor Thomas Ahearn at [email protected]. To subscribe to the ESR News Blog Feed, visit https://www.esrcheck.com/wordpress/feed/. To subscribe to the complimentary ESRcheck Report monthly newsletter, please visit https://www.esrcheck.com/Newsletter/.
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