Candidate Support
Contact Sales
Customer Support
Written By ESR News Blog Editor Thomas Ahearn
Due to the evolving Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affecting the world, Attorney Lester Rosen, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Employment Screening Resources® (ESR), will record a session about “Legal and Effective Reference Checking, Credential and Education Verification” for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) that will be available on-demand during and after the SHRM Talent: Virtual Experience.
SHRM – the largest HR organization in the world with more than 300,000 HR and business executive members in 165 countries – “has made the decision to transition the SHRM 2020 Talent Conference & Exposition from an in-person gathering to a fully virtual event,” according to a statement about COVID-19 on the conference website. The online virtual event is scheduled to take place from April 20 to 22, 2020.
“We’ve been working with public health officials and collaborating with the conference venue and vendors to make an informed decision based on the latest science, local public health guidance, and our ability to provide the HR community with the best event and professional development experience you’ve come to expect from SHRM, in a safe environment,” read the COVID-19 statement from SHRM.
The shift to an online event has presented a number of changes for SHRM to accommodate all the sessions live that they had initially planned to offer when they were planning the in-person event. Rosen will record his session prior to the fully virtual conference and make the recorded session available on the virtual platform during the event and then on SHRM’s OnDemand Library for attendees to access post-event.
Verifying past employment, credentials, and education and obtaining references have become critical to ensure a good hire. Unfortunately, falsifying or inflating credentials has become a significant problem for employers. Legal limitations also create barriers for HR professionals when obtaining and giving past employment information. In the session recorded by Rosen – author of “The Safe Hiring Manual” – viewers will:
- Learn legal and effective strategies to verify an applicant’s past employment and education accomplishments.
- Explore why employment references create legal issues for employers and strategies for obtaining information and dealing with requests from other employers.
- Learn why phony education credentials are problematic and how to spot degree mills.
- Review new technologies and approaches to credentials verifications.
- Understand special issues when it comes to social media sites and international employment and education verification.
Through case studies, role-playing exercises, hypotheticals, and internet demonstrations, the session recorded by Rosen will focus on legal and effective techniques for the reference checking process, how to verify education, and spotting phony credentials and worthless degree mills. The SHRM Talent: Virtual Experience will take place from April 20 to 22, 2020. To register for the virtual event, click here.
The need for a virtual event was caused by the outbreak of COVID-19, a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person. As of April 6, 2020, the United States leads the world with more than 337,000 confirmed Coronavirus cases, according to research from Johns Hopkins University. Employers should follow guidance on how to respond to Coronavirus from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
SHRM is offering resources to members about COVID-19 to help them prepare their workforces for the possibility of business closures, remote working, quarantines, and other outcomes of the outbreak of Coronavirus. “As more cases of COVID-19 continue to spread around the world and within the U.S., employers must take the necessary precautions to prevent the spread of this virus within the workplace,” SHRM said in a statement.
Rosen founded Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) in 1997 in the San Francisco, California area. He was the chairperson of the steering committee that founded the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA) – a nonprofit trade organization formerly known as the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) – and served as first co-chair. ESR is accredited by the PBSA.
Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) – a leading global background check firm – has transitioned its employees to remote workers without any interruption in service and is posting stories on the ESR News Blog that closely follow the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on employers. In 2019, ESR was named one of the top screening services by HRO Today Magazine. To learn more about ESR, visit www.esrcheck.com.
NOTE: Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) does not provide or offer legal services or legal advice of any kind or nature. Any information on this website is for educational purposes only.
© 2020 Employment Screening Resources® (ESR) – Making copies of or using any part of the ESR News Blog or ESR website for any purpose other than your own personal use is prohibited unless written authorization is first obtained from ESR.
