The Vail Daily newspaper recently published an update to the story of a Vail, CO resort currently involved in a lawsuit. The suit stems from an employment background check that did not do enough to uncover a ski instructor’s criminal background. The ski instructor in question was charged with rape of a 17 years old ski student. The instructor was found not guilty, but the family of the girl now has a lawsuit against the ski resort.

 The lawsuit claims that the resort had advertised that they always ran an employment background check on all their applicants. In fact, the human resources director did run a background check on the instructor in 2004 but it only revealed a glimpse of his criminal past.

During the criminal trial proceedings it was revealed that his criminal rap sheet actually dated back to 1989 and contained numerous arrests. Included on this extended criminal background were arrests made for criminal mischief, car theft and trespassing.

The Vail resort is now trying to prove to the court that it did its due diligence or it faces a multimillion-dollar settlement. The case is yet another reminder of the dangers employers can face when they do not require enough on their employee screening process. As it happened, the employment background check that the resort ran on the instructor only looked back 5 years.

A professional employee screening company will work with a client to prevent a situation like this. In this case of the resort, it was apparent that a more extensive background check was necessary to get a full profile of the ski instructor. Don’t let this happen to your business, invest in a comprehensive employee screening service and reduce your risk.

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The Necessity of Ongoing Employee Screening for Current Employees

Contrary to popular belief, employee screening does not always end with the hiring of a new employee. Numerous industries are already utilizing post-hire screening with many more on the way. Post-hire screening is recurrent screening that periodically checks certain aspects of an employee’s background to make sure there have been no significant changes since their hiring. Recurrent drug tests, criminal checks and periodic relicensing are examples of recurrent post-hire screening.

 There are many industries that could benefit from ongoing employee screening. Those businesses that operate with a great deal of liability for their employee’s need to continually reaffirm that employee is clean, sober and staying out of trouble. A company who has hired a driver would certainly want to know if that driver had been amassing speeding tickets in the year since their hire. Post-hire employee screening is the way to go about this. Running a comprehensive employment background check is necessary to protect the company from risk while building trust with the employee. Post-hire checks are necessary to reduce legal liability on the part of the employer, while further building trust with the employee.These post-hire checks are also a necessity when a current employee is moving over to a different position or department within the same company. Whenever this happens, different aspects of the employee’s background may become more relevant than others and may not have been adequately checked during their initial screening. A qualified employment background check provider such as Employer’s Reference Source will be able to develop correct and legal ongoing background checks for any business. Contact them today for more information.

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Blog #1: The BBC Reports on Embellishing Students & Employee Screening

The BBC recently reported on a matter very interesting to the employee screening industry. It was concerning a study done by the UK employee screening agency Powerchex.  It involved verification of nearly 4,000 students’ application materials for financial service positions. The study found embellishments on the part of a significant percentage of students. More interesting was the correlation they discovered between the ranking of each University and the percentage of students who embellished.

During the employee screening process, it was discovered that more students from the lower ranking Universities, around 43%, stretched the truth or lied on their applications. Of the students who graduated from more prestigious Universities, the percentage of those who lied dropped down to 14%.

The BBC did not go into depth regarding the analyzing of the figures, but the staggering difference in the percentages did indicate a few possibilities.  It could very well be that the large percentage of lower ranked University students who embellished on their applications did so to be considered as qualified as the top University students. It follows than that the top University students would not feel as inclined to falsify their resumes because they would be more confident in their achievements and credentials.

While this study is not meant to show that only top University graduates can be trusted when applying for positions, it is a reminder that employee screening is necessary to weed out those whose resumes outshine their own past.

More on the figures from the article on the BBC website at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/7517918.stm.

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Comprehensive employee screening is to discount background checks as fine dining is to fast food. Proper employee screening is not as easy as selecting something off a drive thru menu and picking it up at the window.  Like fine dining, it is a multistage process that in the end, provides for a much more satisfying experience.

Employee screening starts before any potential employees walk through the door. A qualified employment background check provider will start with the employer’s hiring documents and application materials. It is important that these materials ask the correct questions while being careful not to ask anything that would infringe on the privacy rights of the applicant.

The next step is a thorough background check for an applicant who has moved past the initial hiring stages. It is at this point that a customized background check takes place, one tailored specifically for the hiring company. Depending on the nature of the position and the industry in which the company operates, different aspects of the applicant’s background may be more relevant than others.

Finally, it is a commitment to thorough and comprehensive employee screening that separates a quality background check from the ‘fast food,’ offerings in the business. Employer’s Reference Source NW is a quality leader in the background check industry. Contact us today to discuss how this process can be made to fit your company and make sure your applicants are exactly who they say they are.

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It’s a hard lesson to learn that potential employees can’t be taken at face value. Regrettably, every seasoned business owner learns that some applicants are less than they present themselves as. This is why professional and comprehensive employee screening is a necessity.

There is more than one part to the employee screening process. A complete employment background check will include:

-           Criminal Background Check: For a complete history, criminal records need to be checked on the local, state and federal level.

-           Reference Checking & Employment Verification: Do the applicant’s references check out? Have they worked were they claim to have worked? This is often one of the easiest areas for an applicant to exaggerate or falsify.

-           Education Verification: This confirms the date of graduation, degree obtained and the accreditation of the institute. 

-           Licenses and Certifications: It is important to know if an applicant has the necessary licenses and certifications they claim to have. The results of hiring someone who has is lying about their professional credentials could be disastrous.

-           Sex Offender Registry Check: Discover if an employee has a history of sexual offenses. Do you want a sex offender working for you?

-           Industry Specific Background Checks: Some industries have lists of excluded individuals that are no longer allowed to retain employment. Find out if an employee has a questionable past specific to your industry.

To find out more information about employee screening and due diligence, contact Employer’s Reference Source NW for truly complete background checks. Keep your company protected from fraudulent applicants and reduce your legal exposure.

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Criminal histories are often thought of as the main focus of an employment background check. While it is true that knowing a candidate’ past criminal activities is critical to making an informed hiring decision, there are certain other aspects for quality pre-employment screening that are important to consider as well. Foremost among these other issues is the checking of candidates’ academic credentials.

It doesn’t take more than a printer and some decent paper to create a realistic looking degree from Harvard. As unlikely as it may seem, these types of fabrications do occur in America on a daily basis. If that isn’t scary enough, consider the fact that degrees are available online from universities that require few or no classes to be taken. These degree-granting institutions are not accredited by any governing body of higher education. If academic credentials are taken without verification during an employment background check potential employers may never know their employee’s degree came in the mail.

Letting an employee slip through the employee screening  process with false academic credentials can be cause for a myriad of potential issues. Putting a new hire in a position they are not actually qualified for can quickly spell disaster, especially in high level positions. In addition, if a falsified or exaggerated education is able to slip though the employee screening there is no telling what other aspects of the persons’ life may be erroneous.

Education verification should always be executed by employers who hire workers with advanced degrees. A qualified employee screening company will include this as a part of a comprehensive employment background check.

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Case Study: Dallas Schools Backlogged and Behind

Would you want to know the backgrounds of the people working with your children? The residents of Texas did.  In 2007 as they passed a law that required in-depth background checks for both their current and future employees. This law came on the heels of reports of delayed and incomplete background checks on the part of the Dallas Independent School District.

This particular school district was not keeping up with the employee background check requirements and was backlogged for months. It was also using non-comprehensive databases for the states where the employees had lived.

In today’s world, comprehensive pre-employment screening is vital. Letting screening standards lapse into the state that the Dallas school district did left the children in potentially harmful situations and the district open to legal action.

The passing of the new law in Texas was an acknowledgement that the limited background searches were insufficient to discover the complete backgrounds of school employees. After all, with checks like this, the employee need only leave a suspicious state off the application and their employer would be none the wiser.

The Dallas Independent School District eventually discovered that in their backlogged background checks, numerous employees had undisclosed criminal records that had not been discovered in their limited checks.

If a comprehensive employee background check system had been in place much earlier, the district would not have been employing people with questionable backgrounds. Don’t let potentially harmful employees slip by with an inadequate pre-employment screening practice.  Consult with a qualified employee background check provider to guarantee that due diligence will be exercised.

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The National Myth of Employee ScreeningNo matter what anyone advertises, when it comes to pre-employment screening, there is no such thing as one stop shopping. Many employee screening companies will advertise a so-called ‘National,’ employee background check at a bargain price. While the term ‘national,’ may seem all-inclusive, this term is actually very misleading to the potential employer.The fact is there is no such thing as a quick and easy national employee background check. To understand this, you must first understand that there is no single national information database to pull records from. At best, supposed national databases only contain information from approximately 60% of the thousands of counties in the United States.  The actual process of thorough pre-employment screening involves consulting with both federal and county agencies in each of the areas that the potential employee has lived, worked or attended school. Beyond that, depending on the nature of the position applied for, many other aspects of the potential employees history may need to be reviewed. In some cases school records, credit histories, employment references and driving records may need to be checked.

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