On September 24, 2009, I presented at the University of Illinois’ “Finding Talent” program for employers & recruiters. My presentation concerned legal issues surrounding background checking, electronic communication & social networking in recruiting & selection.

My seminar handout, PowerPoint, some cases and sample background checking waiver forms are available here.

The actual seminar was recorded as a webinar and is available here (due to WordPress’ file size restrictions the link takes you to a zipped file which requires unzipping; other than that it’s a typical media file that can be played on most media players).

I’m now writing articles for “Doctor of Dentistry’s Greater Chicago Edition.” This is a hard copy “business and lifestyle magazine for dentists.”

My articles focus on the human resources & labor & employment law issues encountered by dental practices. You can read the 1st article, from the December/January issue, which discusses background checking and screening here (PDF).

Ironically, this coincides with the 1/13/09 statement from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that a Chicago dental practice settled a federal sexual & religious harassment & retaliation lawsuit for $462,500. You can read the actual settlement document (“consent decree”) here (PDF). Obviously, this suit & settlement will be a future topic.

I’ve got two public presentations to tell you about. One involves me and the other involves my colleague Tony Ramos founder and president of The Integra Security Alliance, which I’m a part of.

On Thursday, November 15, 2007, as part of the “Breaking Down Trade Barriers” day long conference, sponsored by the World Trade Center Illinois, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, State of Illinois and the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce, I’ll be part of the panel for “Legal Considerations, Accounting & Cultural Considerations.” We’ll address what you need to know in order to protect your company internationally and how to avoid cultural mistakes in trade.

Besides me, the panel will include attorney Tom Thoreli of the international law firm Thorelli and Associates and Karen Cornelius, President of the international consultancy KLC Associates.

The overall goal of the program is designed to help prepare small to medium sized companies for international commerce. It starts at 8am and concludes at 4:30pm. My panel segment, starts at 3pm. The other segments include: Trade Readiness and Market Assessment, Market Development and Product, Service Adaptation/IT Consideration, and Customs & Logistics & Trade & Finance Risk.

This takes place at the World Trades Center Illinois’ headquarters at the Aon Center, 200 E. Randolph, #2200, Chicago. The fee is $120 and includes lunch, beverages, materials, etc. You may register with Shufen Zhao at szhao@wtcc.org or 312-467-2924, or if you’d like, I can email you a PDF registration form.

This past November 7^th 2007, Tony Ramos, as part of the Emergency On-site Planning and Integrated Facility Security Conference sponsored by the Illinois Safety Council, ADT Security and Integra Security Alliance, addressed the issue and benefits of security system integration. The objectives being to provide attendees with information regarding best practices, trends, latest technology, and the opportunity to interact with some of the nation’s leading security manufactures and experts. This one-day seminar included presentations on Emergency Planning Regulations, OSHA, War on Terrorism, FBI, Illinois Emergency Management (IEMA), On-site Emergency Planning, ISC and introduction to InfraGuard. All attendees received a free one-year ISC membership courtesy of ADT and an “On-site Emergency Planning Guide” courtesy of ISC. At the conclusion each of the other participating organizations and companies including Bosch, Honeywell, General Electric, Brivo, Inovonics, American Dynamics and AlertWave participated in a round table discussion.

Congratulations on this Tony.

Criminal Background Check left the following comment on my February 11, 2007, post “Employee Screening and Risk Assessment“:

The latest thing is what people have done/posted on online. Employers are now starting to scour perspective employees Social Networking sites such as Facebook, and MySpace to see what they are up to in their own time. Let alone their political views.

Thanks for the comment.

You’re right. However, I think that this is a natural evolution in the use of the Internet by allowing employers to cheaply and easily see who they’re hiring or considering to hire.

More mature and sophisticated employers will be more tolerant of divergent political or social views which don’t harm potential customers or the public, and don’t hurt profits. Less sophisticated and mature employers won’t hire those individuals, yet possibly shrink their pool of qualified and profitable prospective employees for more compliant employees. If my prior statement is correct, then those less sophisticated and less mature companies may also lose profit due to utilizing a less qualified workforce.

In other words, as I’ve indicated in prior posts, positive and proactive human resources leads to increased profits.

Additionally, this will also compel the users of social networking websites and other Web 2.0 applications to think before they post.

Tony Ramos, President, Integra Security Alliance, and I wrote the following article.

Employee Screening and Risk Assessment

Recent headlines of workplace violence, violence by home service personnel, as well as convicted rapists working as private security officers or child care providers, has raised serious questions regarding employee screening programs.

• What is negligent hiring?
• Should all companies be expected to have a screening policy?
• Does every employee need to be screened?
• How much should a company expect to pay for screening?
• What can it cost a company should they chose not to have a screening program?
• Are all screening companies alike?

According to Charles Krugel, Human Resources Attorney & Counselor Labor & Employment Law on Behalf of Management www.charlesakrugel.com and Director, Legal & Compliance Services The Human Resource Store as well as a member of the Integra Security Alliance:

Negligent hiring and negligent retention lawsuits are increasing, and so are employer expense and liability as a result of these suits. Underlying the idea of negligent hiring and retention is an employer’s legal responsibility to provide employees, customers and the public a reasonably safe environment, and the liability imputed to employers when they fail to exercise reasonable care in providing such an environment. It’s when this failure occurs that as an employer, your business, could be held liable for negligent hiring or retention.

Consequently, from a cost containment and legal liability perspective, it’s increasingly crucial that businesses conduct criminal background checks, conduct such checks in a competent manner and take reasonable action as a result of these inquiries. This means that if an employer undertakes criminal background checking, in order to avoid legal liability, it should carefully choose who does the screening as well as what records are searched.

Although, Illinois doesn’t require many businesses to screen job candidates (most education and social service organizations are required to screen candidates), and the Illinois Human Rights Act mandates that an employer cannot use a candidate’s “arrest record” as the basis for denial of employment (narrow exceptions exist), the possible liability resulting from a business’ failure to screen can cripple that business. According to a 2001 report by the Society of Human Resources Management and American Background Information Services, Inc., the average settlement for negligent hiring lawsuits exceeds $1.6 million.

Obviously, much of the burden falls on employers, with the guidance of competent legal counsel and screening professionals, to determine what constitutes a competent background search. Generally, such a search is based upon the essential requirements of the position and the industry’s particular circumstances.

Usually, the courts don’t examine why screening is done. The courts look at why the essential duties of the job, and the particulars of the business’ industry, necessitate the need to screen out convicted criminals, and which types of crimes will prevent a candidate from being hired. Therefore, just knowing that a job candidate has been convicted of a crime may not be enough to insulate your business from liability. You will probably need to know the exact nature of the conviction and then connect it to the job.

In short, as a business, if you undertake criminal record checking, then choose a competent screener and screening method, check all candidates and employees, conduct the search in a good faith and reasonable manner, and use the results of those checks in a good faith and reasonable fashion. As with all human resources related matters, in order to minimize expense and legal exposure, focus on prevention and proaction–research your screener and work with them to best determine what you need and why you need it.

Vendor Selection – by Tony Ramos

Selecting the wrong screening vendor can be equal to or more devastating than hiring the wrong employee. The wrong vendor can provide you with nothing more than a false sense of security.

Select a vendor who has the knowledge, experience and can clearly explain your screening options and their limitations. Typical choices include statewide, county-court, national criminal databases and fingerprint searches. There are also choices of supplemental screening options which include driving record, credit reports, workers compensation, employment history, educational history and civil records as well. Your vendor can assist you in developing the right plan to match your needs.

Basic Program

• Vendor Selection: Select a vendor who can demonstrate a national hit rate of at least 10%. Hit rate is the effective way to determine the quality of the service. In short, for every 100 applicants screened, the vendor should be finding at least 10 with a criminal record. Don’t be surprised if a vendor is hesitant or actually refuses to provide this information. Many operate with only a 6% or
• Social Security Trace: This will help validate the number and provide up to ten-years of past residential history and names or aliases used.
• County-court Record Search: Counties to be searched should be selected based on the results of the trace and never from the job application. This will also provide you with the most accurate and current information available.
• National Criminal Database Search: For a more comprehensive program, include a national criminal database search. Important note, database findings must be verified by court records before acting upon them. Also, databases searches should only be used to supplement an actual court record search and not in place of.
• FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) Compliant: Ensure your vendor is fully FCRA compliant, this will provide you with additional protective immunity against some civil lawsuits.
• Cost: While there are many factors such as volume and types of screening options selected which determine the actual cost, one can expect to pay $20 to $35 per person.

Tony Ramos co-wrote this article based on over 20-years of experience developing, implementing and selling employee background screening to private/public corporations and governmental agencies nationwide. He also authored “The Guide to Background Checks” which he developed for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police and is available for download from his web-site. For further information you can contact him directly.