Corra Daily Planet

Are Unscrupulous Employees Ruining Your Business?

Anymore, when you read the business section of your local newspaper it looks more like the true crime section rather than mere financial news.    The financial news is bad enough, but then you have to bear witness to all the scam artists and outright thieves in white collars who have been indicted for one malfeasance or another.

In fact, when one considers the consequences of terrorism to our lives and to our national economy, it would seem prudent to view these criminal actions by failing corporations, where they robbed money from diligent citizens should also be regarded severely.   Obviously, most of the public agrees with that sentiment.

The Los Angeles Times recently published an article about how the Services Employees International Union funneled millions of dollars to consulting firms, political non-profit organizations and individuals with family ties or with connections to the heads of the Union.   Old fashioned business at a brand new stand.  Maybe not that old fashioned, at that.  Perhaps even the family cat got a few bucks for catnip, by virtue of being a family member.

Cronyism is but one way your business can face serious losses if not catastrophe.   While we all love our friends and families, well maybe not all our friends and families, there are employment candidates, consulting firms and suppliers that are often a lot more qualified than cronies.

But this is only one way a company can lose traction, lose business and turn upside down.   Cronyism is but one aspect of a large picture.   There are kickbacks and theft issues.   As a background checking and corporate research service we hear all the time about employees taking kickbacks from suppliers who curry favor in order to obtain the account.   Employees stealing merchandise is commonplace.   This is a real morale killer, as the honest workers resent the fact that the thieves often go unpunished.

Then there are the outright thieves who steal your sensitive data and proprietary information.   They either do it for spite, many cases of that, or sell it to competitors.  Many cases of that as well.

None of this is any joke.   You can lose your business because one employee is selfish and seeking his own profit.   So check your employees out carefully.   Have in your application notice that you will not only be running preemployment screening searches when they apply for the job but that you will be conducting background checks through their tenure with your company.

Check them out before you hire.  And after.

Entrepreneurs–The Young and the Old

The housing market is down.  Way, way down.   Jobless claims are up.   Jobless claims are nearing 8% here in California.   So what is a young person to do?  Why start their own businesses of course.

Boomers are being downsized and exiled from the corporate world.   Their salaries are too high, the cost of their health insurance is near-prohbititve.   So what are Boomers to do?  Why start their own businesses, of course.

Entrepreneurs are either older or younger.   According to a recent article in Inc.com entrepreneurs are getting younger every day.   Except for the ones, according to other articles and reports, who are older and opening their own shops.   Funny how that works, the young and the old appear better geared to take risks.   They are more innovative, either from experience and acquired savvy, or, for the younger ones, from sheer courage and awareness of the modern marketplace and the incumbent technologies.   I should also mention that either group doesn’t appear all that comfortable working in the corporate environment.

This is a sign that even in a down economy America is healthy and that its people still retain the adventurous spirit.   Being old enough to remember, just barely, when people used a slide rule to crunch numbers, I am also old enough to realize the down cycle will eventually level off and the upcycle will begin.   Those with the moxy, love that old word, who have gone into business in these recessive times, will be the ones who prosper on the up cycle.

Congratulations to all the young people going into business for themselves.  I am proud to say my own son is one of them.

Search Delays in Texas and Surrounding States

Some courthouse jurisdictions in Texas and Louisiana are experiencing continued delays due to the damaging storms surrounding the devastating Hurricane Ike.

Please note: Cameron, Louisiana is now open for research.

Jurisdictions experiencing continued delays are listed below.

This affects county criminal records and county civil record searches as part of your overal employment screening services.

The Benefits of a Culturally Diverse Work Force

Advertising Age reported today that the advertising industry has ramped up its efforts to hire culturally diverse employees.   While some of the the agencies have not met met their goals, many others have met or exceeded those goals.

This is a good thing on several levels.  The culturally diverse workforce reflect a more accurate makeup of our overall population.   But perhaps even more important than ethical concerns, a culturally diverse employment pool gives you a greater ability to reach into different target markets more effectively.  People of thos ethnic cultures and sub-cultures will for the most part be more aware of the needs, wants, hopes and desires of their ethnic group.   In this economic downturn, targeting ethnic markets is a good way to expand your business.

This is not to say they fail to view advertising and other services on a larger scale in terms of reaching a more universe demographic.   But hiring people from certain demographics will certainly give you added tools and perhaps an edge of your competition.   Reality being what it is, and with segmented market being what that it, it is only natural the advertising world and those businesses who retain them will be focusing increasingly on narrower demographic segments, including ethnic cultures.   Those companies that get their first with efficient and courteous service and competitive rates will garner consumer loyalty and the market share.

Of course, when hiring any employment candidate, it pays to conduct background checks.   If your candidate is a recent immigrant, you may wish to conduct international criminal searches as well as international employment verifications, and international education verifications.   More than a few candidates have lied about their degrees.  Foreign students are no exception.

Check them out before you hire.

So…How is Your Business?

Okay, we have all seen the markets, heard the news and ducked for cover.  Or not.  The news is enough to make you ill, if you could even afford to be ill, what with medical costs and down time.

So everyone is uncertain, and each day is a new adventure.   You don’t know whether to fire people, excuse me, lay them off, downsize, something polite, or hire people to explore new channels.   Potential clients call you for goods and services but you don’t know if they are good for the bill for your goods and services.   These kinds of things are normally know and dilemmas, or in a milder form, considerations.   In this economic climate, these considerations are critical.

Let’s face it, if your clients don’t pay you, you don’t pay your vendors and employees, and the whole thing steamrolls into one ruined business.   On the other hand, this lousy economy may well present opportunity.   Niche markets and the last business standing.   That kind of stuff.

While others tuck in, this may be the time to take a few chances, reach out, seek new channels.  Hire the people who can expand your business in difficult times.

Whether you are hiring new employees or thinking about taking on new clients, you will want to run preemployment screening searches and corporate research.   Corporate research may include individual assets reports, county criminal and county civil searches, and detailed business credit reports for companies in the United States and throughout the world.

These are tough times.   Be bold.  Be successful.   That’s the spirit.

Washington State Driver Records Are Now Instant

For ages, it seems, when our clients ordered Washington State Motor Vehicle Driving Records on their employment candidates the records didn’t return for the following day.   Corra can now offer these Washington State Driving records so that they return instantly to your Corra account.

When you set up a background checking account with Corra Group, you will be able to order the DMV’s for all fifty states and even for some Canadian Provinces.   In most cases the driving records will return to you in about forty seconds or less.   There are a few remaining streets where the driving searches are ordered via batch file and will return the following day, or in one or two cases, several days later.

With Corra Group’s software, all Motor Vehicle Driving Records will be permanently stored inside your account for easy access and review.   For Trucking and Transportation companies a simple click of a button will inform you when your drivers should have their driving records updated to meet the compliance standards of the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Check them out before you hire.

Retailers, Be Careful What You Sell

Looks like China is at it again.  Hong Kong authorities just found melamine in more products made in China, including drinks, ice cream, and yogurt.  If you recall, not long ago U.S. authorities discovered melamine in supposedly premium pet food from China was chocked full of industrial melamine and ruining the kidneys and killing thousands of pets.   My dog died on that one.

Then of course there was toxins in toothpastes exported from China, anti-freeze elements, if memory services, and there are warnings about anti-mold chemicals in Chinese-made furniture that creates allergies, rashes, all sorts of stuff.   None of it is good.  A lot of it is lethal.  And even more of it is disturbing.  It appears what was once regarded as a bargain, meaning Chinese goods, is no longer a bargain.

But China will do what China does.   One woman, her family had Scandanavian retail furniture store for about thirty years, in Los Angeles, told me that the Chinese manufacturers will cheat on the chemicals and products they use.   When the American examiners come, they will drag out the compliant stuff, and then, once the Americans leave, out again comes the cheap, toxic compounds.   Lovely.

The mean thing is whether the retailers here will continue to sell the potentially dangerous goods from China.   If you are a retailer and continue to do so, it can adversely affect your business.   If you don’t believe it, a case in point are the two women I saw in Marshall’s passing on ceramic cookware that was made in China.   They chose the ceramic cookware from Portugal instead, but didn’t buy the quantity they had intended to, orginally.   These were Russian women, relatively recent immigrants who still had their accents.   They came from a country that had a scarcity of goods.   But now that they were in the United States, no way they were buying inferior or dangerous product.

These are hard times, economically speaking.   Business is not to be taken lightly.  Consumers are not to be mistreated.  You should be hiring courteous sales personnel who actually provide service.   Run background checks on these people and train them for their jobs.   And, most importantly, try not to poison your customers.   There aren’t all that many to go around at the moment.   Their loss would be noticed.

Lehman Employees Selling on EBay

It was reported recently that the former employees at the collapsed financial icon, Lehman Brothers, are now selling off of EBay.   They are selling whatever knicknacks, memorabilia, even a Lehman’s water bottle are going off at auction.    Another was selling the  branded helmet to a fire safety team.

If nothing else, it does bring a touch of humor to a dire situation.   Twenty bucks here, thirty there.  Not bad for a company that a few weeks ago was used to dealing in billions of dollars.   Pretty amazing how quickly they are falling.  Pretty scary.

So in these times, it pays to manage your business and make sure you not only do preemployment screening to make sure your job candidates really are who they say they are, but to also do corporate research on companies with whom you do business to be sure they, too, really are who they say they are.   So they don’t place an order with you one day and then have their own employees selling off their memorabilia the next.

Good advice.  Check them out before you do business.