Month: November 2009

Categories
Background Checks Business Research Drug Screening Economy preemployment screening Recruiting Staffing Uncategorized

When Social Media is Part of the Background Check

It should be no secret at this point that many employers are monitoring social media as part of their preemployment screening program.  Many consider the social media monitor just one more background check.   Employers monitor largely for a two-fold purpose.  The first is to recruit prospective employees.   The second is to filter out those prospective employees they may find unsuitable for their working environment.

With jobs being scarce, thanks to the dwindled economy, the job market is that much more competitive.  What was acceptable a couple of years ago may not quite make the grade today.   As a job hunter, you are up against a lot of competition.  With so many people out of work, you need the edge.   And to decide who is the best fit for the few jobs available, employers are drilling down further with a variety of background checks.  We see in increase in drug testing.  No employer wants to make a costly mistake.

With respect to how you project yourself on social media, I have come across a great list on The Ladder.  The article is written by William Aruda, and it is entitled 10 Ways to Wreck Your Personal Branding.     I loved this article.  It addresses the issues of messaging and addressing your personal branding.  What to do and what not to do.  And why.

The listing, Number 9 about making the mistake of talking too much about yourself alone is worth the reading.  But the other nine points are equally as valuable.   It is a good list to follow.   Unfortunately, very few do.  I see some amazing faux pas on the social media, language and content that is not only an obstacle to engaging an employer, but in some cases so utterly stupid it defies descriptions.

I would add to this list that you should clean up your act.  Not only edit your social media listing and think it out, but look into your background checks to see if there is information that will harm your chances for finding work.  Bad credit?  Small bills that you should have paid that have gone to collections?   Driving records.  Infractions.  These are all things to consider.

With social media, try not to brag about that big beer bash that left you all smashed and standing naked in the parking lot, singing “River Deep, Mountain High” at 4 A.M.  Employers are less inclined to find this appealing.

Categories
Background Checks

The Cost of Criminal Records on Background Checks

It is no big news that the economic meltdown has resulted in a lousy job market.   What is new is the ongoing impact that tight job market has had on many workers who have been laid off or are only working part time.   In applying for new employment they are encountering stricter hiring policies and tough competition.   It is not uncommon on certain levels to find that you, the employment applicant is vying for a job where there are hundreds of others after the same position.   I had one out of work applicant tell me with at least a smidgen of optimism that he made the cut and was among the forty initial finalists.

While there are so many warnings to job applicants that they can damage themselves with inappropriate postings on their social media sites,  the stark fact remains that the major reason you can be denied employment is your criminal history.  If an employer runs background checks, and most do, as part of their preemployment screening program, and they find criminal records,  then there is a fair chance your application will be rejected in favor of someone who does not have a criminal history.    Sometimes this isn’t fair, but it is what it is.   Criminal records make employers nervous.

According to the Wall Street Journal,  employment candidates are scrambling to have their criminal records sealed and expunged.  When records are sealed or expunged, they should not be accessible through a background check.  That being said, at Corra Group we sometimes find that there is a listing in the county criminal search where the court explains there was a record, but it is no longer there due to expungement.  It’s like saying ignore the pink elephant in the living room.   Given the scramble, the Wall Street Journal reported Oregon will be setting aside 33% more criminal records this year than last.  In Michigan, the number is 45% records being set aside.

To be FCRA Complaint, The Fair Credit Reporting Act, employers are only supposed to consider convictions or criminal records for the past seven years.   But reality does have its effect and if there are violent crimes or severe felonies, most employers will take those conditions into consideration.   Employers will also question outstanding cases.  Most will wonder why a criminal case is pending and hasn’t been resolved.   Some will attribute lack of resolution to behavior characteristics evident in the candidate.

As for getting records expunged, it isn’t cheap, but it is often necessary.  In this economic downturn when out of work people could use the extra bucks to weather the recession, they are loathe to lay out a thousand bucks or more to have their records expunged.   But then to have that record haunting you and ruining your chances of employment is not a savory proposition for most employment candidates.

I have had people call me with reasonable concern that something they did as a younger person may come back to haunt them.   These are middle class people; some have achieved a reasonable affluence and success in their careers.   They made one mistake, cleaned up their lives and have been exemplary ever since.  They have held good jobs and have had reputable track records.  Still, in this economy and this job market, with the pickings slim, getting criminal records expunged or resolved can be viewed as a worthwhile investment.

Categories
Background Checks Business Research Economy Human Resources Miscellany Motor Vehicle Records Recruiting Staffing Uncategorized

Trucking Firms Should Conduct Recurring Background Checks on Their Drivers

As a background checking service, we at Corra Group have been noticing an increase in the number of drivers who are driving on suspended licenses.   The reasons for the suspension can vary from Driving Under the Influence or DUIs to just too many tickets, failure to appear, failure to provide insurance.  We are seeing this with operators with personal motor vehicle driving licenses, and we see it increasingly with truckers with Commercial Drivers License, or CDLs.

I suppose you can blame the economy for some of it.  People are out of work, working part time and having money troubles, so they feel funky, start to drink and, overall, behave poorly behind the wheel.  Maybe it is because of the economic downturn that more drivers are not paying their tickets and failing to show up on court.   They may believe that the state Department of Motor Vehicles have been so overloaded and suffering budget constraints that they are not pursuing those with suspended licenses.   There is prevailing belief as well that the courts are clogged and they are slow in dealing with scofflaws.

Beliefs or not, if you are driving on a suspended license and get pulled over, chances are you are doing to jail.  For trucking firms, as most well realize, a truck driver on a suspended license will degrade your insurance rankings.   If a trucker driving on a suspended license is pulled over and hauled in, then the truck is impounded.  It costs to get the truck out of the pound.  The goods inside the truck, if they are perishables, will go back.  Most of the time insurances companies will not pay up for the ruined load, because the trucking firm was negligent in allowing its driver to operate on a suspended license.

Most trucking firms must comply with Department of Transportation or DOT regulations.   This means, among other things conducting the motor vehicle driving records, MVRs on a regular basis.   But trucking firms may consider running the MVRs more frequently than required by DOT compliance.  It will protect the trucking firm from embarrassing and costly situations.   Consider the other day, I ran one MVR for a new client, and the motor vehicle driving report came back with, literally,  with records extending on paper for a good two feet.  That’s a lot of driving infractions.  The license had been suspended, and the client told me the trucker had failed to inform them.  In this economy he feared losing hsi job and wanted to keep working.  So he drove for seven months on a suspended license.  Not good.

So be aware of your drivers and their motor vehicle driving records.   They could not only get themselves in trouble but you, the employer, as well.   Check them out before you hire, and keep checking them out on a regular basis.

Categories
Background Checks Business Research Economy Miscellany Staffing Uncategorized

When Half Your Town is Out of Work

Unemployment varies from city to city and state to state.   Nationally, the rate is alarming at over ten percent unemployed.   Those who cite those who gave up looking for work or who are only working part time, put the figure at closer to 17% unemployed.   Cities like Detroit near 20% unemployed, and states like Nevada and California are well into the double digit range.

But nothing is as startling as the unemployment rates in Pembroke, Illinois where nearly half the adults are out of work.  Fifty percent unemployed.   This is almost unimaginable.    While the town has only three thousand total citizens,  it is much like many towns were employers find no attraction, no reason to establish there and where the younger citizens move away in search of employment elsewhere.

It is the story of America in flux.   On one hand it is an old and familiar story, part of our history with things closing down and moving on.  On the other, it is worrisome that thousands of people may not ever find work again.   Couple all this with the fact that the median income is half that of the rest of the state, and you get a picture of poverty on its worst level.

According to the article on CBSNews Chicago, Nestle used to have a plant in Pembroke, employing around 100 people.   There was talk of building a prison there, but the economic downturn at least temporarily but an end to that.   There is some talk of developing low income housing in the area, and that would certainly provide jobs, if even on a temporary basis.

When I read this kind of story I think of John Steinbeck and his writings on the Great Depression, the struggles of people in the dust bowl.  I think of James Agee and his depiction of the poverty in  in the coal mining regions of Appalachia.  While we hear about the economic recovery, and how well the Dow is doing, the reemergence of Wall Street, we should take a moment to reflect on Pembroke and places like it.   I don’t think it’s the image of America most of us will relish.