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Background Checks Business Research Economy Miscellany Retaining Employees Staffing Uncategorized

Background Checks And Reviewing Employee Blog Sites

Sometimes an employee or ex-employee can create some fuss by blogging about either his current or former employer.   A recent posting from the Sydney Morning Herald discussed the possible need to review employee blogs as part of the background checks conducting for current employees and job candidates as well.

The article cites one Google employee who wrote a little too much about his job at the company.   It was more than Google was comfortable with, and the blogger was gone soon after.   And then of course there are the disgruntled employees who post derisive content about their current and former employers.   Either they were fired, passed up for a promotion, or in some way perceived a slight that caused them to talk out of school.   Of course, the trouble with the cyber world is content has a longer shelf life than a Hostess Twinkie, and negative input can be embarrassing or even destructive to the employer.

Then, too, there is the legal issues of defamation, libel and slander, should the positing contain assertions that just aren’t true.   It’s fair to say that no employer wants to hire a candidate who is willing to break the law.

So the point of the article is that in addition to your regular preemployment screening, it is wise to include any blog sites as part of your review.  You may want to search under the candidate’s name, and then search for his association with past employers that may also be listed in the search engines.   Any candidate dissing his former employers or, as they used to say in blues talk, putting their business out on the street, is far from your ideal employment candidate.  In fact, it may be trouble and even more trouble just waiting to happen.  In your office.

Check them out before you hire.

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Background Checks Business Research Economy Human Resources Miscellany preemployment screening Staffing Uncategorized

When Job Seekers Get Desperate

With the economy faltering every which way, and with so many layoffs in just about every industrial sector, it is small wonder that out-of-work employees are getting desperate.  There are bills to pay, kids to feed.    There are the school pyaments, car payments, every other kind of payment.  Even if you cut back from your home-equity-hocked up to here lifestyle of times now gone by, most of us still struggle too keep afloat.  When you are out of work, that struggle looms that much more desperate.

So how to get a job?  There are any number of methods.  Networking is best, provided the people with whom you are networking are still working themselves.   My one take on all the supposed networking events is that a bunch of out or work people are prevailing upon other out of work people for either business opportunities or a job.   That is kind of like an online dating site where the prospects have bull swanked each other on all their amazing assets.   Including their looks.  Given all preemployment screening thresholds, appearance and personality will be key factors when between two candidates all other skills are equal.

Which brings up another interesting aspect of the job search.   You have to look good.   I know for the past couple of decades there was prevailing edict infused in our society that the world should love us for what we are.    Accept us the way I am, was one of the pervasive mantras on all the TV talk shoes and self-help publications, etc.  Forget the fact that it flew in the face of reality.   Most people are more accepting of attractive and well groomed people.  That’s how it is.  That is how it will be.   And now, job seekers are finding out this is the case.

Mind you, not all of us can be models or hunks.   And I am not the one to say otherwise.   It is a matter of looking your best.  A matter of presentation.   My one friend who is in the executive placement business told her sister that if she looks frumpy she will not get hired.  Her sister repsonded, “that’s not fair.”  Nobody is talking fair here.   This is an economic meltdown and employers are looking for every edge.  One aspect of the edge is hiring people with the type of presentation that will appeal to clients.

According to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, job seekers in China are resorting to plastic surgery.  This may take job hunting preparation a little too far, but we are living in desperate times.   Sad, but desperate.   China’s economy is in the dumper big time,  so employment candidates are resorting to cosmetic surgery.  Some of the more desperate or more intrepid, read it as you are wont to do, are even resorting to leg lengthening surgeries.   The subject themselves to a great deal of pain in purse and on person in order to have their legs lenghtened to be a more appealing job candidate.   I will spare you the details of the operation.

So the Chinese have taken preparation for job hunting to the extreme.  Or at least we could say they have gone a whole lot further than dying their hair.   Or getting Botox shots.  I realize it may sound crazy to us, to put oneself through such arduous and painful processes just to get a job.  It sounds crazy to me.  But then, what do we know.  We’re the ones who owe them money.

Check them out before you hire.

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Background Checks Economy Miscellany preemployment screening Staffing Uncategorized

Conducting Background Checks for Non-Profit Volunteers

It’s hardly a secret that more people of out of work, thanks to the economic slump.   But what is noteworthy is that more people are volunteering their time to non-profit organizations.  For one thing it is a good way to spend time, rather than sit around watching television and waiting for the phone to ring.   For another, it is a way for people to give back to the community.  Many people had wanted to, intended to, and now they have time on their hands a a chance todo some good.
According to the Tribune in Mesa,Arizona, people are  volunteering for everything from community rehabilitation projects to food banks.   Some are contributing to the heal care needs in their communities.   It is all good.
However, even with volunteers is may be necessary to conduct background checks. While most people are well intentioned, there are others who are using these desperate economic times to scam their way or otherwise sneak in under the radar.   This is especially a cause for concern with those volunteering to work with children or the frail and the elderly.   These are the more susceptible people and the most vulnerable to theft and sex crimes.
It is necessary to run criminal background searches and to search the sexual offenders’ registry as well.   It’s the sensible thing to do.   Because, as noted earlier, while most people are extremely well intended, all it takes is for one rotten apple to create a situation that would cause your organization public embarrassment and leave it open for liability concerns.
Check them out before you hire.  Even if they just volunteer.

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Background Checks Business Research Economy preemployment screening Staffing Uncategorized

European Job Market Slump Sends Immigrants Packing

Thanks to the economic slump, all over Europe immigrant workers are packing up and heading.   There are no jobs for these people, and so after a number of salad years they are heading back to their countries of origin.

For the past number of years, Spain, Britain, and Ireland had flourishing economies and liberal immigrant policies.  But now with the economy faltering in the EU, immigrant workers can no longer move freely around Europe in search of jobs.    As the article in the New York Times reports, the nations themselves may have porous borders but national identities are still pretty much fixed.

What is particularly interesting are the vendors in the different countries who have established themselves to service the immigrants fromthe different countries.   There are everything from ethnic restaurants to video rentals that will suffer from the loss of clientle.    So not only does the economic downturn hurt the entire job market, but also affects the businesses that were established to support this contingent of workers.     It will be interesting to see what happens to these businesses; to see if the nationals acclimated to the different ethnic foods and services that grew up around the immigrant workers.   Meanwhile, thousand will be returning hom without the near future hope of a paycheck.