Tag Archives: Job Applicants

Is salary history part of your screening process

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Do you as an employer ask for salary history as part of your hiring process? If so, do you use that information to make your decision on whether or not to hire someone? It seems like such a small detail, but could bring problems for an employer depending on how such information is gathered and used.

Asking for salary history is well within an employer’s legal rights, and most job applicants are happy to provide such information. If you are using a third party employment screening service to gather such information, however, you must have written pre-approval by the applicant. And if the figures you find come into play when deciding not to hire that person, you are required to let them know, as according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act they have a legal right to explain or correct any errors or information you’ve found.

While a job applicant is not required to share salary history, some employers have found that asking for it ends up serving as one way to judge character, because lying about one’s salary history is an easy one to catch.

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National Consumer Law Center report on background check companies says be careful who you hire

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A recent report by the National Consumer Law Center claims that background checks can be erroneous, advising employers to be careful when hiring an employment screening service to conduct background checks on their prospective employees.

According to the report, nearly 75 percent of employers are conducting some sort of pre-employment screening on job applicants. The report claims that errors made by fly-by-night background check companies using shoddy business practices can — and have — cost qualified people good jobs.

“Federal regulatory agencies and states should rein in the Wild West of the background screening industry by holding companies accountable,” said Persis Yu, the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) staff attorney and co-author of the report.

When hiring a screening service to conduct your business’s background checks, research the company’s history and reputation. VerifyProtect.com is a division of American Tenant Screen, which is a leading provider of integrated screening services for businesses in the markets we serve. The company provides screening services globally to more than 3,000 clients, and has been in business for nearly 25 years.

 

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Social media background checks can have implications of liability

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We’ve written a lot about social media background checks lately, because it’s a trend that’s creeping into both formal company policies and informal hiring practices. It’s on the minds of employers who haven’t begun implementing any sort of social media check, and it’s on the minds of every Facebook and Twitter user who has contemplated what sorts of things they’ve shared that might come back to haunt them during their next job search.

Employers need to think long and hard about possible legal consequences before asking job applicants for their username and passwords in order to access personal profiles on select social media websites. Employers often don’t realize that once they’ve asked for an applicant’s social media login information, they become liable for the content posted.  This can be trouble in a few different ways.

  1. If an applicant admits guilt to some kind of crime within their personal profile, the employer who is given access to it may assume liability for protecting the information they find.
  2. If an employer finds out an applicant’s age, sexual orientation or another protected class, and then decides not to hire that person, they could be opening themselves up to discrimination claims by the applicant who was not given a job.
  3. If an employer misses signals or warning signs and something happens (crime is committed, someone is injured) the employer could become liable.

Social media background checks are here to stay in some capacity. But employers need to approach this trend with careful consideration.

 

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More job applicants performing background checks on themselves

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Job applicants conducting background checks on … themselves? According to some industry experts, the latest trend in pre-employment screening is something called the “self background check,” where the prospective employee conducts a background check on themselves just to see what kind of personal and professional information is available in the public domain.

Self background checks can enable a job applicant to see just how much information a prospective employer can find out about one’s criminal record, educational background and job experience, before handing in a resumé laced with half-truths or taking the leap from a current job to a new one that might not pan out. It’s along the same lines as obtaining one’s credit report to make sure there are no surprises before applying for a loan.

While we encourage this trend of job applicants making sure their public information is accurate, we advise employers to continue to conduct their own professional pre-employment screening on every prospective employee.

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Does Your Company Have A Social Media Policy For Employees?

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Everyone’s talking about social media background checks as the next trend in employment screening. Companies already are popping up to probe into the personal Internet profiles of job applicants. While this type of pre-employment screening can in some cases be useful, there are thorny privacy issues and potential issues with bias and discrimination.

What if a social media background check on someone turns up nothing illegal but something an employer deems to be unsavory or simply in poor taste. Will their view of the applicant be unfairly skewed based on something that has nothing to do with the applicant’s ability to perform the job he or she has applied for?

The first step an employer should take when contemplating the implementation of some sort of social media background check for employees (current or prospective) is to take a look at the company’s internal social media policy. Do you have one? According to a recent survey, nearly half of all businesses do not have social media and networking policies in place, despite the fact that 76 percent use social networking for business purposes. The survey, conducted by Proskauer’s International Labor & Employment Group, was of more than 120 multinational employers.

If your company doesn’t have a social media policy, now’s the time to get busy crafting one. Set down some social media standards that employees are expected to adhere to, and have every employee sign a written copy of the policy. Having set standards for employees will give an employer a more objective way to screen potential employees using social media in the future.

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Use Credit Reports Wisely — and Legally — When Vetting Applicants

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There has been much controversy and buzz surrounding the use of credit reports during the process of conducting background checks for potential hires. Many job applicants are confused about what exactly their credit history has to do with their ability to perform a specified job. Others are wary of too many people knowing their credit score. Still others think that the pre-employment screening process of obtaining a credit report will lower their overall credit score.

Employers need to be clear about why they’re preparing to do a credit check, and they need to get the applicant’s permission to do so, according to the rules of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act. If the results of the credit report adversely affect the employer’s decision to hire, the applicant is entitled to obtain a copy of their credit report and to challenge anything they see in it that they deem to be false.

Before conducting a credit report, or even asking for permission to do so, employers should ask themselves whether the information contained therein is really necessary for the applicant’s success in that particular job.

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Criminal Record Not Necessarily Grounds for Unemployment

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Deciding to use pre-employment screening tactics for all potential hires is one of the wisest moves an employer can make. Employing a reputable company to carry out those background checks is the second wisest move. But there is a third step, one that involves just as much business savvy and interpersonal skills. That step is interpreting those reports correctly — particularly the results from a criminal background screening — and making fair, unbiased judgment calls based on the information gleaned from the screening.

For example, many employers believe they can disqualify an applicant based on a criminal conviction, with no further reason beyond “You have a criminal record.” But not only is that logic faulty, that business tactic is illegal. Once a person has served the applicable punishment for his crime, the law does not allow him to be indiscriminately penalized for the rest of his life by being rendered unemployable. If the job parameters have nothing to do with the crime he committed, his criminal past should not affect his employable future.

Of course there are exceptions. A wise employer knows not to give a convicted sex offender a job as a camp counselor, for example. But job applicants have the right for the sum of their experience, education and job history to be taken into account, particularly if the criminal conviction was eons ago and for something completely unrelated to the job for which the person is applying.

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Don’t Let Poor Credit Be the Sole Factor For Determining Employability

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Checking a job applicant’s credit score is among the many ways employers are checking up on prospective employees to get a better idea of their personal history and how responsible they are. Unfortunately, in today’s tough economic recession there are plenty of job applicants out there who are both fiscally responsible and suffering from the fallout of job loss, home foreclosure and mounting debt as families try to stay afloat financially with less money coming in.

That’s why it’s important for those employers who are doing a credit check on their job applicants’ to keep a few things in mind:

1. Does the job the person is applying for deal with company finances, personal information or include a security clearance? Consider whether the job in question would be performed to the same level of professionalism by someone with less than stellar credit.

2. Pay close attention to the rest of the application and the other results from a pre-employment screening that is performed on the job applicant. Nobody likes to be judged on just one aspect of his life, and no job applicant should be judged based solely on a number. Instead let your instinct, careful review of all documents, and the interview guide you.

3. Be aware of the law. It is unlawful to deny someone a job based solely on his or her credit score.

4. If you’re on the fence, be honest about your qualms. Talk to the applicant a little more, and see whether the details and recent life history they give lines up with what you found in your background check.

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Have a Safe, Holly Jolly Holiday

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If you’re part of an industry that is hiring seasonal workers, it’s time to be particularly vigilant about background checks.  Even though these types of workers will only be working under your auspices for a short time, they’ll still be your first impression as far as the public is concerned… so you want to make a good one!

To make your life easier, though, you should tell any job applicants upfront that they will have to pass certain background checks in order to be put on staff, even for a few weeks or a couple of months.  Make sure they understand what that means, too; some may not have had to go through background checking before.  Be certain to let them ask questions… and be certain you have the answers!

Remember that background checks are not a way of penalizing people; they are a way of making your workplace more secure for everyone, from the receptionist to the soda vendor.

Think Job Applicants Are Truthful? Think Again!

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It’s an unfortunate fact of life — you can’t spot a liar by the look on his or her face.  Though some people claim to be able to “tell” if someone is being deceptive, it’s much wiser to rely on background checks to determine an individual’s truthfulness!  (Not to channel Lady Gaga, but some people do have exceptional “poker faces”!)

And this goes across all industries and occupations.  From the retail salesperson working part-time in the mall to the vice president of finance for a Fortune 500 company, anyone can lie.  And many, many people do. 

The next time you have a position to fill, be certain to perform comprehensive background checks on anyone you think could “make the cut” and possibly become a part of your team.  This will enable you to avoid letting a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” through the front door.