Page 13 - alacarte_Summer12_FlipBook

www.ohiorestaurant.org 11 Summer 2012 Issue

Re-Examine Your Background Screening Procedures

By taking precautionary measures, you can protect you and your current employees

1) Hiring is Coming Back Into Your Life

Following several years of market place stagnation, hiring appears to be ticking back to life.

Despite improvement, it’s likely you have not evaluated your employment screening policies or vendors in the past few years. Now is the time. By ensuring that your hiring processes and resources are current, you strengthen your competitive edge by hiring the best available talent for your operation.

2) Capture Competitive Costs

Due to the economic downturn over the past several years, human resource service providers faced operating diffculties. As less hiring occurred, they weren’t able to invest as much in their operations. However, with the economy improving, those remaining human resource providers are looking at ways to attract new clients by offering reduced pricing or through new, innovative hiring procedures. As these companies seek out ways to balance their increasing administrative costs, they will also be looking at ways they can balance their budgets. This could translate to savings for you, such as more competitive rates for employment-related services.

3) Changes in the Legal Landscape

During the recent employment lull, some signifcant developments occurred that you need to be aware of as you begin to grow your team. These changes include the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s aggressive action towards conducting employment background checks and new legislation and litigation that deter employers from conducting employment credit checks.

The EEOC has increased their scrutiny of hiring practices - exposing employers to greater threats of discrimination lawsuits. The EEOC is especially targeting “bright line” hiring decisions that automatically exclude candidates with criminal records; arrest records that did not result in a conviction; and/or poor credit. Should adverse information surface, employers must now consider the offense’s severity;

when the offense occurred; whether the person is a repeat offender; and, most importantly, how closely it relates to the job for which the applicant is applying.

With regard to the use of employment credit reports, a number of states have passed legislation to deter the use of a candidate’s personal credit history in the background screening process. A number of existing laws already provide protection for job candidates, but credit checks are becoming a “hot button” issue and the controversy only looks to intensify. If your company is using credit reports, it’s important that you do so permissibly.

4) Evolving Best Practices, Advances in Resources

Mandated screening for temporary and contracted workers continues to grow and with good reason. According to multiple surveys, more employers are using temporary and contract staffng as they seek out more options for workforce fexibility. Since September 2009, employment in temporary help services rose as much 494,000, a fgure that continues to climb, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

This means as employers utilize more contingent staffng, they must take measures to verify appropriate screening measures are in place. While it is not uncommon for temporary staffng agencies to perform background checks, these checks can often be quite minimal in scope. Employers that utilize temporary agencies and/or contract workers need to apply the same screening processes for both their contingent and permanent staff.

Additionally, the use of criminal database searches has come under fre by critics. It is important to proceed cautiously when using them. Although most reputable screening providers have access to data resources, they continue to stress the importance of manual investigation within court fles. Most experienced screening frms only recommend the use of database searches as a supplement to manual investigation of court records.

As you consider tweaking your methods, talk to vendors about the data tools available and how they can help broaden your reach without escalating costs. It’s important to note that if you receive your results instantly or within 24 hours, it’s likely your vendor is using a criminal database, which most reputable providers do not endorse as stand-alone procedures.

5) Bad Apples in the Talent Pool

Although many talented people continue to seek employment, remember that companies who survived the downturn fought hard to retain their best people. While there are exceptions, today’s talent market is fooded with undesirable candidates. To ensure that your candidate was not their last employer’s problem, you should conduct a background check.

A “background check” can refer to a lot of things. Most human resource professionals would tell you that this means a comprehensive, multi-faceted investigation of a candidate’s history with regard to professional conduct and employment, personal behavior and their education. If you think of a background check as just a report of criminal activity, you need to think again.

To learn more about ORA Strategic Partner Secure Check and how you can strengthen your hiring practices, visit the company’s website: http://www.securecheckinc. com/oramember/. ORA members save up to 30% for criminal background and drug screening services. According to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, the average substance abuser alone costs his employer more than $7,000 annually. Does your company have funds like this lying around waiting to be wasted on the wrong candidate? You can’t afford not to consider Secure Check.

by Mark Thompson, PHR Secure Check