The warden at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility termed the background checks he was receiving “a joke.” You can’t blame him as the background checks were turning around an average of 56 days later. That is almost two months after the fact. The new correctional officer were probably hired already and the background checks, as it often happens with slow turnarounds, were probably overlooked.
According to the Hazelton Standard Speaker, the company that was outsourced to conduct the background checks were tied into an ongoing corruption scandal. For $200 per employment candidate, the company furnished only Pennsylvania Criminal records and a handwritten form that reportedly shed little light on the psychology of the beheavior of the job candidate. In short, shoddy work.
Background checks and preemployment screening methods should be exacting and thorough. An employer expects a comprehensive report and the report to turnaround in a timely fashion. There is an issue about getting your money’s worth.
It seems too often unscrupulous people enter the background checking field and mess it up for everyone. The employer isn’t satisfied and the workforce and public remains at risk, as the background screening was neither thorough nor in keeping with expected standards. What makes it even sadder, is there is no need for this kind of shoddy work. With the background screening industry reaching maturity, there is enough software and there are enough strategic partners so that these kind of embarrassing headline making situations can be avoided.
But not here.
