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Background Checks

Obama’s Speech and Background Checks for Infrastructure Workers

President Obama announced at the State of the Union speech that America would be moving forward in advancing alternate energy, upgrading the railroads to high speed lines and renewing our exports so that we would double exports in the next five years.     He spoke about jobs and putting American workers back to work.   Whether you like our President or not, this at least is all good stuff.

We need to upgrade the infrastructure and innovate with regard to technology and alternate fuel sources. We need to seriously upgrade public eduction and make our students competitive for the world in the mid to late 21st Century.   We need to rival other countries with our education, technology, and our economic adventures.

If all goes well, we will be hiring workers.  Some of these worker will be hired through the private sector and some through government programs.    We want to employ the best and the most capable.  In this tough economy it will take intelligence and innovation to reverse the deleterious economic  effects of the last number of years.   To  hire workers, we need to verify that they are qualified. We need to make sure they do not have serious criminal records history, that their really did complete their education and were employed where they said.    This means conducting background checks.   We need to run criminal records searches, education verification, employment verification.   We need to be sure we are not taking what appears a good idea and populating it with the wrong types of workers.

Given the embarrassments and mishaps realized by various states and public service agencies in teh past years,  background checking has to be innovative and responsive.   We need accurate background checking programs that will verify that we are in fact hiring the more talented, those in possession of the necessary job skill sets, who haven’t lied about their education or past employment.  With respect to background checks and preemployment screening, it is incumbent upon us not to take the lead from the state governments and various municipal agencies who have allowed known felons and sexual offenders, employees with fictitious degrees and past employment histories to find employment.    There is absolutely no excuse for delays in turnaround times.

Reports must be returned in a timely manner.  and they must be thoroughly reviewed before we have more employees on the government payrolls with serious criminal records and other discrepancies.   If this is to be a bold new era, then we have to be sure we protect ourselves and optimize our opportunities.

Check them out before you hire.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.