Tag: education verification

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Background Checks

Employee Theft and the Need to Shop for Shoes

Sometimes background checks will filter out the potential red flag employment candidates, and sometimes an employee with a clean record will decide to great creative once they have a job they feel they can leverage illegally for personal gain.   Especially in times of a tough economy when money is short and people have outspent their salaries, employees are prone to make desperate moves.   Reports were coming in at the height of this economic downturn that office theft was on the increase.

But then you have this case as reported in the Wall Street Journal.  An executive assistant and Disney allegedly conspired with her boyfriend to sell  insider information to hedge funds.   Reportedly, she and her boyfriend sent out thirty-odd letters inviting mutual funds to bid on her insider information, for a price to be named at a later date.  Rather than bit, several of the mutual funds reported the the solicitation email.   Other mutual funds merely ignored it.

Ultimately, the couple unwittingly sold their insider information to undercover agents.   The Wall Street Journal reported that the boyfriend left the meeting with the undercover agents, posing as stock traders, with an envelope containing $15,000.   Some of the money, according to reports concerning the email exchange between boyfriend and girlfriend was to go toward her buying designer handbags and shoes.

Okay, so the alleged insider scheme seems lame on a good day.   In this case the stock traders and mutual funds who were solicited were reputable people and either ignored the email or reported the couple.   But there are conditions when an employee may sell proprietary information to an all too willing taker.   This can be costly.  In fact loss of valuable data and information can be so damage your business may struggle to recover the loss.

And then what if that sweet young man or woman, ever so personable, ever so nice, well educated, has tried to sell insider data from their previous position.  How would you know?   Background checks, of course.   In a case like this, aside from the state felony and misdemeanor criminal records, it would pay to also fund federal criminal background checks and federal civil background searches.   I have sen where those who appear beyond reproach suddenly turn up with federal criminal records.   Good people.  Nice people.  Educated, only with a few personality flaws and the willingness and desperate to steal from the job.   Not good.

Life is full of surprises.  Some of the surprises are not so nice.   Like employees who steal, for example.  Check them out before you hire.

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Background Checks Business Research Human Resources Miscellany Personal Background Checks preemployment screening Retaining Employees Staffing Uncategorized

Conducting a Background Check for Pre-Employment

Doing Your Due Diligence

Checking on potential hires is fraught with hazards, legal and otherwise. Get written consent, and make sure policies are consistently applied. A signed and dated application is a must; be clear that lying on the form is grounds for dismissal.

From:| By: Inc. staff

Background Checks
Most employers hire outside vendors to conduct criminal background checks. Federal and state laws limit the kind of information you may retrieve and how you use it. (For example, a criminal record is not by itself legal grounds for refusing employment.) Conviction records reside at courthouses around the country, so be wary of screeners who promise instant checks. …. Screeners can search anything from credit reports to workers’ comp filings as well, but the fees can add up. Limit searches to those that materially relate to the job—driving records if the position requires a lot of time in the car, for example.

For the entire article go to inc.com

If you haven’t been running background checks on your prospective employers, then you probably have been out of touch with either related news stories or fellow employers who have their more alarming stories to report. It is in this day an age almost mandatory that you have a preemployment screening program in place. With the pricing as low as it is, the background search is very effective in weeding out the better job candidates from the worst of them.

As a background checking service, Corra has had a fair share of new clients lapse into shock when they discover their prized employment candidate has lied about his criminal records search or neglected to tell them that his education verification would reveal he only attended school but never graduated. Granted, most candidates will pass their background screening with flying colors. But the ones who don’t? Do you still want to hire them? The axiom in this business is to ask if they lie about their background history, then what won’t they lie about up the road.

Read the papers. Scan the blogs. I’m sure you will see a number of stores where a very embarrassed company, school or non-profit organization has hired an employee who has embezzled before or fund raisers who have either skimmed or scammed the prior employers.

And then of course there are the sexual offenders. Some will show up on your state’s registry, and some have moved from somewhere else and have neglected to register, as they are mandated by law. Perhaps they wish to make a new start in life or keep discrete their past transgressions either to find employment or to prey on a new group of kids. Sex offenders can deflate the morale in a workplace faster than a ten penny nail can force the air from a beach ball. Your female employees will hate him, and your male employees will want to kill him.

This article is quite right in noting that you should run the background checks you deem most appropriate for that level of employment candidate. If you are not sure, then call a service like Corra, and we can help determine which searches best suit your employment needs.

Check them out before you hire.

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Background Checks Business Credit Reports Business Research Human Resources Miscellany Personal Background Checks preemployment screening Uncategorized

Growing Up–Choosing the Right People to Expand Your Business

How Hard Could It Be?: The Four Pillars of Organic Growth

Revenue, head count, PR, and quality–if one gets ahead of the others, you’re screwed.

From: Inc. Magazine, | By: Joel Spolsky

When you build a company, you have to choose between two very different ways of growing. When my co-founder, Michael Pryor, and I started Fog Creek Software, we made a conscious decision to bootstrap. Our goal has always been to grow slowly, organically, steadily, and profitably. By contrast, a lot of the flashy companies you read about in magazines, especially high-tech companies, believe in the “big bang” model, with very fast growth fueled by lots and lots of outside investment.Bootstrapped companies start on somebody’s credit card. And in their early months and years, they do whatever it takes to break even, even if it means they have to take a few diversions along the way. It might be nice to build a giant ice cream company that will someday have millions in sales, but for now you’re going to have to settle for opening a little shop in Vermont, hope that it’s profitable, and, if it is, reinvest the profits to expand steadily.For the complete article go to Inc.com

Corra has always liked the idea of starting modestly and growing steadily. Corra agrees with the author of this article that you can avoid heavy debt loads by growing carefully and deliberately.

Whether you choose the flashier ” big bang” model or the more deliberate growth schedule, you also need to choose the right people who can help you grow. Different employees are best utilized in the two vastly different environments. Some employees can thrive on the pressure of rapid growth and modest debt load while others are more comfortable with the modest growth.

In any case, as part of your pre-employment screening program, you should consider education verifications and employment verifications.

Check them out before you hire.