Recruiters Face Challenges with Social Network Background Checks of Candidates

Many recruiters these days are scouring the Internet to locate and assemble a dossier on a job candidate’s online identity using so-called “social network background checks” that search sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as blogs, videos, and anywhere else on the Internet for information on job candidates, including what they may have put online and completely forgotten about.

Report: 65 Million Americans with Criminal Records Face Unprecedented Barriers to Employment

NEW YORK. March 23, 2011 — More than one in four U.S. adults—roughly 65 million people—have an arrest or conviction that shows up in a routine criminal background check, and a new report from the National Employment Law Project finds that these Americans are facing unprecedented barriers to employment. With the rapidly expanding use of background checks, employers are routinely, and often illegally, excluding all job applicants who have criminal records from consideration, no matter how minor or dated their offenses.

The new report highlights the widespread and illegal use of blanket no-hire policies by providing numerous examples of online job ads posted on Craigslist, including some by major corporations, that effectively bar significant portions of the U.S. population from work opportunities. Because of their blunt impact and extreme overreach, these blanket no-hire policies have become the subject of increasing litigation, attracting heightened scrutiny from the courts and concerned policymakers. At the same time, 92 percent of employers conduct criminal background checks, according to a 2010 Society for Human Resources Management survey.

Top Ten Trends in Employment Background Screening for 2011

For the past four years, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) has compiled a list of emerging and influential trends in employment background screening for the year ahead. For the Fourth Annual ‘Top Ten Trends in Background Screening’ for 2011, ESR chose the following ten background screening trends to track during the coming year.

Trend #1: Controversy over Whether Employers Using Credit Reports for Employment Screening Is Discriminatory Increases

Trend #2: Questions about Criminal Records of Job Applicants Become More Difficult for Employers to Ask…

Checkster Capitalizes on Social Networks to Drive Recruiting Accuracy

Mill Valley, Calif. / March 3, 2011 – With so many candidates available, organizations are seeking the best ways to assess the high volume of job applicants. By leveraging the connectivity of social networking, Reference Check 2.0 has emerged as a new standard to effectively assess candidates.

“Social networks have transformed the mainstream communications,” says Yves Lermusi, CEO of Checkster, the leading provider of talent assessment that leverages collective intelligence. “Business processes are following those transformations and benefiting by leveraging digital connections to enable employers to assess employees.”

The World of Criminal Background Screening

Another world – with a different language? Yes. All of you who have attended an HR conference and visited the booths of consumer reporting agencies (AKA background screening companies) have been exposed to it. If you have received service proposals or quotes from background screening companies you may have been confused by it. All of you who order background screens and review the resultant reports, have hopefully become familiar with this world and mastered its language. Although in no way all-inclusive, this article is designed to assist everyone in understanding the world and interpreting the language of criminal background screening – so you know what to ask for and what you will get when you ask for it!

A few things to keep in mind with regard to criminal background reports: the reports you can request (and can legally be released to you by your background screening vendor) will only contain data dated back as far as is permitted by the regulations of the State(s) in question.

Listen To Understand

Have you ever hired a great candidate only to have their evil twin show up for work? During the interview process you met an individual with great credentials who you knew would fit into your company culture, but this is not the person who is now working for you and you find yourself questioning your ability to screen and hire.

Background Screening Dangers

When it comes to the company that handles your background screening, there are legal and regulatory factors that must also be understood and taken into consideration. By law, an employer cannot conduct a background screen on a job applicant unless and until they have received a signed background screen authorization form from the applicant. Your vendor should provide you with a template to use as your background screen authorization form that identifies them as the vendor, a FCRA Disclosure Notification, and instructions for the applicant should they want a copy of their background screen report or end up wanting to object to any of the report’s content.

Volunteer Screening – What to do…what to do?

We have been surprised by the diverse opinions surrounding the question of whether Volunteers should be treated as employees for purposes of conducting background checks per the Federal Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and state laws. This article seeks to highlight some of the questions organizations who engage Volunteers should ask themselves in determining an answer to this question.

Beyond Experience: How to best present top candidates to hiring managers

When you present a candidate to a hiring manager or to the other people to show how great they are, there are two types of claims: The one they can prove on the spot and the one that will need some degree of verification. For instance, if someone claims to be able to speak Spanish, as a recruiter you can easily have this checked by a Spanish speaker. To the same extent, any specific technical verifiable capability can be assessed during a technical interview or test.