April 12, 2012|By Ricardo Lopez, Los Angeles Times

The National Consumer Law Center says background screening companies often produce inaccurate or misleading reports that can result in employers deciding not to hire job applicants.

Here is our favorite part of the article:

“Background screening companies routinely cut corners to improve their profits and then they wipe their hands of any responsibility for producing an inaccurate or misleading report that can cost a worker his or her job,” wrote Persis Yu, the report’s coauthor

A Tennessee driver’s license examiner faces federal charges for issuing licenses to unqualified applicants in exchange for thousands of dollars in bribes, authorities said Thursday.

Prosecutors filed a federal criminal complaint Wednesday against Larry Murphy, 54, of Antioch, who served as a state Department of Safety supervising driver’s license examiner on Hart Lane in Nashville.

He was arrested and released on his own recognizance. His attorney, Craig Fickling of Cookeville, declined comment Thursday.

Murphy is on discretionary leave with pay pending the outcome of the charges, a department of safety spokeswoman said.

According to the complaint, Murphy issued licenses to undercover FBI agents in exchange for cash payments ranging from $850 for a regular license to as much as $3,500 for a commercial driver’s license.

“These allegations pose two serious problems facing our nation - public corruption and public safety,” U.S. Attorney Jerry E. Martin said in a statement.

The charges are the result of a five-month joint investigation by the FBI, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

Bill Gibbons, the state’s safety and homeland security commission, said Murphy had been with the department since 2003.

“It’s especially disturbing because we consider our driver license examiners to really be on the front line in homeland security,” Gibbons told reporters Thursday.

False Social Security number created

Gibbons said there was nothing in Murphy’s background to suggest he might accept the bribes. But Gibbons said the department is discussing ways to strengthen its employee screening process.

A massive need to hire a great deal of people for work on the southern border has caused this department to become complacent in their efforts to fill the quota leaving behind the stringent screenings of years past.  We understand that your business may not need to hire 24,000 people as they did but it is important that when you need employees you are not compromising your standards.  The office of the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security issued statistics from 2006 through 2010 and it has shown that the number of investigations into employees conduct has risen from 244, in 2006, to 870, in 2010.  This is a clear indicator that with more relaxed screening brings a high risk to the organization.

We offer cost-effective pre-employment screening packages that can be tailored to your company’s specific needs.  Speaking with an investigator who handles these cases on a daily basis, not a sales person, may reveal searches and sources of information that you were not aware even existed.

“On Tuesday, July 26, 2011, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) held a public hearing to investigate employment barriers faced by individuals with arrest and conviction records. The Commission received testimony from the Federal Reentry Council, as well as policy and advocacy groups and members of the general public. Witnesses discussed their experiences regarding best practices of hiring individuals with criminal records, collateral consequences of incarceration/imprisonment, and the confusing and oftentimes contradictory pressures on companies and corporations when using arrest and criminal conviction records to make employment and hiring decisions.”

EEOC.gov

July 26, 2011

With the climate of pre-employment screening ever changing it is important to have a company like Advanced Surveillance Group to be your guide when it comes to understanding the new challenges that may face you and your company when hiring a new employee.  It is important to safeguard your company from improper hiring processes and learn about upcoming changes.  It is our job to be educated and identify issues in our industry before they become an issue for you.

For more details or to discuss pre-employment screening options with one of our highly trained associates feel free to contact us at 888-677-9700.

The following was taken directly from the USCIS presentation on E-Verify Self Check which impacts all employers:

Can I use Self Check to verify someone else’s eligibility for employment?

No.  Self Check is intended only for users to verify their own employment eligibility.  Forcing, or encouraging candidates to use this service will result in a violation of the anti-discrimination and other immigration and employment laws.

March 10, 2011

USCIS.gov

A few months ago we drew attention to the importance of screening not only full-time employees but also your company’s subcontractors.  A Story from Mississippi shows the importance of not only having a policy in place for your subcontractors but also verifying that the subcontractors have a policy for those they contract work out to.

“A 37-year-old man who worked as a janitor at Southaven Elementary has been arrested and charged with sexual battery.  Quincy Latimore was arrested by Southaven police Saturday for the alleged incident that occurred at a home on Tchulahoma in February involving a teenage girl who was under 16 at the time. The alleged victim is a teenage relative.”

“Latimer worked at Southaven Elementary School for 21/2 weeks as an after-hours janitor. He was employed by GBS Cleaning, a subcontractor with the DeSoto County Schools.  Eddie Gossett, owner of GBS Cleaning, said he hired Latimore based on a recommendation from the WIN Job Center in Southaven. He said Latimore no longer works for his company.”

“One of the questions I asked the WIN Job Center when I hired this employee was did he pass a background check, and the answer was ‘yes,’” Gossett said.

Yolanda Jones

December 15, 2010

This story should act as a warning for those employers that simply accept the word of a subcontracting firm when they say that they complete a background investigation on their employees.  If you feel that the subcontractors your company employs may not be facing a comprehensive background investigation feel free to contact our highly trained staff in order to evaluate not only your procedures but those of your subcontractors.

For more details or to discuss pre-employment screening options with one of our highly trained associates feel free to contact us at 888-677-9700.

Many states are initializing legislature to make the consequences for hiring illegal immigrants more severe.  States like Arizona seem to be getting all of the headlines for their work to reduce the amount of employers hiring illegal immigrants but other states seem to actually be making a difference.

” Only three businesses - all in the Phoenix area - have been prosecuted in the nearly three years since Arizona’s highly publicized employer-sanctions law took effect.

By contrast, South Carolina has cited more than 200 businesses for being out of compliance since that state’s employer-sanctions law went into effect in 2009. South Carolina officials say that their efforts have paid off with far fewer illegal hires.”

D. Brian Blackwell

November 1, 2010

It is vital to your business’s future that you understand those laws that are in place, in your state, that dictate the mandatory hiring practices that are in place.  We understand that some business do not have a human resources department and often times the owner wears many “hats”.  We also understand that larger companies may need an outside firm to manage the pre-employment screening processes to avoid oversight.

For more details on the acceptable practices in your state or to discuss pre-employment screening options with one of our highly trained associates feel free to contact us at 888-677-9700.

September 29, 2010

Now that background investigations are becoming more and more common in the pre-employment arena, it is important that you understand what you can legally search for.  Records like county criminal searches or employment verifications can be no-brainer decisions.  Should you conduct a credit check?  Is it legal?  These are questions that the investigators at Advanced Surveillance Group know the answer to.  At the end of the day it is your company’s name; that is on the line and wouldn’t you want to be safe in your decisions?

If you would like more information on setting up a background screening package tailored specifically to your business feel free to contact us at 888-677-9700.

” Checking an applicant’s references and background is a crucial step in the hiring process. To do this it is, of course, first necessary to comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA imposes a number of requirements for employers who are investigating applicants for employment through the use of a consumer credit report, a criminal record check or reference checks. The employer must advise an applicant in writing that a background check will be conducted, obtain the applicant’s written authorization to obtain the records, and notify the applicant if a decision not to hire is based on what the check discloses.

A class action lawsuit filed July 20 is yet another indication that employers must proceed with caution in relying on criminal record checks. This case has been filed against First Transit Inc., one of the largest bus companies in the nation. The plaintiff has brought the case on behalf of a nationwide class of blacks and Hispanics whom she alleges the company refused to hire or terminated because of their actual or presumed criminal record, regardless of the nature or age of the offense, or the offense’s relation to the job.”

Bill Clifton

September 15, 2010

No matter the size of your company you can not afford to find yourself facing a similar situation.  Here at ASG we have investigators whose sole responsibility is to stay abreast of the governing case law to allow us to provide the best possible product to our clients.

” We all know that job candidates embellish, enhance, exaggerate - call it what you will - to make their CV and of course themselves, more appealing to hiring managers. There has been a great deal of research into the extent of lying in CVs. Figures run between 53% and 68% with college graduates being the worst at 70%. Many of these “little white lies” were caught by managers, and providing the employee wasn’t a complete disaster on the job, nobody was the wiser.

But, in these tougher times, competition in the job market has driven many candidates to desperate measures. Little white lies have now turned into works of total fiction. Enter CareerExcuse.com. Here is an outfit that will create a complete work history for a job candidate. From their side, they create a “real” company with address, website and free phone number, and “real” mangers and referees. So when an employee calls to verify work history and performance, all checks out and the feedback is glowing! Blown away? It seems unbelievable, but true, try it yourself.”

Rob McKay

September 10, 2010

We all understand that people wishing to be hired for a job are tempted to over exaggerate on their CV’s but is there a way to sift through this information and get a true understanding of the candidate?

With more and more of these companies popping up and offering fraudulent information it is necessary for proper pre-employment screening to be able to decipher between real and fake.  Our pre-employment screeners have the ability to check business listings for such companies and give you the peace of mind when hiring a new employee.

For more details or to discuss pre-employment screening options with one of our highly trained associates feel free to contact us at 888-677-9700.