| DON’T
ALLOW A NEW EMPLOYEE TO GIVE YOU AN EDUCATION |
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The National Student Clearinghouse estimates that less than 30% of employers verify degrees because it is too cumbersome. If this is true, it’s no wonder the dishonest job seeker feels comfortable submitting false educational claims. If he/she is caught, chances are the next employer won’t bother to check. Another indication that educational claims are frequently falsified is a disturbing statistic put out by a governmental study several years ago. The study reported that 60% of college registrars regularly experience attempts by students and former students to document false credentials. Unfortunately, it’s not safe to simply rely on copies of a transcript or a degree that comes from the applicant. Deceptive applicants with skills in computer and printer technology will sometimes create realistic credentials that can fool most anyone at first glance. Some are easily identified others take some effort to find. For example, ESS received a copy of an applicant’s claimed degree from Stephen F. Austin State University. Everything on the diploma looked fine. Upon closer examination, we found that in one area of the university’s name was miss-spelled as Steven F. Austin State University. The forgery was good, but not quite good enough. In many cases a copy can only be identified as fraudulent after inspection by the college itself. If you are hiring for positions that require any level of education, we strongly recommend that you have it verified. We find that even claims of a high school diploma or equivalency are often false. The level of education may not be a key requirement for a position, but learning that someone was dishonest on the application may indicate a propensity for such behavior in the work place.
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| Classified
Ad from the Financial Post, Toronto, Canada on Friday 2/23/01 |
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The Worker Compensation Claims Search Not Your Standard Pre-employment Report |
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While incidents of claims fraud are still prevalent, in states that restrict access, the only people who can access a history of worker compensation claims is the person to whom the claim(s) belong; and, an employer (or representative) who is involved in a currently disputed claim. In other words, in these states, employers can’t search an employee or prospective employee’s history of claims until the person becomes employed and files a claim. Currently, more states still allow access to claims histories than states that do not. However, the ADA prevents an employer from checking past claims on a prospective employee, unless a conditional job offer exists. If the conditional job offer exists, the search for past claims should be part of an overall medical review and physical examination that is required because of the physical nature of job. Certain states still allow third parties to search their indexes, but the states have not updated their index in recent years. For example, Maryland last updated their index in August of 1998 and has decided to discontinue updating the index indefinitely. Iowa last updated their index in the first quarter of 2000 and is expected to update their files again in May of this year. Michigan and Mississippi updated their index in the last half of 1999 and have not decided if they will continue to add new data. Please check the Employment Screening Services Report Availability Schedule for more information about what states offer worker compensation searches and under what conditions – www.employscreen.com, in the Clients Only section. |
| Try To Guess The Company |
Can you imagine working for a company that has 535
employees and the following statistics?
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| Order Processing At ESS |
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The tracking sheet is routed to the initial processing group where an identification report or credit report and a social security number trace are ordered through one of the major credit bureaus. We are on-line to these bureaus so the data is available very quickly. From this information we determine where to conduct the criminal history search and if there are any other names to be considered. The criminal search is forwarded to an agent in the field who visits the various courthouses in the county being searched. Depending on the county, there can be numerous courthouses. Any felony or misdemeanor conviction information will be obtained. When we do a statewide search, we generally communicate directly with the state’s central repository. The motor vehicle records are also ordered shortly after the identification report or credit report and social security number trace data is obtained. The tracking sheet is then forwarded to our report processing group. These are the people who collate all the information on your applicants and are ultimately responsible for the content of the reports. The initials of the processor working on your report follow the “End of Report” notation. The report processors verify the applicant’s education, usually with a phone call. This is not necessarily a simple procedure. Colleges can have multiple campuses. If the applicant has not specified the one he or she attended, the date of graduation, and a former or maiden name, it can be a challenge tracking down the registrar office that has the information. Occasionally, the institution will only verify by fax or by mail. This is why a degree verification can sometimes take more than 72 hours. Interestingly enough, high school verifications can be more difficult than college verifications. High schools typically do not have very good record keeping practices and they can take a long time to round up a file. High schools also do not usually have the staffing that colleges have in their verifications departments. Report processors verify the applicant’s employment and interview former supervisors and references. This is perhaps the most time consuming and variable part of the entire report process. We check employment for the past five years. The reason we don’t go beyond five years is that it generally does not provide much information. Those companies often don’t have records going back that far; or their records have been archived and are not readily accessible; or the company has gone out of business or changed names. In any event, the information available is very minimal or nonexistent and not worth the delay in completing your report. If the applicant is currently employed, we do not contact that employer unless you or the applicant has specifically stated it is okay to do so. We certainly don’t want to get anyone in trouble if the applicant’s employer is unaware of their job search. When we verify the facts about an individual’s employment we generally speak to the company’s human resources, personnel, staffing, or payroll department. They are the best sources for information about specific dates of employment, title, salary, and eligibility for rehire. If the applicant has provided the names of supervisors, we contact them to obtain information about performance, strengths and weaknesses, skills, and attitude. This is where an employment application is very helpful because there are usually spaces for entering supervisor names; a resume doesn’t have this. We will also contact up to three professional references as part of the Comprehensive Package. Sometimes, these may be former supervisors, in which case we will enter the information in the employment section of the report. We have different approaches depending on the type of reference being called. Supervisors and peers are asked different questions than academic references or personal references. Our report processors are very skilled at asking provocative and probing questions. The amount of information gathered, however, depends a great deal on how cooperative and talkative the reference is as well as how much time they have to converse. Sometimes, references are not even aware they have been cited by the applicant so they aren’t quick to return our phone messages. Having your candidate notify their references of an impending call can expedite the completion of your report. Approximately 72 hours after your order is entered into our tracking system, the assigned report processor sends the results of the background investigation on your applicant. Any information still outstanding is noted on the report as pending. We can either e-mail or fax your results. If your report is to be faxed, we’ll always call you first unless you tell us it isn’t necessary. Updates are forwarded to you as soon as the pending information becomes available. Please remember that holidays can cause a delay in reporting information because courts, motor vehicle departments, schools, and many companies are closed. |
| Paying By Credit Card |
 Many
of our clients have found that it is much easier to pay their invoices
by giving us a credit card or "Purchase Card" to make the
payments at the time the invoices are printed in our office. The
invoices are then sent with a copy of the credit card payment slip
attached. After you receive your invoice, if there are any discrepancies,
you can notify us and the appropriate charges or credits will be made
that day. Using this system, your company eliminates the time spent
working through the AP Departments and waiting for checks to be
authorized and signed. In addition, it keeps your account current at all
times so there is no chance of being put on hold for late
payments.
If you are interested in using this service,
you can just e-mail us your credit card information or contact Chris
Redmond at 1-800-552-0577 X 103. You can set up your account to
automatically be credited at the time of each invoice or you may call
and let Chris know which invoices you want to pay as you are ready. We
are trying to make each aspect of working with us as easy on you as
possible. Let us know if there is anything you would like to see us do
for you. |
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How To Handle Discrepancies On A Background Report |
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For example, “Mr. Applicant, as you know, we use an outside company to verify the information on all job candidate’s applications. During the course of their routine investigation they found an apparent discrepancy in the education section of your application. According to the registrars department at XYZ University, there is no record of you having received a B. A. degree. Why do you suppose that is?” Another example, “... an apparent discrepancy in the employment section of your application. According to the personnel department at Acme Co., you worked there from January of ‘98 to May of ‘99; not from January of ‘98 to February of ‘00 as stated on your resume. Tell me about that.” Another example, “... an apparent discrepancy in the employment section of your application. According to Acme Co., your duties did not involve any managerial or supervisor responsibilities. How would you explain that?” There are two key factors to keep in mind when asking these types of questions. Place the responsibility for having collected the information on the “outside company” (ESS). You accomplish this by saying “during the course of their routine investigation they found ...” This takes you out of any role as the perceived accuser. You are merely reporting the facts the outside company uncovered. The second key factor is to ask an open-ended rather than a closed-ended question. A close-ended question is one that can be answered with a yes/no or either/or response. “Is that true?” or “Was it one year or two years you worked there?” are closed-ended questions. An open-ended question is a “why” or “how” or “what” type question. It forces the applicant to expound on their reasoning. An open-ended question takes the pressure off you and puts it on the applicant where it belongs. The applicant may well have a plausible and acceptable explanation. But make them come up with it. Don’t let them off the hook by asking closed-ended questions. Your decision to hire or not will then be based on how comfortable you are with the explanation given. Or you may even decide to have ESS conduct further searches on the individual to validate their explanation. In any event, you will be a lot closer to the truth and more confident in your decision. |
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The e-Update is produced by
Employment Screening Services, Inc.
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If you have received this
e-Update and wish not to receive it in the future, please e-mail us at |
Our statistics show that
approximately one in five ESS Reports results in a discrepancy or a red
flag that calls the applicant’s credibility into question.
After the American with
Disabilities Act came into effect in the early 1990’s, many states began restricting or eliminating access to their worker
compensation claims records.
Processing reports at ESS is
a multi-task approach.
It is a
known
fact that falsification of employment applications is at an all-time
high.