Past Employment Verifications vs. Professional Reference Verifications

When it's time to create (or update) your applicant screening package, which packs more punch for the price?

While utilizing two or more of each verification type is ideal, we understand it's not always budget permissible. The following information will help you decide which form of verification is more suitable to your need. The fact is, a well constructed screening package will deliver the most relevant information for the least amount of money.
Here's the basics of each.

Past Employment Verifications:
Past employment verifications will typically provide the following information...
-Confirmation of hire and termination dates.
-Confirmation of the applicant's title while employed.
-Eligibility for re-hire
-Confirmation of Salary (optional)
-Comments on performance (when available)

Tip: get the most out of employment verifications by...

1) Asking applicants to provide direct contact information to their supervisor. Supervisors will often yield more information about the employee's performance, along with verifying the dates and title of employment. Human resources personnel tend to be more cautious about revealing information about past employees other then confirming dates of employment and title.

2) Asking the applicant to provide detailed and legible company contact information on the past employers they list. Valuable time can be lost leaving messages for incorrect branches of large corporations or for companies with similar sounding names due to limited or indecipherable information provided by the applicant.

Professional (character) Reference:
The scope of a professional reference verification is quite different than that of a past employment verification. For this type of verification we contact people that worked directly with the applicant. We inform each individual that they were listed personally as a character reference so they understand it is not an employment verification better suited for the HR department. The professional reference can be a supervisor. general co-worker or someone they regular communicated with through work such as a recurring client.

The information obtained during a professional reference verification will often consist of the following.

-Approximate dates the individual worked with the applicant. (may not be identical to the actual dates of employment)
-Title of applicant.
-Summary of responsibilities of applicant.
-Summary of strong or weak points of applicant's work habits based on opinion of the reference.

Tip: get the most out of professional references by...
1) Asking the applicant to provide references that worked with them directly for extended periods of time.
2) Asking the applicant NOT to provide references to which they are related to or have a personal relationship with.
3) Requiring the applicant to provide references to more than one past employer whenever possible.

Each type of reference verification has it's positive and negative aspects. Here are a few notable ones.
Past Employment Verifications: Positives
1) Highly accurate and consistent for confirmation of employment dates and title.
2) Nearly impossible to spoof with false information as "suspicious" company information is verified through corporate records and directory listings.

Past Employment Verifications: Negatives
1) Often limited or no information on performance or character
Professional Reference Verifications: Positives
1) Frequently provides approximate dates of employment and title information as well as character and performance information.

Professional Reference Verifications: Positives
1) Frequently provides approximate dates of employment and title information as well as character and performance information.

Professional Reference Verifications: Negatives
1) Greater likelihood of applicant attempting to use friends or family to act as positive references regardless of actual working relationship.

To decide what's right for your screening package, take into account the responsibilities of the position. Is length of employment and salary a key indicator of success? If so, you'll definitely want past employment verifications for the most accurate factual data. However, if charisma and leadership is key, the descriptive nature of professional character references will deliver on the details. If you're still on the fence, just give us a call. We can help evaluate your need and recommend a cost effective plan!

Call or email today for more information. We're here to help!

888.578.8600 contact@safescreener.com

Governor Quinn Signs Law to End Pre-Employment Credit Checks!

Is this the end for pre-employment credit checks in Illinois?!?!
The latest press release from the governor's office would have you think so. Governor Pat Quinn is touting himself as a hero to the unemployed having just signed a bill into law that he says will “stop employers from denying a job or promotion based on information that is not an indicator of a person’s character or ability to do a job well."
Well...I think his heart is in the right place. (Do politicians have those?) Either way, the law's not as harsh as it sounds, nor did it need to be in my opinion.

Most of the fear that people have about employers using credit reports has been manifested by the credit bureaus themselves. Credit bureaus spend tens of millions of dollars each year on catchy marketing campaigns that warn us that our credit report will affect our ability to land most any job or get a promotion. Why would they do that? you ask. They do it so we must go to their (or their affiliates') websites to retreive our "free" credit report. Once there, we find out it's not free at all if we want to see our credit score and they also try to sell us credit monitoring for "our protection".

The fact is, most employers use credit reports only when it makes sense to do so. After all, they want to fill positions quickly and they don't want to pay for extra services they don't need. Visit our previous posting (Why do Employers Want to Check My Credit Report 07/28/2010) , for more details on why employers check credit.

Certainly there are companies out there who abuse their access to credit reports as well. Quinns' new law should be a good deterrence for preventing unnecessary and potentially discriminative use of credit checks. However, for employers in Illinois that have a legitimate purpose for using credit report information, they need not worry. There are exceptions to every rule and this bill has several in the fine print. Here's the facts on when Illinois employers are STILL able to access credit reports for pre-employment screening after House Bill 4658 goes into effect on Jan 1st 2011.

Employers may access credit checks under limited circumstances, including positions that involve

a. bonding or security per state or federal law;
b. unsupervised access to more than $2,500;
c. signatory power over businesses assets of more than $100;
d. management and control of the business;
e. access to personal, financial or confidential information, trade secrets, or state or national security information.

As you can see, these exceptions "access to confidential information" or "trade secrets" allow quite a bit of room for interpretation. That's not an invite to abuse the loopholes. Ultimately, a court of law would decide if a company was too liberal with the exceptions, and there's no need to be made an example of.

Let's hope that House Bill 4658 serves it's intended purpose and allows more job seekers in Illinois not to worry about being judged by unavoidable credit damage in the wake of this recession. At the same time, employers can breathe easy that positions that really need to take financial stability into account for the protection of themselves and their clients, can still do so without repercussions.

Please note: SafeScreener.com, Background Screening Made Simple Blog, and Background Screening Consultants LLC, do not provide legal advice. Postings, articles, press releases and other distributed or verbalized information should be considered as guidelines and suggestions based upon professional experience, research and industry best practices. Questions or decisions regarding employer’s legal rights or applicants legal rights should be directed towards legal representation.

Don't Get Caught Playing F.C.R.A "Hot Potato".

Assuming you’re F.C.R.A compliant can lead your company down a dangerous road involving punitive damages and civil liability. Who's really handling yours?

In our surveys we found that many human resource professionals made an assumption that their companies Fair Credit Reporting Act Compliance was handled and/or monitored by another person, another department, or solely by the background screening service provider.

With further inquiries we find a common circle of assumption that often remains undiscovered until a major problem arises.

EXAMPLE: The human resources department assumes the legal department handles that. The legal department says it’s the hiring manager’s responsibility. The hiring manager assumes it’s the background screening company that takes care of that or they point back to human resources manager.

Common misconceptions can lead to unnecessary risk of litigation:
1. “We don’t run credit reports so the Fair Credit Reporting Act doesn’t apply to us.”
FALSE
2. “The background screening system we use says it is Fair Credit Reporting Act compliant so it’s not our responsibility.”
FALSE
3. “Using an Online Criminal Record Databases as a complete background check is a compliant practice.
FALSE
4. “We don’t have to tell the employee why they were not hired. Our company is located in an (employ at will / fire at will) state.”
FALSE
5. “Anything that an applicant did criminally more than 7 years ago is not our concern because the F.C.R.A. limits criminal record searches to seven years.”
FALSE

Over the next few weeks we will tackle these common mistakes and more here on the SafeScreener.com blog and through our Facebook Page. Be sure to check us out on Facebook and click "Like" so you'll recieve instant notifications of new postings addressing this important issue.

Ask about FREE workshops offered by SafeScreener.com in cooperation with the Workplace Well-Being & Addiction Prevention Practices Committee of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and funded in part by the Illinois Department of Human Services. Contact us today to take advantage of these important educational workshops! 888-578-8600 contact@safescreener.com

Please note: SafeScreener.com, Background Screening Made Simple Blog, and Background Screening Consultants LLC, do not provide legal advice. Postings, articles, press releases and other distributed or verbalized information should be considered as guidelines and suggestions based upon professional experience, research and industry best practices. Questions or decisions regarding employer’s legal rights or applicants legal rights should be directed towards legal representation.