Tag Archives: background checks

Dangers of “friending” employees

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As popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin have become  increasingly popular with a wide audience, the legal problems that come with them have been magnified.  With all the personal information readily available, employers have begun using it to both check applicants out prior to hiring, as well as keeping tabs on current employees.  These are two situations that have become increasingly worrisome for lawyers.

While there is no law against checking an applicants Facebook or Twitter account to see what kind of person they are, it opens the employer up to a number of discrimination claims.  For example, if an employer finds information on a site like Facebook that reveals the applicant’s disability or medical condition, they are at risk for a discrimination claim.  Similar to avoiding certain questions on applications, there are some things you don’t want to know.

The other major situation that arises with social networking sites is when employers/boss’s friend their subordinates.  This opens up an employer to a host of discrimination issues including harassment, discrimination or wrongful termination, as well as complaints of favoritism if the boss friends only a select person or persons.  One way to avoid this is to wait to be friended by the employee, let them initiate contact outside of work.  As usual, the best way to avoid discrimination claims is to document everything and use only that information when deciding on terminations.

Some good advice provided by Legal Blog Watch:

“For those employers who can’t resist peeking at social networking sites, Jennifer M. Bombard, an attorney with Morgan, Brown & Joy, recommends that they document a “legitimate business rationale for rejecting applicants” and make sure that hiring decisions are not motivated by information found on an applicant’s social networking site.  Yet even with these prophylactic measures, a discrimination case will be “more problematic to defend” where an employer admits to having looked at a social networking site, says Gerald L. Maatman Jr., an attorney with Seyfarth Shaw.”

The general feeling within the legal community is that there is really no reason to checking applicants and employees online profiles.  You can learn any information that is related to the job by conducting thorough interviews and background checks.  Other things to keep in mind are that information found online can be taken out of context, could be false, and may not have any bearing whatsoever on the type of employee the person is.

Increased Scrutiny on Credit Checks for Potential Employees

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As the unemployment rate rises and salaries are cut, people are finding it harder and harder to make all their monthly payments on time.  The result has been a renewed focus on the practice of performing credit checks for potential employees during the hiring phase.

The following appeared on HRTechnews.com and provides a good overview of how to use credit checks legally:

  • Not getting authorization – The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires companies to get applicants’ consent before obtaining a credit report. Also, applicants must be notified when they’re rejected because of a credit report.
  • Ignoring a possible disparate impact – The EEOC has said legitimate screening practices can be discriminatory when they accidentally weed out members of a protected class. That means if, for example, most of applicants rejected by the credit check are minorities, the company might be sued even if the bias was unintentional.
  • Using it too much – One way to limit liability of using a credit check to screen job applicants: Only use it when you have to. Most employers just look at credit checks for financial jobs.

Beyond legal issues, some experts say companies should stop taking credit scores into account in the current economy. Bad credit is on the rise, which means many otherwise qualified candidates could be turned down because of situations outside their control.

If you are a company looking to ensure you are legally compliant with your background checks, visit HRSentry and type “Credit Checks” into the search field located toward the bottom of the page in the center column.  This will give you an overview of the federal and state-specific resources available.

Falsifying Resumes Increases with Economic Downturn

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With the economy in a slump and unemployment on the rise, people are getting more and more desperate to land that hot-job…or any job at all. This desperation leads to people doing things they wouldn’t normally do, including lying about their skills, experience, and past jobs on their resumes.

According to a survey done by Accu-Screen Inc. “approximately 43 percent of resumes and job applications could contain false information”. 55% of the 161 HR professionals surveyed said they have discovered outright lies on resumes or applications when conducting pre-employment background or reference checks.

Among the other trends cited in the report seen on the SHRM website:

    • Use of social networking sites to screen individuals. The social network revolution has changed many communication channels. Sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn contain a wealth of personal information—good and bad—that allow hiring professionals to view home pages in order to gain additional information about job candidates.

    • Screening of Outside Contractors. With more outside sources being used by staffing managers to fill positions, this is sure to be a hot topic in 2009.

    • Screening Existing Employees. Recurring background checks on current employees are becoming more common. Continuous employee screening can help employers stay abreast of a person’s personal activities that can play a role in the individual’s employment standing.

    • Complementing Local, National, Criminal Records Database Searches. A national criminal database search shouldn’t be the sole method used to perform a criminal background check. Hiring professionals must confer with their screening company to make sure the provider is using the best method of conducting county records searches as its primary information source, coupled with researching a national criminal database as a secondary source.

    • State Focus on Developing Privacy Procedures for Public Records. In the age of identification theft, states are taking measures to protect their citizens’ personal information. These measures can affect how quickly and how much information employers can obtain.

    • International Screening Growth. The complexity of the international privacy laws, in addition to the accuracy of international records, has created several issues for employers. As the world is beginning to embrace the concept of background screening beyond the United States, employers are faced with so many issues regarding the legal procedures of the countries in which they are conducting background checks, especially concerning privacy laws.

    • State Mandates and the Electronic I-9 Process. Filing I-9 forms electronically speeds up the process and improves the accuracy of verifying a potential employee’s citizenship and right to work. More than 85 percent of paper I-9 forms are filled out incorrectly. With such a large margin of error, states are beginning to mandate the electronic I-9 process.

    • Adjudication Modules. Some hiring managers use adjudication modules—grids or charts that dictate specific reactions to convictions for identified crimes—to assist them in the hiring process. The modules are perceived as a helpful tool to use during the employment review process. A pitfall for developing an accurate adjudication module is that different jurisdictions define crimes differently. These inconsistencies result in a flawed system and possible employer infractions of discrimination law.

    • Educating the Marketplace About Background Screening. Even though hiring and selecting a background screener is a small portion of their overall duties, it is still important to keep current on the industry and the integral role it plays in mitigating an organization’s liabilities.