Aurico is now accredited by the NAPBS

In January 2012, Aurico was designated an NAPBS accredited organization.

The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) is the leading national resource for issues related to the background screening industry. NAPBS promotes ethical business practices and fosters awareness of privacy rights and consumer protection issues. It is the foremost leader in the movement toward establishing generally accepted and reliable standards for background screening professionals and organizations.

NAPBS maintains an accreditation program for employment screening companies located in the US to achieve a strict and thorough set of professional standards related to an organization’s commitment to excellence, accountability, high professional standards and continued institutional improvement. The accreditation provides independent validation that an accredited organization achieves industry-leading standards for data security, compliance, organizational performance and professionalism.

Tactical vs. Strategic Employment Screening

With the unemployment rate at 8.6% in November 2011, many prospective employees are “beefing up” their resumes. Much news has been made over the years about truth in advertising, but little emphasis has been placed on truth in hiring.

The Society for Human Resource Management states 45% of all resumes contain one major fabrication, while The Wall Street Journal reports that 34% of all job applications contain lies regarding experience, education and the ability to perform essential job functions.

Padded resumes can hit a company hard. According to the Department of Commerce, 30% of business failures are due to poor hiring practices. Many companies simply try to get a “warm body in the seat,” but don’t realize that replacing an employee costs an average of one-and-a-half times the annual salary of the position, Rutgers University research reveals.

Now, more so than ever, employers are vetting resumes to increase the odds of hiring an “A” player. Many are moving from tactical employment verifications that simply confirm dates of employment, position, salary and rehire status to more strategic verifications that add previous supervisor/manager interviews to the report.

Using this approach, HR professionals further help protect against negligent hiring, while learning factual information about how the applicant performed on the job. This often leads to insights otherwise left unknown prior to selection.

At Aurico, our in-depth employment verifications are a two-step process that include both tactical and strategic verification, enabling our clients to gain the most comprehensive insight into an applicant’s past performance and future potential.

Learn more about our in-depth employment verifications: http://www.aurico.com/Background_Screening/Employment_Education_License.asp

Industry News: Consent & Disclosure and Adverse Action violations, Disclosure / Authorization form revisions

Avoid Fair Credit Reporting Act Violations; New California laws that impact employers

We want to remind all of our clients that it is extremely important to follow FCRA regulations as it relates to Consent and Disclosure and Adverse Action.

Consent and Disclosure:

The Consent and Disclosure form must be provided prior to requesting a consumer report and within three days of an Investigative Consumer Report. The best practice is to always provide consent and disclosure prior to requesting a background check. The consent and disclosure must only have language relating to the consent and disclosure for a background check and must not include language such as release of liability, application questions, terms for employment and unrelated language.

Adverse Action:

Prior to making adverse decisions on applicants based in whole or in part of a consumer report/investigative consumer report, an employer must follow the adverse action process and provide the consumer with a copy of the report, a summary of the consumer rights under the FCRA and the name, address, web address and contact information for the consumer reporting agency that provided the report. The employer must provide the consumer with a reasonable time in which to dispute any of the findings of the report prior to making a final decision based on the report. Aurico recommends that our clients allow for ten working days for the dispute process prior to making the final decision.

There has been an increase in cases related to FCRA violations. Aurico will continue to provide assistance, and during our audit process we will notify clients if their forms do not appear to be compliant. However, we recommend that you review your disclosure and authorization forms and always make sure that each form is in a separate document from the application form. Please contact Aurico with questions, and be sure to work with your legal counsel to review your current documents.

New California Laws:

With the New Year upon us, we want to remind you of two new California laws that will affect you. Both went into effect January 1, 2012 and require revisions to an employer's Disclosure/Authorization forms.
California SB 909 amends CA Civ. Code Section 1786.16, and requires that employers include the investigative consumer reporting agency's (background check company's) Internet website in the Disclosure form. Please contact Aurico if your existing form does not have our web address listed on the form. The purpose is for an applicant to be able to easily access information about Aurico's privacy practices, including whether personal information will be sent outside the U.S. It is not Aurico’s practice to send U.S.- based consumer information outside the U.S.

Additionally, California AB 22 amends CA Civ. Code Section 1785 regarding the use of credit in employment decisions. The amendment generally prohibits employers from using an applicant's or employee's credit history in making employment decisions. Prior to this legislation, employers could request a credit report for employment purposes if they provided prior written notice of the request to the person for whom the report was sought. Assembly Bill 22 significantly changes this landscape by prohibiting employers from using credit reports for employment purposes unless the report is used for one of the limited purposes enumerated by the statute and requires employers to specifically delineate the reason for obtaining the credit report under the statute.
 
What to do:  If you are running a credit report for someone who resides in or is being employed in California, please print the California Credit Notice and check off the reason for running a credit report. The applicant or employee should get a copy of this and a copy must be sent into Aurico along with the Disclosure & Authorization form.

From the Blooper Book: Not exactly who you were looking for…

Some applicants self-select themselves out of the candidate pool right from the start, making our job so much easier. Here are some actual answers we’ve seen on job applications. For the record, none were applying for a job as a stand-up comedian.

• What are your strengths? “Creative, hard working, GREAT looking”
• What are your weaknesses? “perfection (I strive for)”
• What are your weaknesses? “comptu camp comp comuter cumpester interenett Spelling”
• What are your weaknesses? “Still Looking For Some”
• What are your weaknesses? “I lose things”
• Special Skills and Qualifications: “IF IT WILL HELP I CAN ALSO JUGGLE!”
• Explain the qualities or skills the applicant possesses that would interest a prospective employer (from an accounting reference)? “He was in a band”
• Reason for leaving: “pursuit of fame & fortune”

Motor Vehicle Records & Negligent Hiring Risk

With the New Year approaching, we frequently get calls and manage projects to re-verify current employee motor vehicle records (driver’s histories). We continue to see a growing trend for HR departments to add annual re-verification to their risk management strategy.

Because 23% of applicants have had serious motor vehicle violations due to drugs, alcohol or revoked licenses, we suggest that our clients complete motor vehicle records searches on prospective employees and annually with current employees. Without this search and annual re-verification program, companies can be left open to negligent hiring litigation risk.

FROM THE BLOOPER BOOK

Oh yes, they did …

Sometimes they think they’re funny. Sometimes they can’t spell. Here are a few of the memorable things we’ve uncovered while researching driver’s licenses:

An applicant consent form listed a driver’s license number, followed by the driver’s state as “Single.”

Another applicant tried to pass off a fake driver’s license. The clue? His license said he lived in “Dalls, TX.”

E-VERIFY NEWS

E-Verify News:  ICE Issues New Wave Of I-9 Inspection Notices 

In a new round of inspections to determine if employers in the United States are violating employment laws by hiring unauthorized workers, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)—the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—recently issued Notices of Inspection (NOIs) to various employers around the country. The NOIs give businesses notice that ICE will conduct inspections for compliance of Employment Eligibility Verification Forms (Form I-9s) that require employers to verify the identity and employment eligibility of all newly hired employees.