Background checks in focus: Thorough screening of recruits can help prevent surprises - Agenda Employment & Staffing - brief related article on tips for selecting a employee screening firm - Brief Article

HR Magazine, Jan, 2002 by Merry Mayer

When you look at the person sitting across from you during an employment interview, do you wonder whether the candidate has a criminal background? A drug problem? Has lied about his or her credentials?

That's more likely than you might think. Between January 1998 and October 2000, American Background Information Services Inc. (ABI), based in Winchester, Va., found undisclosed criminal backgrounds on 12.6 percent of the people it screened.

That number is typical, other experts say. "Ten [percent] to 20 percent of applicants flat out lie," says Randy Baker, HR manager at Birch Telecomm in Emporia, Kan.

About 8.3 percent of applicants screened have a criminal history, and 23 percent have misrepresented their employment or education credentials, says Blair Cohen, CEO of InfoMart Inc., an employment screening company based in Atlanta.

In some industries, these figures are even higher. Telemarketing applicants have a criminal rate of 30 percent to 40 percent, according to Kit Fremin, owner of Background Check International LLC in Temecula, Calif.

In spite of these startling figures, half of companies are doing their own pre-employment screening, and most are not checking criminal history or credit reports, says Jason B. Morris, president and CEO of Background Information Services Inc. in Cleveland.

More Criminal Checks

But that may be changing after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Employment-screening companies say inquiries about their services are way up, although the increase hasn't yet translated into more paying clients.

"This has shaken most companies," says Daniel Paulsen, chief operating officer of the Employment Screening Alliance Group in Clearwater, Fla. "Within days of Sept. 11, we saw a tripling in the number of hits on our web site." His company also has fielded calls from industries it hadn't heard from prior to the attacks, including companies that handle or clean up hazardous materials.

Representatives from security guard services, sports complexes and temporary staffing agencies also have shown more interest in screening applicants since the attacks, says Robert Mather, president of Pre-employ.com Inc. in Redding, Calif.

Under the nation's heightened security concerns, companies that already were outsourcing background checks are looking to do more extensive searches on new hires or to screen current employees.

One large company wants to do a second check on every employee hired in the past two years for federal criminal history, nationwide wants and warrants, identity verifications and international searches, Cohen says.

Requests for international searches are on the rise, says Kevin McCrann, operations manager at Accurate Information Systems Inc., in Massapequa, N.Y. "The cost of doing international searches is much higher," he says. While his firm charges $15 per U.S. county for a criminal search, international searches start at $35 and can go as high as $135, he says.

International searches are definitely on the rise, but the problem is that few nations keep as complete records as the United States does, says Gary W. Schneider, ABI executive vice president.

Even in those nations that have the capacity for good record keeping, such as Great Britain, tight privacy laws can make finding anything out nearly impossible, says Pre-employ.com's Mather.

In-House vs. Outsourcing

Many companies that choose to outsource their background screening do so mainly to reduce their liability if a bad hire results in a lawsuit, Paulsen says. But background screening companies claim they can cut costs, considering how much time and resources it takes an HR department to do thorough checks.

For many managers doing the screenings themselves, the decision to do a background check on a new hire usually boils down to whether they have time to make the calls, says Steven James, executive vice president of Background Profiles Inc. in Pleasant Hill, Calif. "Usually they checked past employments. Very seldom did we find they called to check on college degrees," James says.

There are several obstacles to performing thorough screenings. For example, although much of the criminal history information is public record, accessing it is not simple. A key first step in running a thorough criminal check is a Social Security number trace, which will provide a list of an individual's previous addresses. Screeners tend to do criminal background searches by county, but criminals don't usually provide addresses in counties where they have committed crimes.

"One of the biggest challenges with doing a criminal history is knowing where to look," says Mike Gaul, ABI's managing director. Once you have an idea where to look from both the application and the Social Security number trace, you can search either by county or by state. But, again, there are complications: Not all counties are automated, and searching their records may require a trip to the county courthouse.

State data are more encompassing, but information may be missing or be less up-to-date than the county information. "The integrity of the data leaves a lot to be desired," InfoMart's Cohen says.