criminal monitoring

PBSA 2021

The PBSA Annual Conference was held in Anaheim, California.  PBSA utilized a hybrid model allow physical attendees and speakers as well as remote access.

There were in-person attendees and remote attendees could access the sessions and networking events virtually.

It was exciting to see friends, colleagues and partners face – to – face, but the conference lacked the typical energy. This was mainly because there were far fewer attendees and there were very few exhibitors. In fact the exhibit hall looked a bit bare because the exhibitors were spread  out.

PBSA does a great job of elevating and protecting the screening industry.  The massive changes in laws every year impact background screeners and their customers. PBSA is continually monitoring and lobbying to help all of the businesses within the space.  The members of PBSA are extremely passionate about helping others.

Here are my big take-aways from the show.  While the legal and compliance stuff that is highlighted every year by Pam DeVata and the other attorneys is helpful and scary it is necessary.

From my perspective the most noteworthy change since the last in-person PBSA conference which was in San Antonio back in 2020 would be the efforts by companies to tackle EDUCATION VERIFICATIONS.  There have been some really innovative approaches to employment verification that work around The Work Number.

 SJV (ebay style marketplace)
 Bill Wilder
 
 Citadel
 Kirill Klokov
 
 Velocity Network Foundation (Blockchain network)
 John Hartigan

California Court Ruling Complicates Background Screening

The court decision would force California courts to removes full dates of birth and drivers' license numbers from their indices.

The court case is on appeal, but many counties are already making changes that impact how records can be searched for. Most notably, Los Angeles County has made the change as well as Tulare, Fresno, Kern, and Yuba Counties.

This change will increase the overall cost of conducting background checks and increase the turnaround time to receive verified information.

ARTICLE:
https://hrwatchdog.calchamber.com/2021/07/california-court-ruling-could-complicate-background-checks/

Craig Caddell Interview (Wholesale Screening Solutions)

Craig is an industry veteran. He has worked previously at a leading software provider to the CRA industry.  He was a founding, board member of NAPBS (now PBSA) and also worked at Reference Pro.

 On the podcast we discuss the following:

Industry Trends

Wholesale Screening Solutions research capabilities and history.
 
Continuous Court Records Monitoring

                        Methodology/Technology

                        Why to search for arrest and court records.

                        Industries that are early adopters

                        Surprising statistics

Connect with Craig Caddell on LinkedIn
Connect with Wholesale Screening Solutions

Aashi Arora Interview

On this episode of Background Screening Tips & Tech, Tim Santoni interviews Aashi Arora of iRise Executive Coaching.

Aashi Arora, is the principal executive coach at iRise and has over 20 years of executive and administrator level experience in operations, healthcare, professional mentoring and coaching.

She has many certifications

Gallup (Certified Strength Coach)
Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt
Associate Certified Coach, International Coaching Federation
Emotional Intelligence- EQ-12.0
Basic Mediator, State of California Dispute Resolution Programs Act


Connect with Aashi:

Bruce Berg - Berg Group Consulting- M&A, Trends... (Interview)

On this episode of Background Screening Tips & Tech, Tim Santoni chats with Bruce Berg.  Bruce is a legend in the background screening "CRA" space. He successfully grew and sold his background screening business to HireCheck which is now First Advantage.

His consulting business, Berg Consulting Group, just celebrated 20 years in business. Bruce helps background screening companies improve processes and profits. He is an industry expert on the M&A side as well and is the go to person if you looking to buy or sell a background screening company.

Bruce was a founding member of PBSA- Professional Background Screening Association (formerly NAPBS).

Connect with Bruce...

https://www.bergconsultinggroup.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/bruce-berg-6566b11/

On this episode we interview Anita Nygaard of CorHR.

Anita Nygaard is Founder and Lead Consultant of CorHR, Inc. a Human Resources consulting firm.  CorHR partners with professional services businesses across the state and country to provide expert advisory on the three C’s: Compliance, Coaching and developing Managers, and building Cultures that reinforce an effective workplace.

Resources...

State Website for COVID-19 guidance: https://saferatwork.covid19.ca.gov/employers/

Connect with Anita. 

-       Email:                 anita@corhr.com

-       Phone:                (949) 363-0084

-       Website:             www.corhr.com

-       LinkedIn:             https://www.linkedin.com/in/anitanygaard/

Kathy Dawson - Dawson & Dawson Interview

On this episode Tim Santoni interviews Kathy Dawson. They talk about the current state of hiring for office positions.

A key area of focus is how to get productivity from a workforce that is nearly 75% remote at this point.

Kathy provides some great insights from her experiences.

Kathy is the former president of NAWBO and she has a Woman Owned Small Business Certification (WBENC)- Women Business Enterprise Council. She is also a Certified Staffing Professional- American Staffing Association.

Kathy enjoys being a group leader for the Irvine South Group of PROVISORS.

Substance Abuse Screening...cannabis, compliance, policies

On this episode we talk about the changes in substance abuse screening due to legalization of marijuana in many states.

We also cover policies that need to be in place to have an effective substance abuse screening program.

Diluted Specimens
Foreign Substances in Specimens
Positive Tests
Timeline for ELECTRONIC passport

Transgender Applicants & Team Members- Background Screening Methodologies

In this episode Tim Santoni talks about how the considerations you should evaluate as it relates to the background screening procedures when it comes to transgender employees and applicants.

Check with your background screening partner that you are running a robust search that covers all legal names the applicant might have used. 

It also important to understand the difference between a legal name, alias and "nickname."  They can often be used synonymously, but when it comes to background screening there are big differences.

Do Organizations Rely on Background Checks Too Much?

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/do-organizations-rely-on-background-checks-too-much.aspx

In this episode of the podcast Tim & Joe discuss the points raised in this article. Of course this article illustrated some scenarios that don't occur very often and are "worst case" offenders, but it points out how flawed the system can be.

The implied trust that we have in government, public companies, private companies, and non-profits to screen and monitor the activities and criminal behavior of their employees, teams and volunteers is something that needs to be examined further.

At the end of the day if an organization cares about building a solid culture and mitigating exposure to risk (Violence, Theft, Embezzlement, Fraud, Workers' Comp Claims, Accidents & Reputation) they must take many steps throughout their organization. 

This involves the recruitment process, pre-employment background checks, re-checking backgrounds, audits, safety procedures and training...

The bottom line is that if you are an HR Professional, Risk Manager, Safety Professional or Business owner it never hurts to have a look under hood to make sure you are taking the necessary steps t protect your team members, customers/clients, partners and patients.

Episode 16; Nick Fishman Interview

On this episode we interview Nick Fishman who was part of the leadership team at Employment Screen IQ (CRA) where he helped grow the company that was eventually acquired by  Sterling. Nick now has a consulting practice and is also the CMO at SJV Data Solutions.

• Biggest changes Nick has seen as far as change in policies or philosophies by HR Professionals as it relates to background screening in the last 10 years.
• What trend or issue scares you the most regarding the background screening industry?
• What is the one thing that you WISH HR professionals would improve on or address that they consistently overlook or fail to address?
• What are the key elements of the relationship with HR Professionals that makes them feel like their background screening provider is more of a PARTNER than a VENDOR.

Connect with Nick Fishman
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nfishman/

On this episode Tim & Joe cover the Holiday Wishlist for Human Resources Professionals.


1) Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
   Acquire TM (EON Applications) is one of our favorites

2)  Add something new to Screening & Risk Mitigation programs
  Social Media Screening
  Criminal Monitoring
  COVID 19 Testing

3) Evaluate / Audit your current Background Screening Provider

4) Networking... find a way to connect with industry professionals and trusted advisors
  SHRM, PIHRA, Chamber, etc.

What is on your wishlist that we didn't cover?

Matt McGregor of First Advantage (Non-Profit & Education Expert)  Interview

On this episode we interview Matt who is truly an expert in working with NONPROFIT organizations to support their mission while mitigating exposure to risk. Matt understands the mission of his clients.

On this episode we talk with Matt about the following topics;

1.    As you work across the nonprofit space what are you seeing as organizational focal points heading into 2021?

2.     Honing in on safety, what aspects are most important in preparing for 21?

3.     With volunteer attraction and retention, what are orgs looking for?

4.     What are nonprofits doing to ensure they protect their brand & reputation?
 

COVID-19 Test Kits - Brad Carmon of Clinical Reference Laboratory

On this episode of Background Screening Tips & Tech we bring on Brad Carmon, Directo of Sales (Employer Services) to talk about the capabilities of Clinical Reference Laboratory. A privately owned testing laboratory that is one of the largest in the country.

CRL was founded in 1979 and obtained their DOT (Department of Transportation) certification in 1989.  They process more than 16,000 samples each day at their lab in Lenexa, Kansas. 

Brad talks about the specifics around COVID-19 Testing kits. Everything from CRL - Saliva based (molecular testing) versus nasal swab tests.

Connect with Brad...
Brad Carmon
bcarmon@crlcorp.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-carmon-86852061/

Background Screening Software Platforms - License Software OR Build Your Own/Homegrown

On this episode Tim Santoni and Joe Buerlen the differences between using a background screening provider that is on a software platform like Tazworks, Deverus, Accio Data, etc. versus a homegrown, self developed platform.

Their are pro's and con's to both, the most important to thing is to understand what platform is being used and understand how that platform or software impacts the following;

Integrations
Customizations
Compliance
User Experience (UI)
Support 
Updates / Upgrades
Data Privacy 

Winter is Coming...

On this episode of the podcast Tim Santoni and Joe Buerlen talk about the challenge’s employers will be facing as we head into winter. The season are chaging and the cold weather will bring allergies and the flue. Also, the increased visibility and attention into diversity and inclusivity is on the minds of HR and Talent Acquisition professionals.

The weather will be cooling off, we are entering allergy and flu season. What will this mean as employers try to protect their teams from COVID? Will there be more false positives for COVID? Will there be an increase in the need to conduct rapid tests and conduct contact tracing.?

Employers are now being required to look deeper into an applicant’s background and understand if there is anything out there on social media that could be perceived as racist, sexist, etc. before they make a hiring decision.

COVID-19 Testing will be something that will likely be occurring more often just to be safe.

Social Media Screening is something that more and more employers will be evaluating, adopting and implementing.

Criminal Monitoring is becoming more and more popular to have visibility into the workforce and be in front of potential reputation issues before they become front page news.

Hiring people with CRIMINAL histories

On this episode Tim Santoni & Joe Buerlen discuss trends towards hiring people with criminal backgrounds. 

Here are two companies that make it a point to hire people with criminal histories.

Dave's Killer Bread
http://www.daveskillerbread.com/

Hot Chicken Takeover
https://hotchickentakeover.com/

On this episode Tim Santoni and Joe Buerlen dispel many of the myths around the National Criminal Database Search. This search is often referred to as a "Multi-Jurisdictional Search" or "National Criminal Records Search."

We want to highlight what it can do it, what it can't do and how it can be a component of your background screening program.

Background Screening & Hiring Challenges Post COVID 19       Background Screening Issues Post COVID

       1)         Court closures and modified hours will impact the turnaround time of                                           background checks.
       
       2)         Set proper expectations with hiring managers, recruiting teams & applicants
       
       3)         Make sure your screening partner is reaching out and communicating regularly with your team (especially when courts reopen, like New Jersey recently)
       
       4)         If you decide not to screen applicants due to time and budget constraints        
consider risk exposure, compliance issues and regulatory issues that can arise                when your company is audited. Especially with so many out of the workforce.   Application and resumes will be on the rise in the coming months. Make sure you are making the right hiring decision. “knowing” someone is not a substitute for ensuring your brand protection! 
 
 
       5)         Applicants will likely be more anxious to start working especially if they were laid off or furloughed at the prior employer, so be sure your screening partner is                making the applicant experience smooth and not creating any road blocks. Employment verifications are just as important as criminal searches in the new environment. Historically applicant’s have provided an inaccuracy rate of 52% on resumes and applications. Although verifications add cost and TAT, the benefits outweigh the negatives! 
 
       
       6)         Because applicants will likely be signing employment agreement documents  remotely be sure your screening company has an electronic app to gain                          authorizes and disclosures from an applicant because paper forms might not be                  an option. Ensure those electronic documents are up to date and provide the applicant with everything they are granted per the FCRA. Talk with legal counsel when onboarding applicants in another state and ensure all proper laws are being followed.
 
       7)         Social Media Screening – in Post COVID 19 times the activities of current and prospective employees on social media can be extremely detrimental. Implementing a social media screening policy is something to evaluate.

Alternatives to consider:
Run a database type search and the re-screen in 6 or 12 months and include county level court searches.