04/21/04
Lack of Pre Employment Screening in New York Hospitals Draws Scrutiny
Today's New York Times Article by Edward Wyatt and William K. Rashbaum, indicates that along with other security problems, many hospitals lack a consistently applied criminal background screening program. "The holes in hospital security have been painfully evident this month, first when a 13-year-old girl was raped in the pediatric ward of Bellevue Hospital Center, in Manhattan, then days later when a Bellevue patient-care assistant with a criminal record was arrested on charges of selling cocaine and guns at the hospital." After the arrest of this employee, Dr. Benjamin K. Chu, the president of the Health and Hospitals Corporation, ordered administrators to begin reviewing the background checks on employees hired in 2002 or earlier. He also appointed a new security director at Bellevue last week and hired an outside consultant to review procedures there. Bringing on an expert in pre employment screening is the key to avoiding this kind a tragic mistake in the first place. By outsourcing the background screening process, companies can ensure that they are hiring a higher caliber of employees. In particular, Hospitals should be especially careful when hiring non-licensed staff. Since these staff members have not undergone criminal background screening in any licensure process, it is the responsibility of the Human Resources Department to ensure that they do not have a criminal record. If Human Resources is remiss in performing a background check, the hospital is opening itself up to a significant risk in terms of liability. On the other hand, when criminal background checks are consistently performed using research methods that provide comprehensive and accurate background information, those candidates with not-so-distant criminal pasts are filtered out from the beginning of the hiring process.
04/11/04
Holes Found in Cheap Employee Background Checks
April 11,2004 : In his article "Holes Found in Cheap Background Checks", Greg Burns of the Chicago Tribune points out many of the pitfalls associated with background screening new applicants using cheap pre employment screening services. This article draws attention to the fact that many employee screening companies fail to do the thorough research necessary to truly uncover an applicant criminal history. Burns research showed that many companies fail to identify criminals, performing such superficial reviews that serious offenders can get perfectly clean reports. Even when these services do uncover criminal records, the information is often incomplete and unreliable. Burns notes that in order to avoid serious liability, companies should utilize background screening suppliers that have more comprehensive research procedures. He suggests that the pre employment screening procedures used by a quality screening vendor should include tracing the addresses and names used by a subject over the years, then hiring researchers known as "runners" to check public records at each County/District Court location. By performing this level of due diligence in pre employment screening process, companies can further protect themselves from discriminatory hiring suits, negligent hiring suits, fraud, inventory theft, and worse.
04/02/04
Manpower Report Forecasts Hiring to Increase by Net 22%
Manpower, a valued Inquest client, has released its Quarter 2 Employment Outlook Survey results for 2004. Manpower surveyed 16,000 businesses around the United States in order to gauge the hiring trends that are anticipated in the following Quarter. Of the US employers that were surveyed, 28% expect an increase in hiring in the second quarter, while 6% plan to decrease staff levels. This creates a Net Employment Outlook of 22%. The job forecast for the second quarter is a steady improvement from the first quarter of 2004 and is nearly twice as strong as it was last year at this time. In order to attract and hire the best talent in your industry, your hiring process must be running smoothly. Don't be slowed down by an inefficient pre employment screening program; because your best candidates will be hired by competitors if you can't make an offer promptly.
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