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Background Checks

Probation protects in case of bad background checks

06/01/2007

One good reason to have new employees serve a probationary period is that it gives you more time to check their backgrounds and find out whether they were forthcoming on their applications …

ChildNet could have used ‘Dragnet’ detective work

06/01/2007

Two facility managers for ChildNet, the agency that runs Broward County’s child welfare system, were fired after being implicated in several thefts at the agency …

Protect against your company’s biggest security threat: your employees

06/01/2007

A lost laptop containing the Social Security numbers of more than 50,000 people … A misplaced disk that contains account information for an entire state … Your company’s greatest security threat probably comes not from outside sources but from your own employees. To protect against such internal threats and loss of information, you need to take specific measures to reduce potential risks …

Background checks

06/01/2007

Q. When may an employer conduct background checks on employees and potential employees?

When interviewing applicants, beware these red flags

05/01/2007
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Prepare to justify policy barring former criminals

05/01/2007

Does your organization have a blanket policy of refusing to hire applicants with criminal records? If so, make sure you can explain exactly why. Because minority applicants may be statistically more likely to have criminal records, requiring a clean criminal-record history may have a disparate impact on a protected class and violate Title VII …

Prevent new type of lawsuit: Credit-Check discrimination

03/01/2007

If your organization uses credit checks in the hiring process, you’d better have a sound business reason for doing so or you could face a new type of litigation …

Asking applicants about age: When is it legal?

03/01/2007

Q. I work as an HR generalist at a large hospital. My supervisor told me to ask a certain applicant for her date of birth during the hiring process. Isn’t it illegal to ask for an applicant’s birth date? —K.G., Philadelphia

Giving references: Limiting info is still safest policy

03/01/2007

Q. I’m new to the HR world. When we receive reference checks on ex-employees, what information can we (or should we) give out without a signed release? —L.M., Pasadena, Calif.

‘Hello, Liability?’ The new trend of telephone testing

03/01/2007

Why does “testing” bring about that sledgehammer-in-the-stomach feeling? Maybe because, as students, we never knew quite what to expect. Now, the same is true when it comes to a recent trend in employment-law cases: applicants and employees making phone calls to secretly test whether your organization is discriminating …