Employment Background Checks: Minimize Skeletons that Employers Might Find. Parts 1

Jobs Employment, Career Job, Employment Job

by Katharine Hansen, Ph.D.

The words of Jay Meschke, president of CBIZ Executive Search, Kansas City, MO, capture the prevailing philosophy about background checks in the job search: "For executives, background checks are so routine in the recruitment process that one would need to question the sanity of the hiring entity that does not perform background checks in this day and age." Resume and credential fraud, Meschke notes, have contributed to a dramatic increase in background checks.

Nick Fishman, chief marketing officer and executive vice president for employeescreenIQ in Cleveland, OH, notes that his firm "finds a 56 percent discrepancy rate between what candidates claim about their past employment and academic credentials and what we find when we inquire."

Employers also conduct background searches to guard against lawsuits filed claiming company liability when an employee causes harm that better vetting might have prevented (because the check probably would have prevented the individual from being hired and causing the alleged harm).

An employer, or more likely, a third-party firm that specializes in background checks, may scrutinize a wide variety of elements in the background-checking process, including federal, state and local criminal proceedings and convictions; federal, state and local civil litigation, bankruptcy court records, magistrate's court records, U.S. tax court records, federal and state tax liens and warrants, surrogate and probate court records, matrimonial and family court records, judgment indices, pending suits, UCC filings, mechanics liens, property records, educational verification, prior employment, corporate/partnership filings and entity filings, fictitious business name indices; regulatory checks including, SEC filings, FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) records/actions, CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) records, arbitration records; Department of Motor Vehicles records; professional registration and licensing; local, national, international Internet/media review; general interest, trade, and limited access publications; business databases, including general information, business relationships, and records of stock ownership; federal agencies, including, EPA, FTC, FCC, EEOC, Department of Energy, Federal Home Loan Bank Board, Federal Election Commission; state agencies, including secretary of state, attorney general, casino control, consumer affairs, environmental; and local sources, including city agencies, Better Business Bureau, local law enforcement; reputation inquiries with former employees, associates, employers, and industry sources.

In this vetting process, the employer or investigator attempts to identify misrepresentations or omissions, unreported financial difficulties, illegal or unethical business practices, undisclosed legal proceedings, criminal or regulatory actions, sanctions, debarments or de-listings, and troubled transactional histories.

The issues for candidates include how to prepare for background checks and how to handle them. Experts from background-checking and related firms explain.

Know the red flags in your own background. "Assume that every detail of your background will be uncovered, because it probably will," says Maureen Mack, human-resources consultant with H.R. Principal, LLC, in Walnut Creek, CA. Several background-check experts advise paying a service to conduct a background check on yourself before you begin interviewing so you know what an employer might find. As Craig points out, this process may reveal situations in which someone who shares your name has an unsavory background. While Craig says you can do nothing about this person's red flags, you can let the hiring decision-maker know that while a background check may reveal an issue, the person named is not actually you.

Chris Fabrycki, who worked in corporate functions for years as an executive recruiter and is now owner and HR consultant with Accent Services, LLC, in Warren, NJ, notes that because a significant aspect of the vetting process involves a financial check, ordering a credit check on yourself can help. "I have seen many senior-level finalist candidates with bad credit, which can prompt a stop to the hiring process," she says. The information you'll turn up in a credit check is limited, however, so Fabrycki agrees with the many experts who recommend investing the money in using a reliable company to conduct your own full background check.

Craig also recommends conducting a search for yourself on Google and social-media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, and similar social and networking sites) and remove any questionable content that you can control. Statistics from ExecuNet's study, Dealing With Your Digital Dirt 3.0, indicate that an overwhelming majority (86 percent) of executive recruiters conduct online searches as part of their background checking, and, as a result, nearly half (44 percent) of these recruiters have eliminated candidates because of something questionable they uncovered. Craig advises setting up a Google e-mail alert for your name so you receive notification every time you are mentioned online.