In early 2012, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Office of Legal Counsel issued updated guidance regarding the handling of criminal history checks in the course of background screening. Furthermore, the EEOC has announced it will aggressively pursue, as class…
Background Checking
The Worst Recruiting Mistakes
Late last year, I checked with my recruiting friends (yes, I still have a few left) and colleagues as to what they thought were the worst recruiting mistakes that companies make. What they said is below. What do you think…
Media Screening Can Help to Avoid Brand Damage Through a Bad Hire
We are all familiar with the story of the Yahoo CEO who took on his role in early 2012, only to be dismissed when stories arose that he padded his resume with an embellished college degree. Many executive screening packages…
What Employers Should Know About the Regulation of Marijuana
co-authored by Roger G. Trim, a shareholder in the Denver office of Ogletree Deakins As of January 2013, 18 states and the District of Columbia have laws on the books legalizing the use of medical marijuana. A number of additional…
Success With Pre-hire Assessment Starts With Using the Right Tool at the Right Time
While there are many possible ways to use pre-hire assessments, there are some general truths associated with getting the most out of these tools. A good hiring process is a coordinated effort in which the right tool is selected for…
Real Reference Checks Require These 8 Steps
A few days ago I received a call from a business owner conducting a reference check on a former co-worker of mine. She kept me on the phone for nearly a half hour to ask me several probing questions about…
Have a Cup O’Joe Whilst You (Very) Deep Background Your Candidate
Background checks have been in the news this week. CareerBuilder says 51 percent of employers have hired people with criminal records. At our sister site, FordyceLetter.com, lawyer and recruiter Jeff Allen offers some legal advice about what can, can’t, and might…
Survey: Half of All Employers Have Hired Workers With a Record
A CareerBuilder survey released today says 51 percent of human resources managers report their company has hired workers with a criminal record. It’s an almost impossible-to-believe finding, given the constant drumbeat by criminal rights organizations over the challenges those with…
Top 10 Guidelines for Social Media Background Checks
A recent survey reported that nearly half of all employers conduct social media background checks on job candidates. This practice has included requiring candidates to disclose their usernames, passwords, and other credentials that provide access to their Facebook and Twitter…
Part Your Hair on the Right — We Have a Roundup
Stress, hair parts, offer rejections, Groupon’s job seekers, background checking, and disabilities — we weigh in on all of them in today’s roundup. Speaking of weight: the world’s people weigh a collective 316 million tons, of which 17 million tons is…
Spokeo Paying $800,000 in Government Settlement
Spokeo, a website full of data on consumers — job candidates — is paying $800,000 to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission charges about the way it marketed the profiles to HR people, recruiters, and background-checking companies, allegedly without the proper consumer…
Yahoo CEO Gone Over Resume Debacle; Heidrick & Struggles Strikes Back
Yahoo’s beleaguered CEO Scott Thompson is out, in a shakeup that replaced the company’s chairman of the board and added new directors chosen by a dissident shareholder. Unable to ride out the storm over a false academic degree listed on his resume,…
What Every Recruiter Ought to Know About Candidates With Questionable References
If you have ever been in a situation when checking references on a candidate you uncovered negative references and/or performance reviews, you are not alone. What you do with the information is key. This is one of the most misunderstood,…
Yahoo’s CEO Problem Offers Opportunity to Improve Recruiting Process for All Parties
Last Week Dan Loeb of Third Point Capital sent a letter to the board of directors of Yahoo asserting that Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson actually did not have a degree in degree in computer science as his executive biography indicated….
What the Arrest/Conviction Guidance Means to You
On April 25, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued an updated Enforcement Guidance on employer use of arrest and conviction records in employment decisions under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended. The Guidance summarizes…
What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Men? Facebook Knows
What Facebook Reveals About Candidates In recent weeks there have been a lot of stories about employers asking candidates for their Facebook passwords or accepting a hiring manager as a friend, apparently sanctioned by HR. This is the kind of…
This Is Business; Stay the Hell Out of Your Candidates’ Personal Lives
I read an article last week about job candidates being asked for their Facebook passwords so that potential employers can examine their personal activity. It also covers law enforcement agencies making similar demands of their applicants. So at the risk…
Happy Cities, Yahoo, and Background Checks in the Roundup
Calling all tech industry recruiters. Get ready to pounce. Yahoo, as we presume you’ve heard, is about to dump thousands of its employees. Exactly who is going isn’t known publicly, though reports (all stemming from the original article on All…
Cyber-vetting’s Usage, Risk, and Future
Cyber-vetting may sound like solely a way to dig up dirt about someone. But it can be used to not only avoid a bad hire, but also help perform a good hire and increase the chance of a good fit….
Facebook’s Tag Suggestions Raise HR Issues
Ever since Facebook started rolling out its facial recognition service — officially “Tag Suggestions” — a few months ago, pictures have been getting tagged with the names of the people who are in them, without their permission and even without…