The Urgent Need for Pre-Employment Screening

Background Investigations are a valuable tool to add confidence to the recruiting process and ultimately greater success to your organization. With the recent focus on workplace violence statistics, resume falsification, and negligent hiring lawsuits, the importance of background screenings has become very apparent. The Employment Management Association reveals approximately 52% of all applications will have misrepresented information about past employment, with education information misrepresented over 80% of the time. Another study showed 80% of all resumes were misleading, and 34% listed untruthful reasons for termination.

The use of screening can:


• Discourage applicants with something to hide
• Encourage open communications and honesty
• Eliminate uncertainty by basing decisions on hard information
• Demonstrate Due Diligence
• Promote workplace safety
• Reduce legal exposure for negligent hiring claims
• Provide an excellent return on investment

Employers can not afford to lose time and money interviewing, retraining, and replacing new hires that don’t work out. If the employee has access to money, inventory, vehicles, client residences, businesses or children, it is essential to conduct a detailed pre-employment screening to prevent future liability issues for the employer. Likewise, those in greater positions of responsibility, such as financial officers, CEO’s, department heads and those who use a company vehicle should be further scrutinized.

Negligent hiring is a legal theory that holds that an employer is responsible for a third party who is injured by an employee when that employer fails to diligently select competent and safe employees. The company can be liable even when the employee is not acting on behalf of the employer if a connection can be shown between the wrongful act and the employment of the individual in question.

• Over 30% of all business failures are the result of negligent hiring practices.

An employer can also be held responsible for the negligent retention of an employee. Negligent retention occurs after an employer has hired an employee and becomes aware, or should become aware, that they may be incompetent or dangerous. If the employer fails to take corrective action, then the employer may be liable when the employee harms someone. Every employer should consider periodic background investigations on current employees.

• On the job violence costs employers $36 billion annually.

Our experienced Licensed Private Investigators personally handle every request. To discuss your specific needs please contact Diehl & Associates Investigations at (231) 883-7500 or by email at info@diehlinvestigations.com.

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Seasonal Employees and Background Checks

Skipping them now could cost you big down the road.

With the holiday season in full swing, many employers find themselves needing additional help. And while it's common to hire temporary employees for the busy season, it's, unfortunately, just as common to slap a big red "TEMP" label on them, separating them from the rest of the workforce.

Employers do this every year, skipping essential steps in the hiring process that may cost them more than they realize. By performing simple background checks on seasonal hires, employers could be saving a lot of time, money and hassle down the road.

RETURN FRAUD
What is Return Fraud? According to Wikipedia it is: the act of somehow defrauding a retail establishment via the return process. For example, the offender may return stolen merchandise to secure cash, or steal receipts and/or receipt tape to enable a falsified return. Return abuse is a form of "friendly fraud" where someone purchases products without intending to keep them. Perhaps the most well-known form of this abuse is "wardrobing" or "renting" - in which the person makes a purchase, uses the productts), and then retUrns the merchandise. According to the National Retail Federation's (NRF) annual Return Fraud Survey, retailers are expected to lose $3.68 billion this holiday season due to return fraud alone. That's nearly $1 billion up from last year. But what is more surprising is 88 percent of retailers report having problems with employee return fraud, making it the second most common type of fraud behind stolen merchandise. In this fraud, for example, an employee may assist in returning stolen goods for full retail price.

By performing background checks on seasonal applicants, employers can find previous criminal convictions such as theft prior to hiring them. Aquick background check separates the liars from the quality hires.

SHORT TERM VS. LONG TERM
With an effective background screening system in place, employers get a better picture of the applicants professionalism, productivity, and ability to perform the task at hand. In fact, a recent report from the Aberdeen Group shows that employers who efficiently incorporate background screening into the preemployment process experience 60 percent better quality of hire compared to those who don't. Plus, although seasonal employees are hired on only for a matter of weeks or .months, employers often choose to keep them on board as full-time employees after the holiday season, all the more reason to screen the employee from the beginning.

EDUCATION
For those companies who make hiring choices based on resume/application information, keep in mind 52percent of all applicants will misrepresent infor-, marionabout pastemploymentwith education information misrepresented over 80 percent of the time, according to a study by The Employment Management

Association.
Another study showed 80 percent of all resume/applications have misleading information including 34 percent listing untruthful reasons for termination, Another current study indicated there are over 3,000 diploma mills worldwide with approximately 800 located in the United States. Most of these offer internet access and for a price can produce false degree, credential or diploma paperwork. With this in mind, education verification is an important part of the screening process.

COST
Employers can expect to pay $100 - $200 per employee for checks that would verify their name, address and date of birth in addition to a MichiganCriminal check, Michigan Driving Record check and former employment history.

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Background / Pre-employment screening statistics

Since opening our doors for business in Northern Michigan in 2008 we have completed hundreds of proprietary database searches for local businesses and attorneys. These searches included asset checks to determine if an individual or company has the ability to pay a debt or is a good risk to join in a partnership. In most cases the attorney already has a judgment against the subject and is trying to collect money ordered to be paid by the court. In these cases we are looking for any asset owned by the subject that can be sold to create cash which can then be applied toward the debt.

In the case of pre-employment screening a potential employer wants to check a wide range of information about an applicant. Most of the time an extensive application and interview has taken place and the employer has narrowed the applicant field to a couple of “potentially qualified applicants.” The employer will then decide what information they need to have verified through a pre-employment screening process. There are many different forms of data that can be checked to include: Social Security Number Verification; Criminal Record Checks (for the state(s) applicant has resided in the past 3 years); Arrest Record Checks (by state); Civil Records Check; Driving Record Checks (by state); Federal Record Checks (by state); Sexual Offender Registries; Employment Verification for past employers; Education / Credential Verification; Credit Report and interviews may also be needed. Pre-employment screenings are customized for each employer based on their needs.

What we have found based on all the database searches completed over the past four years is 90% of all searches come back with some degree of derogatory information. This may include inaccurate or incomplete information provided by the applicant or in some cases applicants indicate an education degree was earned, when in fact the verification determines attendance only without a degree issued. This may also include subjects involved in law suits lying about assets to avoid judgments or requirements to pay debts. In many cases the subject’s driving record is cluttered with a variety of infractions which could cause an employer to be subjected to higher insurance costs or liability issues.

In the big scheme of company cost, proprietary database searches are relatively inexpensive, can offer protection against negligent hiring or bad debts and offer’s an excellent return on the investment.

Need Help?

To get started with a customized screening package, contact Diehl & Associates Investigations at 231-883-7500.

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The Life of a P.I.

The Real Story

by Janet Diehl

People ask me all the time: “What do private investigators really do?” The answer is not an easy one because the scope of services is broad. I will give you an overview. But, first: What is a private investigator?

A private investigator (often abbreviated to P.I. and informally spelled private eye), private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. In terms we can all understand: Being a P.I. is kind of like shopping. Sometimes it can take hours and you don’t find anything you need. Then other times you find the perfect item first thing. One constant is: I expect to find an answer with every case. I have a new-found expectation of discovery with every investigation; I expect to find a hidden secret, a missing piece of a puzzle, or that one piece of information that will make a difference for the client.

When a client contacts our office and explains his or her situation or problem, we immediately start the creative thinking process to figure out: “What can we do to help solve the problem?” In the case of pre-employment screenings, all searches are customized for each employer based on their needs. In these cases our job is to verify information the person has provided. In one case an applicant stated she had used two different names. What a surprise we got when the driver’s license record came back with seven names associated with this applicant! We have found that 90 percent of all job seekers in Northern Michigan have some inaccurate information on their résumé or application. Sometimes we have companies which have gone to court and received a judgment against a person, usually for a bad debt. When the company tries to collect money from the person, they are told the person does not have any money or own any assets. Most of the time our job is to locate hidden bank accounts, property co-owned with others or other assets that can be used to pay the debt.

We also have worked criminal cases where our client has been charged with crimes ranging from criminal sexual conduct, domestic violence, assaulting a police officer, vehicular homicide to driving under the influence. Our job on all of these cases is to find out the truth: What really happened? We may need to locate official records and reports, obtain witness statements or conduct discreet surveillance. Most of the time one interview will lead to another and in one death penalty case we contacted and interviewed 83 people, resulting in felony charges being dismissed and substituted with one misdemeanor charge. We worked a criminal sexual conduct case regarding two teenagers who had consensual intercourse. Shortly after the encounter the boy broke up with the girl and she said it was “rape.” Our investigation determined this same girl had made similar claims against her former boyfriend, resulting in all charges dismissed prior to trial. We have had clients contact us about locating missing persons. In one case a Florida insurance company had been unsuccessful in locating their insured for two years. They had information the insured could be visiting in the area and asked us to conduct a search.

Armed with his name and vehicle description, we hit the streets and within eight hours we had located him and facilitated a phone call between the insured and the company’s attorney. The attorney was overjoyed and the case was closed. Child custody cases are difficult and sensitive. In many cases we are able to prove that the child is not being properly cared for or adequately supervised by the non-custodial parent. While conducting surveillance on another case, we observed a non-custodial parent having several martinis with lunch and then picking up the children from school an hour and a half later. When all the fun investigative fieldwork is done, next comes the most important part of our job: compiling an official report. We must communicate what witnesses have told us in an accurate, concise report for others to read or for possible evidence in court.

At the end of the day, what private investigators really do is look for the facts. We verify information through interviews, surveillance and record searches, making it easy for our clients to read and understand.

Janet H. Diehl is the co-owner of Diehl & Associates Investigations, and she can be reached at 231.883.7500 or info@diehlinvestigations. com.

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