Recently, I had conversations with several people about brain fog, and most of those people chalked it up to age. However, there are other causes for not being able to find your words, having trouble concentrating, or not remembering why you walked into the kitchen.
California is once again looking at making changes to how employers can use information from background checks in employment decisions. The California Civil Rights Department’s Civil Right Council released their most recent draft of changes to their Fair Employment and Housing Ace (FEHA) this past December. This update addresses proposed changes to the use of criminal history for employment decisions.
More and more employers are considering applicants from other countries to fill vacant positions. While international checks take a longer time to complete, employers can help themselves get through the process more efficiently by providing required information up front.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used more often and for a variety of purposes. Michigan State University received a $1.7 million grant to use AI in finding new drugs for treating diseases. Cyber security uses AI in various forms such as facial recognition to “verify a person’s real-world identity.” These seem to be good uses for AI.
If you use a consumer reporting agency or third-party vendor such as ASE to conduct a background check on an employee or applicant, you must comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by first providing the employee or applicant with a written consumer report disclosure. Employers that fail to do this or do it incorrectly expose themselves to significant liability.
What does eating frogs have to do with productivity at work? No, I am not talking about frog legs, which can be found on restaurant menus.
When we think of identity theft, our minds typically go to the culprits opening up credit card accounts or getting loans using another person's information. Identity theft has gone up over the last five years, and according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the number of reported identity theft cases in 2021 increased more than 70% over 2020.
Employers have had to scramble over the last three years while dealing with COVID. Suddenly working from home was not a rare option but a required way to keep businesses going while keeping employees as safe as possible. Now that most companies and employees have found their groove in dealing with the pandemic, long COVID is creating new challenges for employers and the employees suffering from the symptoms.
Most people who use background checks for employment purposes are at least familiar with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA. But did you know that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has some control over what records a background screening company, commonly referred to as a consumer reporting agency (CRA), can provide to you as an end-user of background screening reports?
As more and more states are legalizing the use of marijuana for medical use, recreational use, or both, employers are facing more challenges with maintaining workplace safety while avoiding the pitfalls of laws that are employee friendly to users of marijuana.
Many employers are investing in health programs for their employees. It could be offering to co-pay for a gym membership, providing online health support programs, or providing on-site fitness centers. However, one important health benefit that employers have offered for a long time is vacation time.
What if you could save your company thousands of dollars, or more, and protect its reputation using one simple form? There is no doubt that anyone in an HR position is overworked, and these days many are understaffed; however, when it comes to the disclosure form for background checks, it is imperative that anyone involved in the process takes the time to ensure they are sending forms to their applicants which are FCRA compliant.
Spring has sprung, at least by the calendar, which means it is time to hire summer help. Help could come in the form of interns, co-ops, work study programs, or perhaps even just helping a young person with an employment opportunity. What does this mean for employers?
If you run background checks which include employment verifications, you are most likely aware that most employers these days use automated systems for employment verifications. One of the biggest of these systems is The Work Number, which is owned by Equifax.
Whether or not we admit it, we all want to be liked on some level, and our style of communication can help or hinder achieving the likability we crave. Brother and sister duo, Kathy and Ross Petras, who teamed up to write what they call “word-oriented books,” have put together the following tips containing common mistakes that the most likeable people avoid:
At some time in our careers, most of us will run into at least one narcissist in the workplace, and we can cross paths with such people in our personal lives as well. It’s important to be able to recognize narcissists in the workplace and know how to address them.
Diversity and inclusion have been hot button issues for employers for several years now. Most employers look at things like sex, race, self-identification, etc. There is one group of people that is too often left out of the discussion and employment practices, and that is the group of people who need a second chance.
Last year seemed to fly by, but there was plenty of time for lawmakers to make updates to existing laws regarding background checks.
Earlier in the year ASE shared information on the pending law that would redact dates of birth from court records. The law, that was to take effect July 1, 2021, was postponed until January 1, 2022. This change would have made it difficult, if not impossible, to conduct criminal record checks in the State of Michigan.
As more and more states make the use of cannabis being legal, for medical or recreational use, employers have been challenged with making policies that will best protect the company while still allowing them to fill positions.
ASE is a member of the Professional Background Screening Association (PBSA). Recently, the PBSA, along with the HR Research Institute, completed a research report, “Background Screening: Trends in the U.S. and abroad 2021.” Of the responding employers with locations in the U.S., 95% stated that their company does some type of background screening, and 77% of those companies have a documented screening policy.
Back in June we were gearing up for the new identifier redaction policy that was to go into effect in Michigan on July 1st. This policy would have caused dates of birth to be redacted from court records before those records could be provided to the public. It would also have prohibited court clerks from using date of birth in searches and from verbally verifying dates of birth.