21Jun

Fukushima report shows nuclear power can never be safe and cheap

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Investogators inspect the damaged building housing the No.3 reactor at TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant on June 17, 2011. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

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The first “independent” review of the Fukushima nuclear disaster was published today and it does not make reassuring reading. Japan is perhaps the most technologically advanced nation on Earth and yet, time after time, the report finds missing measures that I would have expected to already be in place. It highlights the fundamental inability for anyone to anticipate all future events and so deeply undermines the claims of the nuclear industry and its supporters that this time, with the new generation of reactors, things will be different.

I used quote marks on the word “independent” because the report comes from the International Atomic Energy Association (pdf) (IAEA) which, while independent of Japan, is far from independent from the nuclear industry it was founded to promote. But this conflict of interest only makes the findings of the IEAE’s experts more startling.

Investogators inspect the damaged building housing the No.3 reactor at TEPCO's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant on June 17, 2011. Photograph: Kyodo/Reuters

So let’s take a look at some of the 15 conclusions and 16 lessons (I’ve edited a bit for brevity).

There were insufficient defence-in-depth provisions for tsunami hazards. In particular, although tsunami hazards were considered [in] 2002, the tsunami hazard was underestimated. Moreover, those additional protective measures were not reviewed and approved by the regulatory authority. Severe accident management provisions were not adequate to cope with multiple plant failures.

So, they looked at the tsunami risk, badly underestimated the scale of what was needed and then the regulator failed to check their work.

Japan has a well organized emergency preparedness and response system … and dedicated and devoted officials and workers. [But] complicated structures and organizations can result in delays in urgent decision making.

Even in one of the best nuclear safety regimes, the complexity of accidents can overwhelm the emergency response.

The siting and design of nuclear plants should include sufficient protection against infrequent and complex combinations of external events and these should be considered in the plant safety analysis;
Any changes in external hazards or understanding of them should be periodically reviewed for their impact on the current plant configuration

This, in other words, says that the unexpected will occur and tacitly admits it can’t be planned for.

Plant layout should be based on maintaining a ‘dry site concept’, where practicable, as a defence-in-depth measure against site flooding;
An active tsunami warning system should be established with the provision for
immediate operator action.

Nuclear power plants shouldn’t be able to flood and need tsunami warning systems to operate safely, the inspectors conclude. It’s very worrying that this is a “lesson to be learned”, in a world where many reactors are already sited on coasts, while sea levels are rising and storms are increasing in intensity.

For severe situations, such as total loss of off-site power or the engineering safety systems, simple alternative sources for these functions (such as mobile power, compressed air and water supplies) should be provided. Such provisions should be located at a safe place and the plant operators should be trained to use them.
Nuclear sites should have adequate on-site seismically robust, suitably shielded, ventilated and well equipped buildings to house the Emergency Response Centres.

More frighteningly obvious “lessons” to be learned: you need back-up equipment in a safe place that people know how to use, and somewhere safe for the emergency response to be run from.

Emergency Response Centres should have available as far as practicable essential safety related parameters, such as coolant levels, containment status, pressure, etc, [delivered by] hardened instrumentation and lines.
External events [can] affect several plants and several units at the plants at the same time. This requires a sufficiently large resource in terms of trained experienced people, equipment and supplies.
The risk and implications of hydrogen explosions should be revisited and necessary mitigating systems should be implemented.

Yet more “lessons”: you need to ensure you know what’s happening in the reactor, you need to have enough people to cope and the risk of hydrogen explosions has been underestimated.

Nuclear regulatory systems should ensure that regulatory independence [is] preserved in all circumstances.

The last lesson is also chilling, when you consider the implied alternative.

To sum up, when you build a reactor you are committing to controlling the nuclear fury at its heart for half a century or more, and controlling the waste produced for many thousands of years (using methods no-one has yet developed).

On those timescales, unforeseen events are a certainty, with hugely costly consequences. The earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan were extreme, and the IAEA report tries to argues that new nuclear safety regulations should learn lessons from the failure of the system at Fukushima to cope.

But the real lesson is that it is impossible to cover all eventualities. That means nuclear power is not safe or, given the colossal clean-up costs, cheap. Regretfully, I believe it is an illusory answer to the problem of rising greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

 

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20Jun

Online Degree Scams: Proper Education Background Checks Can Save Life of a Recruitment Professional

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by Muhammad Saad Khan

When we talk about quality employment and best employee, then the first thing which came up in any employer’s mind is that their incumbent would be highly qualified and his qualification is legitimate.

Legitimacy of education is becoming a very intense issue these days as there are many people trying to get their credentials faked out to get their desired job. As the recession hit all around the globe and the job market is so scarce, and the qualified employee needs are so high, so many people are using bad means to get their education.

There are number of diploma mills and degree mills, offline and online which are providing the best criminal services to the people and making money like never before. They are actually selling fake degrees, diplomas and certifications. Which have no worth as now every single employer is running a comprehensive education background check to vet their education authenticity.

Verifying the education credentials of a potential candidate can be an important part in identifying if they have the suitable skills set for the position. Educational success reveals a great deal about an applicant’s credentials and motivations; and through education background checks, an employer can get an accurate depiction of their qualifications.

Many employers view particular educational qualifications as a key factor in seeking new employees. Moreover, education is a prerequisite for many positions because it ensures applicable knowledge of a subject matter, or more importantly, a required license for the position.

Studies show that approximately 30% of all applicants puff up information about their educational background, ranging from made‐up degrees from legitimate schools to insignificant degrees from diploma mills.

In 2004, the general Accounting Office revealed that nearly 200,000 federal employees had at the very least exaggerated education credentials on their resume.

SHRM(Society for Human Resource Management): More than 53% of job applicants falsify information on their resumes; one in four candidates misrepresents his educational attainment.

ADP Hiring Index: 49% of employment, education and or credential reference checks reveal discrepancies in the applicant’s information.

Association of Certified Fraud Examiners: 41% of applicants lie about their education.

The above trend indicates an increase in the likelihood that employer’s who don’t verify education will hire unqualified personnel. Hiring unqualified personnel, in turn, leads to higher employee turnover, forcing the organization to incur expensive recruiting and replacement costs.

Online Degree Scams: Diploma Mills and Fake Degrees

It has also become exceedingly easy to access an authentic looking, knock‐off diploma from any school in America; all you need is a credit card and a computer. Diploma mills and degree mills as well as various websites, advertise very realistic, physical diplomas and transcripts, which have been found to deceive many employers.

Therefore, with the striking statistics of resume fraud, employers should think twice about using physical diplomas as proper evidence of a degree. Because the requirement for education qualification has become so demanding, education fraud is becoming more prevalent, as are the establishments of diploma mills.

Consequently, in order to combat education fraud, laws have recently been passed in which companies who manufacture fake degrees and diplomas are considered to have committed a Misdemeanor, unless the degree explicitly states, “for novelty purposes only.”

Current Systems of Education Background Checks and Degree/ Diploma Verification and Why They Are Not Enough!

  • At present, human resource departments in companies directly contact the concerned educational institution and undertake verification. This is no longer a viable solution, considering the increase in the number of recruitments, and the time taken for verification. This is also not a fool proof method.
  • A second method, often adopted by many of the larger corporations, is to outsource their employment verifications to background screening companies, who maintain large personnel databases.
  • The third system which has developed recently in education background checks is the system of online degree and diploma verification. There is a database of fake colleges and universities and as well as the misdemeanors who faked their documents in past. It is now the best free online resource for the employers as well as for the students, who can check their institutions as well.

The biggest issue with targeting these diploma mills is that they frequently move around. Many diploma mills are constantly changing their names while others are sprouting up sporadically. There are currently hundreds of diploma mills on the internet that offer fake degrees and diplomas.

When posing as legitimate institutions, diploma mills will use catchy phrases to attract potential buyers:

• Here is an opportunity to get ahead

• University diplomas

• Obtain a prosperous future, money earning power, and the admiration of all

• Diplomas from a prestigious university

• Based upon your present knowledge and life experience

• No required tests, classes, books or interview

• Bachelors, masters, MBA, and doctorate (PhD) diplomas available in your field of choice

• No one is turned down

• Confidentiality assured. Call now to receive your diploma within days

• Furthermore, these “schools” have no faculty, no classes, and no course catalog and only have one address or email in which they can be contacted.

Concluding Remarks:

  • Falsified education credentials have become a serious issue in the workforce; it breaches the faith on employees who are involved, especially when it can directly affect other employees and the company as a whole. It is also a serious blunder on the part of the employer who should have done proper education background checks; a mistake that could essentially hinder their current position.
  • Now that up to 20% of employers in America require a diploma or degree from a college or university that awarded it to them, education background checks have become exceptionally crucial.
  • Although a federal law has been implemented to target diploma mills that give out phony diplomas, the problem still exists and is far from being corrected. In the meantime, employers should remain steadfast about conducting pre‐employment background checks that include verifying academic credentials.
  • The online diploma/degree mill checking systems are significant source of help to the employers looking for easy and free of cost education background check.
  • Education background checks should be included in every pre‐employment screening process.

 

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19Jun

Nuclear Holocaust Sweeping Across the Northern Hemisphere

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Japan Radiation Fallout Map

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Here in the following video we are looking at nuclear hell on earth, a night film of the radioactive steam that continues to rise from Fukushima 24 hours a day. Arnie Gundersen, a former nuclear power industry executive, is one of the experts who has been saying from day one that the nuclear crisis in Japan was much worse than they were telling us.

He was absolutely correct. Finally, three months later we are getting some numbers on what the real dangers are. And finally we can begin to understand the enormous cover-up of the nuclear doom that is reaching lungs all over the west coast of America, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii and at least half of Japan! For infants it’s a terrible valley of death we have created for them. As we shall see for years all of them have been born with already polluted bloodstreams and now the very young ones are dying in greater numbers on the west coast of the United States since Fukushima blew up.

Click here to read more on Pakalert Press

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19Jun

The Process and Pitfalls of Education Verification

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by Syed Faiez Hussain

While employers have long conducted education verification checks on their employment candidates, it appears that increasingly more staffing and recruiting groups are being made responsible for conducting this and other background checks as part of the employment screening process.
Education history, of course, outside of criminal records, is one of the more significant searches. For many positions, education is not just a prerequisite but also vital to employment candidate’s incumbent skill sets and the legitimacy they bring to the job. Those employment recruits who claim to but who do not possess the required skills can cause untold embarrassment to employer or recruiter alike. Both can lose clients over it, and in the extreme cases incur law suits.

Most notable, if a candidate lies, chances are he is lying about his education. With employment history, a fair number of applicants will exaggerate their role at a job or otherwise stretch the truth. But seldom do they out and out lie about working for an employer. This is not so much the case with education histories. Here is where the employment candidate will attempt to magically transform his two years of college into a full blown Bachelor’s Degree. Or in some cases, they never set foot inside the school.

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I have often wondered why the candidate decides to select the school he has never been to. Did he like the football team? The debating club? The school colors? Or was it a large university with high levels of enrollment and he thought any degree verification efforts would somehow get lost in the shuffle? But then sometimes they speak a smaller school, an ivy shrouded liberal arts college in New England or somewhere, where they might think no one would bother searching. It’s hard to say what goes on in their minds, but I have considered the implications of the schools they select.

To be sure, most employment candidates do not lie about having their college degrees. the overwhelming majority in fact are reputable and honest when it comes to claiming their certifications and degrees. Verifying education with most recruits is a fairly simple and straightforward process. Once we get from the client the type of degree the candidate has obtained, the name of the school, the location of the school, type of degree, major and year of graduation, the rest is pretty simple. Either we obtain verification from the school registrar’s office, the name and position of the verifying party, or we get it from the third party databases. All fine and valid.

There are exceptions. But for the most part, again, these are honest mistakes or simple oversights that are easily rectified. With common names, sometimes the degree is not enough. The researcher may require the major and the actual campus of the college or university. The campus is always important as most colleges and universities, despite the myriad branches, do not centralize their databases. The records for graduates and post-graduate degrees are housed with the registrar of that particular campus.

The wrong graduation date can cause confusion when conducting an education verification background search. With the wrong graduation date, it is sometimes difficult to find the student in the database. In some cases, and good to remember, those applicants who are lying about actually graduating from that college or university, will provide a fictitious graduation date. By doing so they try to hide the fact that they were “enrollment only” or never attended at all. So often we need to verify the graduation date.

Female graduates often go to school under their maiden names and then, years later, forget and provide only their married name. Time can be wasted searching for your candidate under her married name, when she attended school under her maiden name. When you as a recruiter or human resources executive are trying to get someone hired, this can cause delays. So it is always best to find out up front if her current name is the same name she used while attending the college or university.

With international students attending domestic colleges, there is a similar condition as with female college graduates. Often a foreign student went to school under a formal, native name. And then, over time, they”Americanize,” their names. Bao Wynn Nguyen is now Ben or Frank. His recent colleagues, the recruiter and most others now know him as Ben or Frank. But the school still has him records with his native name. When we are unable to verify, initially, it is necessary to go back to the candidate and ask if what name he or she used to register as a student. Again, this can cause delays in the hiring process.

Be aware of diploma mills. Diploma Mills have increased in prominence over the years. Those who run diploma mills, usually have several schools all running out of the same physical location. Often they are located for tax and legal purposes offshore. When conducting our research we find them in places like Gibraltar or the Seychelles.

Diploma Mills are the easy and spurious way to a higher education. This is where the employment candidate has spend all of a couple hundred bucks and twenty minutes, sometimes, in qualifying as a graduate from some mythical Internet School under the guise of “life experience.” Diploma mills often have them high falutin’ names that can sound like real schools. Often the name of the school is selected so you will associate the “graduate” with a prestigious university. They are not. They are not legitimate remote or distance learning institutions. They are bogus, unaccredited by anyone other than themselves, and the degree is worthless.

Examples of the diploma mill versus the actual college or university are, The University of Cambridge, a highly prestigious university in the U.K. and Cambridge State University that operated out of Louisiana and Mississippi until the Louisiana Attorney General had it closed down back in the nineties. Another is the University of Canterbury, an acclaimed and accredited New Zealand University, and our old buddy, and the fully unaccredited Canterbury University, which shows up from time to time on a candidate’s resume. Canterbury University claims to operate out of the United Kingdom, but its offices have been traced back to you guess it, The Seychelles.

Sometimes, when all else fails, it is incumbent upon the employment candidate to supply a copy or his or her degree or transcripts. We request this when the registrar is unable to locate the student in its database. Sometimes it’s a technical glitch, sometimes it’s an oversight on the part of the registrar.

If the candidate produces his college degree, you cannot accept it a face value. A common joke around our office is bogus diplomas is but one more reason G-d invented Photoshop. Or in the case fo diploma mills versus versus an actual university, the college crest just ain’t the same. There are variations, notable differences in both the crest and the proverbial paper it is written on. Another key is to examine carefully the officiating personnel who are listed or who have signed off on the graduation diploma.

We had a recent case where the university could not find the candidate’s graduation records for love nor money. We requested from our client a copy of the candidate’s diploma. Sure enough, here it came. At first glance it looked authentic enough. But upon further review, something was askew.

The diploma was real enough, only the candidate graduated eleven years before that college president had taken office. The candidate had apparently taken someone’s legitimate diploma, swapped out on Photoshop that name for his own and then presented the diploma. An oversight on the part of the candidate and a serious mistake. When we reported our discovery to our client, she immediately invalidated the candidate for any further consideration.

We also get a lot of shuck and jive when we request a copy of the diploma or transcriptional. I can’t find it. It’s not here but with my parents. My dog ate it. Whatever. Sometimes what the candidate claims is true, and most of the the time…well, it’s tough to be caught in a lie. When it comes to explanations and excuses, we have heard quite a few. Some are even pretty creative. One chestnut was the lament, “The school just can’t get it’s s**t together.”

Too rare. So be careful when recruiting. With degrees that have been verified by the school registrar or through the third party databases, you can move forward with your candidate. But when the glitches show up, either resolve them by reviewing the candidate’s name while attending school, major, year of graduation, and, if necessary, a copy of degree. If this method fails to find resolution, then you may have a problem on your hands. Red flags are what they are and while everyone wants to get their person hired, there are few things more embarrassing than your client discovering your candidate had lied.

Source: Recruiting Blogs

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18Jun

3 Top Reasons to Perform Pre Employment Screening

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by Muhammad Saad Khan

Employers and organizations, from the small businesses to the corporate giants, knows the benefits of hiring the best people and providing a safe, secure and healthy workplace, both physically and financially, for their employees, customers, shareholders, and the community in which they operate.

It’s important to know about the people before hiring. A new prospective employee is an important responsibility for any organization. An employer who has comprehensively performed a thorough pre employment screening on candidates is able to bring into the organization a highly capable person who will prove to be a tremendous asset in the future.

 

Regrettably, some organizations don’t take pre employment screening as a mandatory chunk of hiring process, and in result they runs with the risk of exposing their organization to someone who could ultimately become the organization’s greatest danger.

There are three basic reasons which elaborate that “why the pre employment screening process is extremely essential for an employer”.

1. To make the best hiring decision

2. Providing the safe working environment

3. Elimination of legal risks and liabilities

To Make the Best Hiring Decision, Employment Pre Screening is a Must!

It has been said that some applicants will only tell you what you want to hear. Most of the transgressions found in the forged resumes are basically in three categories: Education, Job titles, and dates of employment. By thoroughly verifying information given by an applicant, a company can improve the chances of hiring an individual who has portrayed his or her background, experience, and skills honestly and accurately. Using pre employment pre screening to verify an applicant’s history helps employers make decisions based upon facts.

Providing the Safe Working Environment Is a Primary Goal of an Employer

Acquiring and maintaining the safe working place for the employees is the dream of any employer or any organization. It’s obligatory for the employer to maintain work premises which is free of violence, fraud, theft, sexual and other types of harassment. The financial cost from these problems can be enormous. Additionally, there are other costs that are hard to measure, such as the harm to employee morale or the reputation of the organization. So it’s essential to run a pre employment background check to deter the criminals entering your heaven organization.

Legal Risks and Liabilities Are Extremely Harmful

Legal risks and liabilities is the threatening factor which is directly interconnected with the above two reasons of pre employment screening. The employers are responsible for the safety of employees, customers and anyone who enters the workplace. So its usual that there a risks and liabilities in hiring a wrong employee which can not only results into a trouble for the company but also for the business of the company. So to avoid such losses and risks, every employer must perform an effective pre employment background screening assessment to define the integrity and repute of a company.

Conclusion

The pre-employment background screening process can assist an employer in the hiring of qualified applicants, while simultaneously reducing turnover, deterring fraud, and avoiding litigation. As the job applicants vary widely in their knowledge, skills, abilities, interests, work styles, and other personal characteristics so these differences systematically affect the way people perform or behave on the job. Comprehensive pre employment screening process is able to collect accurate information on job-relevant characteristics that are not often recognized by simply observing the applicant. And most importantly these pre employment background checks can help in minimizing the chances of potential legal vulnerabilities. Thus the information helps assess the fit or match between people and jobs and has proven to have a significant return on investment for employers.

 

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17Jun

Millennials Could Dictate the Future of Employment Screening

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Millennials Could Dictate the Future of Employment Screening

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As the reins change hands from Generation X to Millennials over the next 20 years, the work force will be replaced by tech savvy security managers looking for fast, convenient, and portable solutions to employee background checks. The future of preemployment screening is mobile availability, according to Marc Malloy, vice president of HireRight, Inc., the world’s largest background screening software company.

In the future, “the way background checks are ordered, how they’re studied, and how these reports are made, all of these things are going to be on an entirely different platform,” Maloy said in a presentation on the future of preemployment screening earlier today (June 9, 2011) during the monthly ASIS International Information Asset Protection Council and the Privacy and Personnel Information Management Council meeting.

Background information on potential employees is still received by fax or mail, Malloy said, but the demand for digital will only increase over time as managers of the future seek to lessen the time between hiring employees and having them start work.

He also addressed the topic of screening social media profiles of potential employees. Recent statistics show that with the help of Millennials, social media have replaced e-mail as the leading form of communication online; surprisingly, however, Malloy said the demand for social media searches on potential employees is low.

“We don’t believe social network screening is ready, from a maturity standpoint, for businesses to consider that in background screening, but we know they do it anyway,” he said. “[Employers] that do it are looking for drug, violence, or sexual references, “ he said.

There are legal considerations specific to social media, however.

Social media profiles can provide another look at a potential employee, but rejecting potential applicants or new employees because of content on a social media profile is still a gray area and opens a company up for discrimination lawsuits or other types of laws, such as claims of violations of privacy rights. (For more on this, see “How to Avoid Hiring Mishaps” by Lester S. Rosen, Security Management, May 2009.)

Maloy said he only knows of one company that searches social media sites as part of a preemployment background check.

That company is Social Intelligence. On its Web site, it refers to social media searches as a catch-22 situation. “If employers ‘Google’ job candidates, then employers are vulnerable to discrimination charges and job candidates are vulnerable to discrimination. If employers don’t Google job candidates, then employers are vulnerable to litigation due to negligent hire and job candidates are unrecognized for assets, achievements, and contributions,” they present on their homepage.

Social Intelligence said they protect both the employer and the employee by only searching for employer-defined objectionable material. They also provide a service that tracks the public online activity of existing employees. (Security Management has noted that experts warn against looking at social information placed behind a wall for authorized viewers only.)

Other companies are taking it slow. “We’re not super comfortable with it,” Maloy told those listening in to the conference call. “Once there’s one or two cases that set a precedent, then we’ll build a product.”


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17Jun

4 tips for using Facebook legally to conduct background checks

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Facebook legally to conduct background checks

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As more people create Facebook profiles (500 million and growing), and sign on to the many social media sites available today, hiring managers are finding they have new opportunities to get background information on job candidates.

Tapping into a potential hire’s Facebook profile, or Twitter account, for information means you can learn more about a candidate’s personality than you might get with just a job interview. A Facebook profile, or collection of tweets, can offer additional insight into whether or not a person might be a good fit with a corporation’s culture. On the flip side, a thorough check of one’s social media footprint might also uncover some serious missteps, or questionable judgments, a potential hire has made in their past. Having the benefit of finding this BEFORE a hire has been made may make some organizations feel thankful they’ve dodged the bullet of a potential disastrous addition to the work ranks.

[See also: Checking job candidates’ FB pages can come back to haunt you]

But in between the good and the bad information is plenty of data that is illegal to view if you are making a hiring decision. And even if a hiring manager honestly does not use off-limits material, once they have seen it on Facebook, it can become grounds for a lawsuit.

“It not about the medium,” according to Victoria Mavis, president & senior consultant at Core People Resources, a human-resource-services firm in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.”It’s about what you do with the information you get. Whether I get it off the background information check or off of Facebook, is it information I should have access to in the first place?”

For a little guidance on navigating the new landscape of information out there on potential hires, we spoke with human resource and labor law experts on ways to be smart when using Facebook and other social media to check up on job candidates.

Tip #1: If you’re going to use Facebook to vet job applicants, make it clear, up front, in the hiring process

If you plan to take advantage of social media venues, like Facebook, to conduct background investigations, the most important first step is to have a policy, and make sure candidates are aware of it, said Mavis.

“Let candidates know you are going to do background checks so you can do it properly and get authorization,” she said.

That means disclosing all of the places you may go searching for information about a potential hire, and all of the things you may go looking for.

“Identify ahead of time the five or ten things that, if you saw them on a candidate’s profile, would concern you about them. That might be a reference to use of illegal drugs, or graphics promoting hate,” said Mavis. “Also figure out what might be some positives you would seek, such as a candidate who is active in their community, or involved in a cause, such as cancer research.”

Tip #2: But remember, once you’ve viewed it, it can put you in a legal conundrum

Using Mavis’ previous point about finding out a potential hire is involved in cancer research, brings us to a concern that goes along with discovery this kind of information. As Jon Hyman, a partner in the Labor & Employment Group at Ohio legal firm Kohrman Jackson & Krantz, notes, finding out someone is involved with a cancer-related cause also means you might discover health information you shouldn’t access as a hiring organization.

“There are a lot of EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) issues to consider,” said Hyman. “Say you are doing a Facebook search on a potential employee, and find they have “liked” the Komen Foundation. You read through the page and find this person is a breast cancer survivor. Now the bell has rung that this person has had cancer, and you now have disability-discrimination issues, whether it’s based on the actual disability, or perceived disability. You now also have genetic-information-discrimination possibilities. And that bell can’t be un-rung. And as an employer who has to make a hiring decision, you get put in the unenviable position of having to prove a negative; of having to prove that you didnt use that information as part of the decision.”

Other obvious EEO areas you don’t want to view while looking at Facebook and other social media would include religious affiliations, race status or age.

“You would never ask on a job application what year someone graduated from college, because that could disclose how old someone is,” noted Hyman.”That is not something you want to know when making hiring decision. But if you go on Facebook, you can see what year a person graduated, and you can easily put two and two together and figure out something that is information you would never ask for otherwise.”

Tip #3: Consider a third party to do the research for you

Having an independent researcher, someone not linked to the hiring and recruiting process, look for information and report back to you may be the best way to avoid any impropriety on the part of the hiring organization, said Mavis.

“If I can access your Facebook profile, I can see your sex, your age, your race. All that is privy to me and I can’t realistically say I didn’t have access to it,” she said. “But as a researcher, I could have access to it. I just dont report it on to the hiring managers.”

An independent researcher does not always have to be someone outside the company, said Mavis. Smaller organizations that may not be able to afford to hire a third-party can recruit an employee within the company who has no influence on the hiring decision.

Whoever conducts the background check should work from a list of information the employer has predetermined that they want to find, which can be both positive and negative attributes. The researcher can then print or copy the materials they have found and bring them back to the hiring organization; omitting any information that is illegal to use in a hiring decision. This ensures hiring personnel do not have access to protected information, said Mavis.

Tip #4: Understand what you find may not be reliable or accurate

“Just because someone puts it on a blog or Twitter, doesn’t mean it’s true,” said Hyman.

While information uncovered during a background investigation using Facebook, Twitter, blogs or other online sites, may make a candidate seem like a poor fit, it’s important to follow up and let them know what you have found.

“If you decide not to hire a candidate based on something a researcher has found, present them with that information, explain why it’s a concern,” said Mavis. “There is always a chance it’s incorrect on social media. It could even be the wrong person. But the candidate deserves a chance to explain.”

 

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17Jun

Infographic: Where is America’s Fukushima?

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Each year at the typical U.S. nuclear plant, there’s a 1 in 74,176 chance of an earthquake strong enough to cause damage to the reactor’s core. But an earthquake isn’t the only threat. A trembler coupled with a tsunami like the one that hit Fukushima Daiichi could cause catastrophic damage to nuclear plants.

Since the disaster at fukushima, there’s been a lot of speculating about U.S. nuclear sites at risk for a major earthquake. Here, we take a look at which might fall victim to a tsunami scenario like Japan experienced.

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10Jun

Lack of a Background Check Leads to Embarrassment for College

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5811202869_a71195eb1f_m

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by Syed Faiez Hussain

A former college instructor was recently arrested in Maryland following a fraud investigation of his falsified degrees, military experience and other personal details, according to TBD.com. Bill Hillar had been teaching, leading workshops, giving speeches and conducting training for at least a decade based on his fabricated biography.

Hillar instructed at Middlebury College on drug trafficking, human trafficking and other college summer classes to hundreds of students. An investigation was launched when student veterans who were taking Hillar’s class challenged his credentials as a retired U.S. Army Special Forces colonel and holder of a doctorate, saying he did not exhibit the mannerisms of a high-ranking army officer.

When Middlebury tried to verify his credentials, they found he did not have the Ph.D. he claimed and his military experience was substantially exaggerated. In reality, he’d served for eight years as an enlisted sailor in the Coast Guard, but did not serve in any of the locations or hold the ranks or conduct any of the duties he claimed.

A college official told the FBI she’d hired Hillar based on his resume and website biography and that a background check hadn’t been conducted since Hillar was not a formal employee.

Middlebury’s mistake is a very common one made not only by higher education institutions, but by a wide range of organizations as well – not conducting a background check on contingent workers.

Even organizations that have an extensive background checking program in place often can miss this major security gap and neglect to screen consultants, contractors, partner and vendor employees, and temporary workers. This workforce, however, can represent considerable risks for organizations – as they can serve in highly responsible positions, and have access to personnel, facilities and sensitive data.

It’s a best practice to ensure that the background screening policies cover contingent workers, to avoid both security and business liabilities. By performing a background check including education and employment verification on Hillar, this incident likely would have been prevented.
Organizations should implement the same background screening procedures and requirements for the entire workforce, including contractors, consultants and vendor employees. Background screening requirements should be explicitly laid out in contracts, conducted and enforced through regular audits.

Source: Hire Right


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10Jun

Screening Employees To Avoid Workplace Violence

Categories: Background Check & Due Diligence
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by Syed Faiez Hussain

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of 564 work-related homicides occurred each year in the United States from 2004 to 2008. While maintaining a safe workplace is the primary goal of any workplace safety program, many companies – both small and large – fail to engage in a comprehensive background-screening program for employees and contractors. Why is background screening so important in screening out potential work-related violence? And why should current employees and contractors be screened annually?

Workplace violence prevention can include many strategies and tactics. Developing and implementing a workplace violence prevention plan is essential. Ongoing reviews, training and drills are needed to ensure that the plan lives, and is effective. Procedures and hotlines can be established for employees who need assistance, or for those who recognize the warning signs of workplace violence from a co-worker.

Many organizations also institute highly effective awareness campaigns that include workplace speakers and seminars. Workplace violence also is taken into consideration when developing security policies and access control methods.

The Eye of the Storm

While all of these steps are highly recommended, another critical strategy is to review what is at the center of every workplace violence situation: employees. Whether the assailant or the victim, an employee is involved in every instance of workplace violence. Companies that care about the environment in which people are working must strive to ensure that everyone who interacts with the work force has a violence-free history. The best prognosticator of future violence is a review of the past.

People who have histories of domestic abuse, assault and battery, or drug and alcohol abuse, often demonstrate anger management and personal control problems, which may be red flags for employers.

Background checks can identify applicants and employees who have demonstrated unacceptable workplace behavior. The background check can include county criminal record and national criminal file searches, drug testing, prior employment and education verification, license verifications and other investigations that can reveal potential warning signs.

When people know that a company stands behind comprehensive background screening, they know that the company cares about their welfare. Applicants who have dubious backgrounds that include reckless acts may self-select out of the interviewing process. Applicants and existing employees with clean backgrounds typically are not bothered by the screening process as they appreciate the organization’s commitment to a safe workplace.

Know Whom is on Your Premises

To fully secure a facility, employers must know exactly who is on the premises. Whether you are a property manager, HR representative or business leader, it is important to understand that a secure workplace means screening not just employees, but also contractors, vendors and temporary staff. These individuals can run the gamut from regular faces your employees know well, to the contractor who visits only once.

Regardless of your level of familiarity with these vendors or temporary employees, the need for thorough background screening is the same. To promote a greater level of safety and security for employees and customers, it is vital to conduct regular screening of the extended work force that may include service and repair professionals, construction workers, food service workers – virtually any non-employee that is interacting with your personnel and customers.

I worked in the staffing business for over a decade, and found that companies always are looking for speed in the hiring and on-boarding process. Comprehensive background screening can take up to a week to complete, which can exasperate some hiring managers. However, a company that fails to rigorously screen applicants or repeat screening for current employees and contractors may face much larger issues than a few days delay in on-boarding a new hire. Workplace violence, employee theft, fraud and a host of other issues can arise when hiring an employee who has not been properly screened. This may make an organization vulnerable to employee injury or death, unsafe working conditions, brand and reputation damage and lawsuits for negligent hiring.

Additionally, it is critical to re-screen employees – and contractors – each year. Employees who keep their personal lives private may be involved in activities that negatively could impact your workplace. For example, an employee who joined the company with a clean record 5 years ago may have been involved in domestic disputes over the past few years. This new information is crucial for an employer as domestic disputes sometimes travel into the workplace. The same applies for contractors.

Violence-Free Culture

Requiring employees and contractors to complete initial and annual background screening is a common practice. When communicated properly, and presented as part of your comprehensive effort to maintain a violence-free workplace, everyone involved will better understand the need. Employees will appreciate your dedication to creating a corporate culture and daily working environment that is focused on safety and security.

Background screening also can become the marker for when employees and contractors should be reminded of other elements of your workplace violence prevention efforts. Information to promote awareness and reminders to participate in company-sponsored training can be distributed when background checks are initiated.

There are many stressors in the workplace today. Employees and contractors are juggling large workloads, demanding deadlines and a rocky economy. People want to know that the colleagues they pass in the hall, the contractor who fixes their copier and the cleaning crew who tidies up the workspace have been vetted by their employer as best as is legally possible. Background screening may not weed out every potential workplace violence situation, but it is the gold standard of what companies can and must do.

Source: EHS Today

 

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