Dear Readers,

Volumatrix Group brings to you the latest issue of Giving Life, an effort to get your life out of boredom and fill it with colors of life. We also congratulate all “Just Married” couples who tied the knot, as the marriage season also prevails.

People will remain busy all this month in meaty issues but the fact of maintaining their personal health nd that of children and not letting go the parenting guidelines remain obvious. And this is the factor this issue caters for you, your very obvious need of proper guidance in pregnancy and parenting related matters. The issue deals with matters ranging from mother-infants health to the cure of certain common diseases in women, from learning the basics of parenting to the developing a romantic relationship among couples, this edition talks of all the things you want to discuss but hesitate.

Giving Life Magazine is shaping into a fire starter, a guru which initiates much needed discussions and sheds light on those important factors which we overlook due to our negligence. We not only generate a discussion but also see it through the end by the help of your valuable opinion and feedback. For this we have fabricated an active portal www.givinglifeonline.com where we facilitate your problems as you can take advice from our panel of experts.

The Giving Live Magazine offers its gratitude and warm wishes for Eid, a delicious and meaty occasion flavored with our recipes from YourMart kitchen. Eat healthy, live flourishing, stay prosperous.

Dear Readers,

Volumatrix Group presents latest edition of Giving Life Monthly magazine for your free reading.

It’s the best time of the year, arrival of Blessed month of Ramzan Ul Kareen and Independence Day! We wish you all!

Yes, it’s that time of year again when we remember the flag, our forefather who laid their lives for our motherland, our patriotic and religious fervor and cherish the last few holidays in the rain. Where the feelings for our country and forefathers and our flag is almost the same, gratitude and respect. This is the month when we openly show love, courage and respect for that which is important, our Pakistan and share our blessings with our brothers and asking God for His mercy and blessings in Ramzan.

Many new features have been added to it and “we have given it a new life”. .  Like the new season, it is fresh and full of zest. It has a lot to offer now with celebrity interviews, health articles and fashion pages. Every article unfolds a lot of information about changing lifestyles and health matters. It has something or the other to read and see for all.

We are pleased to bring all of this information to you and delighted that you have chosen to stay and read us and thrilled that you have told your friends and colleagues about us.
So, relax, enjoy yourselves and dive into this issue. I’m certain it will be as refreshing as your first-of-the season summertime dip into the pool.

Happy reading ,Happy Independence day and Ramzan Greetings!

Volumatirx Group presents the latest edition of Giving Life Magazine. This latest episode has a lot to offer. The most critical and important duration of pregnancy is the last trimester, this issue deals with the precautions and preparations during this period for the expected-baby.

Usually the content of the magazine like ours is somewhat draggy and there are reasons for that, but in this issue, and from now on, you will find entertaining-stuff. In fact we are beginning with two surprises. Hasan Soomro and Nazli Nasr both affiliated with electronic media and are well-known names in the Pakistani Drama.

On a slightly different scale, we also spoke to Najia Ashar, a famous and well-known face of broadcast media. She walked us through her personal life, and shares the problems of working woman.

The exclusive verbalization of Maria & Faisal in this issue would be insightful for new couples, as they reveal how the working couple should cope with each other and share responsibilities. This mutual cooperation makes life easygoing and relations flourish.

The mercury descends this month, and weather all-around country changes; this is the best time for touring and traveling. Keeping the climate in mind we cover the chilly-valley Kaghan.

In the end, you will all glad to read this. Now you can write to us. We are also initiating “Letters to the Editor” section. Now you can write to us with your suggestions, proposals, advices and critiques.

Trust me your critics are as much necessary for us as your extolments. It will help us rectifying our mistakes and keep us on the right path.

It’s June, days are lazy and hazy, this time of year is hot and houses must be sizzling and searing so does the news we have, keep scrolling your eyeballs down and you’ll know. This is the latest reading of Giving Life with this newest edition we’ve come to a decision to turn the magazine into a monthly-periodical instead of publishing it bimonthly. But change is not at the publication side only you will see it all over-and-inside the folios of the mag.

The latest issue presents a wide-range of topics including pregnancy related intricacies, soon-to-be-mom woes, child-care, precautions for preggers and many more. This month edition features include a detailed review of some of the places where you can go during the summer vacations. The article surveys around beaches, parks and fun-places suitable for you and your child.

Our cover story for this month is about “adopting a child” we’ve touch upon a very sensitive issue. Not a part of the family but trying to be is difficult strive on both ends- adopter and adoptee.  Other topics of interest are how to tag your tots; and how to guestimate the gender of your unborn bub? We are hopeful that you will find the magazine informative, entertaining and helpful.

Please keep posting us with your suggestions, and if you don’t find it up to your mark, we will be waiting for your proposal ever than before.

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

Email, you’ve come a long way, baby.

In its 40-year tenure as a form of communication, email has run its course from the domain of über nerdy computer scientists to one of the most common ways to keep in touch, both personally and professionally.

Although email as a mode of communication was around for ten years before the term “email” was actually coined, we now count on it in our daily lives. In fact, the use of email has become so pervasive that the Oxford English Dictionary recently added a slew of email acronyms to its official canon.

And finally, just this year, the AP Stylebook, a.k.a. the holy book of all (or most) journalists, amended the spelling of e-mail to email, allowing articles such as this one to save bigtime on hyphens.

To give you a timeline of email’s progress through the decades, here’s a commemorative 40th anniversary infographic from email delivery company Reachmail.

Click image to see larger version.

Source

by Syed Faiez Hussain

There is such a lot of talk around about social media background checks, where employers check your profile out on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like. But how many do, and how seriously do they take the information they can access, and more to the point, what are they actually looking for?

We were curious so we asked a few questions of a number of employers we interviewed. Here’s what they said:

Employer 1

Q: Do you check people out on social media and what do you think when you do?

A: “This is the big mistake of the younger generation. Everything is fair game and they need to learn that if I saw behavior that I felt didn’t fit with the team, or I discovered things about them that reflected negatively on their employer, or there is a pattern of behaviour that’s likely to lead to work performance issues, then they won’t be getting the job. People should assume that I am checking them out.”

Employer 2

Q: As part of your hiring procedure, do you routinely check people out on MySpace or Facebook?

A: No we don’t check

Q What if you became aware of something that was compromising an employee on a public forum?

A: “If it was a public facing position then we would have to talk to them about it because undoubtedly it could be seen publicly. To a degree what people get up to in their own time is up to them, but when that private persona interferes with that corporate requirement then there has to be an intervention, especially if they are representing the company as part of that corporate persona. Fundamentally I don’t really care. Can they do their job? Are they able to do their job? Will they do the job? Are they in a compromising position? If they are not part of the public face (or they are not seen as representing) the company, then I don’t have a problem with it.”

Q: Do you check people out on social media and what do you think when you do?

Employer 3

A: “I wouldn’t want an employee’s personal life to be reflecting on the business, especially because we are a public company. For me it’s about having the right appearance….We check potential employees on Facebook etc. It’s really important people be aware of this because the internet is so powerful.”

Employer 4

A: “We don’t do those sorts of checks. If something came to my attention of course we would look at it. Then I think you would be bound to take those things into consideration, generally however I think these are a social tool, not a business tool.”

Employer 5

A: “No I have never thought of it, I will normally, depending how long they have been in their previous employment, ring up three of their previous employers.”

Employer 6

Q: What would you do if you found something negative about an employee on social media?

A: “I would put it on the table in front of them and ask them about it. You would at least give this person the opportunity to explain. We haven’t been checking these forums as a matter of course, but we are doing in more often, particularly with contractors or recruitment consultants.”

So what’s the point I am trying to make here? Yes you will be checked out.

Always assume that anyone checking you out is making a subjective judgment– what some people thinks fits with the team, others may think is bad form.

Always assume that whoever is checking as part of a reference check will only have a partial picture of what you’ve been up to, good or bad. They will never know the context until they meet you, and depending what it is, they may not even be able to question you about what they saw to raise their eye-brows.

While by law employers are not able to discriminate, how would you know if you missed out on a job based on something they personally didn’t like?

You could liken this stuff to simple reference checking, but it is reference checking on steroids, given that employers can gather a lot more personal information than they’d ever be able to ask a referee.

On Thomas Shaw’s blog recently, he posted information about an application that will allow you to click to allow employers and recruiters access to your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles. You could soon find them soon on careers sites.

One click is all simple and convenient, but when friends can do things like post unflattering photos of you on the wild night of your high school break up, would you really want your Facebook profile to be your resume?

Source: Interview IQ

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.

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

by Yale Environment 360

A European high-speed rail network has begun generating electricity from 16,000 solar panels installed atop a two-mile rail tunnel on the line running from Paris to Amsterdam.

The panels, built by the Belgian renewable energy company Enfinity, will provide about 50 percent of the power needed for a nearby station in Antwerp and will also produce electricity equivalent to that needed to power all the trains in Belgium for one day per year.

The tunnel was originally built to protect the high-speed rail line from trees falling from an adjacent old-growth forest.

“For train operators, it is the perfect way to cut their carbon footprints because you can use spaces that have no other economic value and the projects can be delivered within a year because they don’t attract the protests that wind power does,” Bart Van Renterghem of Enfinity told the Guardian.

by Smartcool

I grew up around small businesses. My mom successfully started, ran, and sold a number of different small businesses throughout my youth, and I have to commend her for doing it all while also managing to be a pretty excellent parent! High-five, mom! But, while she was (and still is) a fantastic entrepreneur, I do remember how stressful it was and the toll it took on her, emotionally and physically. Small business owners (SBOs) have a lot on their plates. They often wear the jaunty hats of owner, operator, manager, employee, assistant, janitor, bookkeeper, and that’s just the beginning. With those responsibilities weighing heavily and the economy dragging along slowly, the pressure must feel overwhelming at times.

Many things are on the ‘Stress List’ for SBOs– everything from the cost of health insurance to taxes to finding qualified and trustworthy employees to overhead costs, and so on. I would imagine that having one less thing to think/worry/stress about would be a welcome respite for SBOs (as well as, uh, the rest of the world) and one way to achieve that precious respite could be through the implementation of an energy efficiency plan.

Why’s that, you ask?

Well, according to Business News Daily, rising energy costs were listed as one of the biggest challenges for small businesses, along with rising fuel and raw material costs. Implementing a proven energy efficiency plan (that results in saving money on the electricity bill every month) would certainly qualify as a little bit of respite. Especially considering all the ‘good’ news we read about every day. Am I right?

Here’s a good example for you. The ABC 7 news team in Sarasota, Florida, recently ran a story about a small business and how it managed to significantly cut its electricity costs. Bob Richards is the owner of Crusty’s Pizza and, presumably due to the rising energy rates in Sarasota, he decided to install Smartcool’s ECO3 in his two walk-in coolers and the restaurant’s air conditioning unit. His decision to implement an energy efficiency plan resulted in impressive financial savings and those savings will have paid off his initial investment in the ECO3s in about one year. From that moment on, the savings he’s achieving on his electricity bill will go right into his pocket.

But, how much did he save, you ask? On his walk in coolers alone, he achieved savings of 30%! He seems pretty pleased with the energy efficiency plan he implemented – you can see him interviewed right here.

Everyone loves a happy ending and small business owners certainly deserve one! And also, way to go, Florida! We’ve previously noted that Florida’s energy use per capital is one of the highest in the USA. Bob Richard’s energy efficiency plan is a great example of how Floridians are taking steps to become more energy efficient! Keep it up! You get a high-five right after my mom!

Wind Farms and Energy Generation

Low Energy Bills = Happy Homeowners

Most of us think of wind turbines in terms of wind farms that cover hundreds of square miles and consist of hundreds of individual wind turbines. The largest wind farms have the capacity to generate hundreds of Megawatts of electricity and the size of these wind farms range from a few wind turbines to several hundred. But wind turbines are moving toward a more affordable model so that individual homeowners can now take advantage of this alternative energy source.

Large wind farms

Texas holds the distinction of being home to the two largest wind farms in the word (as of November 2010). And the capital of the great state of Texas is Austin – the greenest city in the entire world – which is home to Green Host It, a green web hosting provider that offers carbon neutral web hosting powered by wind energy.

Home wind energy

In our previous blog entry, we wrote about home solar energy systems. So, welcome to another of our blog entries in our series of “how-to” articles on topics related to lowering energy bills. We’ll keep it simple, eliminate the techno-babble and provide, not only the tools, but the know-how to achieve the goal of lower energy bills. Your success is our success.

Take control of your electricity bills

Take control of your own electricity production with home wind turbines. Pretty simple, at least in theory. By installing a home wind energy system, homeowners are able to lower energy bills. But how expensive are these home wind turbine systems and how difficult are they to install on your home?

Sticker shock

Most alternative energy sources are modeled at a payout rate of around seven years. That means that whether you choose wind power or solar power; the system is designed to produce about enough energy to pay for itself in seven years. The sticker shock comes in because many people have not calculated just how much energy they use. If we as homeowners look at the monthly payments that we are making to the energy company, the monumental consumption of power that takes place in every home is extreme and by looking at our energy cost as a whole, rather than monthly payments — the cost of an alternative energy system does not seem as extreme. When homeowners look at an alterative energy system in this light, it does not seem as expensive as traditional energy from the electrical grid.

Tax credits

Under the Energy Improvement and Extension Act along with The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, homeowners are allowed to take 30% of the cost of any wind or solar home power system as a tax credit. Prior to 2009, this credit had an upper limit. Currently, however, the credit has no upper limit. This means that if you install a $30,000 wind power system you are eligible for a $10,000 tax credit. That is above and beyond the savings the system itself will yield in terms of power generation, and it cuts significantly into the initial investment required to start utilizing renewable energy. The key to long-term energy savings is choosing the correct home-energy investment and staying in your home long enough to benefit from the investment.

Where to start

Where to start? Well, if you don’t know anything about wind energy, researching the web is the place to start. How does it work? How do you connect to it? How do you install and pay for it, for instance? A Salt Lake City company, Homewind.net, has been providing information and services to the public since 1998. They have extensive knowledge of the alternative energy industry and offer home wind turbines to help lower the cost of home energy. Their web site provides information for both residential and commercial applications and it offers a long list of home wind energy products.

Wind turbine – a short history

The mechanical basis for the turbine has been in existence for centuries, since the invention of the mill. Early men sought to find more effective ways to run their mills which led to earlier versions of the wind turbine that we know of today. The modern home wind turbine replaces the mill apparatus with a simple generator which produces electricity that can be used to power a house, boat or provide electricity to a remote location.

Installation locations

Rooftop turbines are meant to be portable, and easy to install on top of your house, garage, or atop a commercial building such as a small business. From there, they provide energy for the residents inside. Sometimes these can power the entire household, but more likely they are used in tandem with the traditional power grid to reduce use and costs.

In remote locations, the energy gathered from rooftop wind turbines can be stored in a battery for later use. Typically, however, on days the wind blows especially hard, this excess energy that is not immediately needed can be sold back to the utility company. In this way, especially if you limit your energy use, rooftop wind turbines can gradually become profitable.

Energy savings

Over the long run, home wind systems can lead to considerable energy savings which can justify investing in a residential wind turbine system, even if such a purchase can be costly up-front. One turbine should be enough to power a house if it is located in a very windy area.

Is it practical to use this energy source to power a home?

The answer is definitely a big yes. However it is important to make sure you have the right system. Which system you need will depend on where you live and how much energy you need. For instance, if you live in a very windy area you might be able to produce more electricity than you need and even sell some back into the grid, which is a nice alternative to paying for energy.

Green homes

Home wind energy systems can benefit your home and family because the quality of your life can be improved with lower energy bills, providing a better life today and in the future. Highly efficient wind turbines are no longer available for large corporations only and individual homeowners can take advantage of this renewable energy source.

If you choose an alternative energy source for your home, good for you. Sit back and relax with the thought that you are not only reducing your carbon footprint, but you are also saving on your monthly electricity bill. Then, wait for the energy savings to start building up in terms of money in your bank account. It can – if you do it right.

Green Web Hosting

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

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

by Lauren Indvik

Global Internet traffic is expected to quadruple between 2010 and 2015, according to data provided to Mashable by Cisco.

By that time, nearly 3 billion people will be using the Internet — more than 40% of the world’s projected population. On average, there will be more than two Internet connections for each person on Earth, driven by the proliferation of web-enabled mobile devices.

Internet traffic is projected to approach 1 zettabyte per year in 2015 — that’s equivalent of all the digital data in existence in 2010. Regionally speaking, traffic is expected to more than double in the Middle East and Africa, where there will be an average of 0.9 devices per person for a projected population of 1.39 billion. Latin America is close behind, with a 48% increase in traffic and an estimated 2.1 devices per person among a population of 620 million.

The rest of the world will experience more moderate growth in terms of traffic, but the number of devices per person is forecast to increase significantly. By 2015, there will be an average of 5.8 devices per person in North America, 5.4 in Japan and 4.4 in western Europe.

Somewhat surprisingly, it is neither mobile phones nor tablets that are expected to grow the most in the next four years. Rather, flat panel televisions will experience the greatest production increase globally, up 1,063% from 2010, followed by tablets (750%), digital photo frames (600%) and ereaders (550%). The number of non-smartphones and smartphones is expected to increase by 17% and 194% worldwide, respectively.

by Jolie O’Dell

We know Facebook gets brought up in a lot of divorce cases, but this is ridiculous.

A 29-year-old woman going through a difficult divorce created a fake profile in an attempt to get some dirt on her soon-to-be-ex-husband.

Posing as a 17-year-old girl named Jessica Studebaker, Angela Voelkert contacted her husband, David, 38, on Facebook. The friendship that developed between the husband and the fake profile turned out to be a lot more incriminating than Angela could have imagined at the outset… or so she thought.

In messages with “Jessica,” David predictably asked the girl to run away with him; he also admitted that he had installed a GPS tracking system on his wife’s vehicle — both of which are enough for criminal charges in themselves.

The husband then proceeded to tell “Jessica,” a.k.a. Angela Voelkert, that he wanted his wife out of the picture — and by “out of the picture,” we mean “deceased.”

However, David has been able to prove to prosecutors he knew the fake account was his wife all along. Although he fed his ex quite a line in the messages, the charges have been dropped.

This is the fake profile the wife used to catch her husband supposedly plotting her murder.

Here are some excerpts of the messages from court documents:

“Once she is gone, I don’t have to hide with my kids… I can do what I want and not have to worry about not seeing my family anymore. You should find someone at your school. There should be some gang-bangers there that would put a cap in her ass for $10,000. I am done with her crap!

… See, I am taking care of everything! I will finally be free, my kids can grow up and not be around all the hatred, it will be over. With me gone with my kids, the police can’t pin anything on me as I will be in another state, so I will be fine.

Will you be ready to go with me on the 10th? Let me know, baby!”

There are so many takeaways from this news item. Don’t feed the trolls, especially if the troll in question is your ex. Don’t start drama on Facebook. Don’t get police and criminal courts involved in your petty personal issues.

But if you learn nothing else from this news, please put this piece of advice in your back pocket: If you’re going through a divorce, don’t use Facebook. At all. Ever. Period.