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In episode 125 of “The JoyPowered® Workspace Podcast,” JoDee and Susan discuss background screens with Brad Odil, President and COO of RSI.

JoDee and Susan are big advocates of running background screens. That’s not because you shouldn’t hire someone based on their record – it’s about disclosing it and being honest. They share their experiences with candidates whose resumes said they had degrees that they didn’t really have; the degree wasn’t necessary for the position, but their misleading resumes hurt their integrity.

Brad Odil joins the show to share his knowledge as a background screen provider. He shares some reasons that companies run background checks, including the safety of their employees and customers, improving the quality of their hiring, and protecting the company’s reputation.

Many people think that background screeners are just checking one big database, but in reality they’re checking many different databases and aggregating data for their clients. If you’re only checking one record, you may miss some things. Background screeners even have to physically walk into courthouses in many cases, because not all of them upload the data to a database.

Brad’s been seeing a few trends in background checks lately. Continuous monitoring has become big; this involves checking on an ongoing basis for any changes to someone’s criminal activity. Social media is also huge these days, and some background screeners can look at candidates’ and employees’ recent social media activity for “business related activity” that an employer might want to know about. It helps to have a third party looking at this for you, because it prevents companies from finding and using information they shouldn’t.

When you’re looking for a background screening company, you should look at several criteria. First, you should know about the quality of their customer service and their reporting standards. Make sure they’re getting the best data they can get their hands on; many times, inexpensive checks don’t have very good data, because the data itself is expensive. Look for companies that are accredited with the Professional Background Screening Association, because they’re doing things at the highest standards of the industry.

In this episode’s listener mail, our listener wonders how to handle people who disagree with their termination. In the news, at least 2 million people in the US reported being victimized by workplace violence. JoDee and Susan share a SHRM article’s suggestions for preventing workplace violence.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Purple Ink
• Susan Tinder White Consulting
• Thriving in a Global Pandemic and Beyond
• Reference Services, Inc. (RSI)
• “How Human Resource Professionals View the Use and Effectiveness of Background Screening Methods”
• Professional Background Screening Association
• Email Brad
• The JoyPowered® Organization
• “Workplace Violence May Jump During Return to Work”

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