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Top Background
Screening Firms Identified
Workforce Magazine features top background screening firms. The
top firms include Kroll, Choicepoint, First Advantage, USIS, Acxiom
Information Security Services and Accurate Background. Rankings
are based on revenue from background screening services, number
of employee background screenings performed and the number of corporate
clients using background screening services. The data is based on
the most recent for quarters. For details and ratings see the November
edition of Workforce magazine.
Please note that in the
original November edition of The Background Buzz the first story
listed under ‘IN THE NEWS’ was a listing of top background
screening firms taken from Workforce Magazine and it was incorrectly
reported as being from HR Magazine.
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Consumer Revolt Over Lost Information
Two new surveys find customers are actively punishing companies
that lose their confidential and private information. Conducted
by the Ponemon Institute and distributed by PGP Corp., the
surveys found that almost 20 percent of customers immediately
terminated their accounts with vendors that lost their information,
and an additional 40 percent considered termination. Companies
participating in a parallel study estimated incurring an
average cost of $14 million per breach incident, with costs
ranging as high as $50 million. Reports are available from
PGP Corp. at www.pgp.com/ponemon.
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Poor hires can sink a company
In a recent case a job candidate an employer was particularly
enamored with didn’t actually possess the university
degree he claimed. The employer had received a copy of the
diploma and was certain the report from the background checker
was flawed. But the university was able to confirm the job
applicant had actually cut and pasted the diploma together
(which is in itself a bit laughable because applicants lying
about their education normally do so by purchasing the master’s
degrees of their choice online. These lies are no laughing
matter when it comes to a company’s bottom line. Estimates
have put the cost of turnover as high as two or three times
an employee’s annual salary. Click
here for more information
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902 East 5th Street Suite 101
Austin Texas, 78701
(v) 888.690.9297
(f) 512.485.3111
sales@deverus.com
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What
if you could give HR exactly what they really want? What
if you had the cutting edge solutions to the most pressing
issues, the best technology and expert team to make it happen?
deverus
is the leader in technology solutions for the background
check industry. From the most powerful industry software
applications and data exchange solutions to process consulting
and tools that connect disparate background data sources,
we enable background check companies to deliver more of
what HR wants, quickly and profitably.
Call us today to find out how we can help 888.690.9297
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Background
Checks Widening
When Jesse
Bonfeld launched a shuttle service 2 1/2 years ago, he didn't
hesitate about setting a policy to run criminal and motor vehicle
checks on all prospective drivers. "We're entrusting them
with a fairly expensive piece of equipment as well as with the
safety of many people," said Bonfeld, who with his wife,
Linda, operates Timberline VIP Luxury Shuttle between Springerville
and Phoenix. "You need people you can trust and rely on.
"Bonfeld, who employs three drivers, is far from alone. Even
small companies like his are turning to criminal, credit, motor
vehicle and Social Security checks to make sure the people they
hire don't create unnecessary liability risks.Ninety-six percent
of businesses surveyed last year report they conduct reference
and background checks on job applicants, according to the Society
for Human Resource Management. A separate report on workplace
violence showed 66 percent of employers were doing similar checks
in 1996. Click
here for more information
R2(Risk
Reduction)Technology is an Automated Application Created to Reduce
Discriminatory Lawsuits & Streamline Workflows.
Accurate Background,
Inc., a leading provider of global employment screening services,
announced today its patent pending risk mitigation decision-making
application called R2 Technology. R2 Technology aids corporate
users with consistent hiring practices in addition to helping
meet Federal and State compliance regulations. Looking to apply
logic to screening reports, Accurate Background sought to design
a rules-engine application which reduces a company’s liability,
as well as the workload for the human resources and recruitment
sectors by streamlining the review process of a candidate’s
background report. Companies with multiple locations benefit from
R2 Technology – as it was created to eliminate any human
error and personal bias across the board. R2 Technology meets
FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) requirements, thus protecting
the rights of candidates as well as clients. http://www.hrotoday.com/News.asp?id=967
Now
that the Conference is over . . . What should I do now?
Do you have
a conscious well thought out plan for how to reenter your workplace
after a professional conference and still take advantage of all
the great ideas, contacts and leads you got? Let’s face
it, one big challenge with the aftermath of conferences is that
they lead to more work and the stark reality is that the week
after a conference is brutal. So here are some hot tips for a
successful re-entry into the work week: Click
here for more information
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9710
Northcross Center Court
Huntersville, NC 28078
Toll free: 877-439-3900
Direct: 704-439-3900
info@rapidcourt.com
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Instant
Access to Online Criminal Records
RapidCourt is the leading provider of instant
AOC criminal records for North Carolina, Virginia, Connecticut
and Oregon.
RapidCourt
combines instant online access with innovative search features
that can help you compile the most comprehensive criminal
data available.
RapidCourt's
National Sex Offender Search now offers the most
comprehensive list of known sex offenders available. For
more information, Call Today.
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Integrated
Screening Partners Announces “Guaranteed Four-Day Turnaround
or Free” Program
Integrated
Screening Partners announces an unprecedented four-day guaranteed
turnaround on their pre-employment screening and background checks.
Integrated Screening Partners (ISP) is a ten-year veteran in the
pre-employment screening industry with high profile clients including
Dell, Samsung and AMD. Integrated Screening Partners is known
for creating strategic partnerships with their clients. These
partnerships encourage dialogue that enables ISP to create customized
business solutions designed to maximize their clients’ desired
results.
HireRight
Expands Background Screening Services to More Than 200 Countries
and Territories
Driven by
the increasing globalization of the U.S. workforce and security
demands, HireRight solidifies its leadership in global background
screening services by now offering verifications in more than
200 countries and territories worldwide. HireRight, the leader
in on-demand employment background screening services, conducts
employment, education and criminal records checks globally for
U.S. and local-market job applicants who have lived, worked or
been educated outside of the country. While other background screening
firms in most cases approach global screening on a regional-only
basis, HireRight truly takes a global approach to background screening,
providing the capability to verify nearly all backgrounds - no
matter what country or countries in which a person may have worked
or been educated.
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InsightAmerica,
an Acxiom Company, is a trusted data services provider to
the background screening industry. InsightAmerica delivers
value, service and integrity in our services:
- e-DriverData:
Driver histories from 42 states starting at $0.95.
- USA
Criminal Index, Sex Offender and Watch Lists: Multi-state
criminal scan.
- Address
Trace: Most up-to-date address history to begin your background
check.
- InsightID:
Identity verification for pre-screening and fraud prevention
- Phone:
Updated business phone numbers. Call us at 888.259.6173
today. www.insightamerica.com
Call
us at 888.259.6173 today. www.insightamerica.com |
Hospitals
Face New Standards for Verification of Professional Licenses
Effective
January 1, 2006, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations (JCAHO) will require that hospitals and covered
health care entities conduct verifications on all licensed, registered
or certified staff. The rule applies to both employees and contract
staff, and also applies to the process of tracking license renewals
as well. The new standard is contained in HR.1.20. For hospitals
and covered health care organizations, there is a logistical challenge
in obtaining, tracking, updating and maintaining an audit trail
for all employees who are required to be licensed, registered
or certified. Licenses are typically checked when an employee
is first hired, but covered entities must now verify the information
from the primary source, track expiration and manage the process
of updating records from the primary source in order to be in
compliance.
Legislation
urges national criminal background checks
The state
should require national criminal background checks for anyone
who works with people served by the Department of Mental Retardation,
handicapped advocates told lawmakers Tuesday. (Nov. 1) Testifying
in support of legislation (H 2858) that would expand its record-checking
from the state's CORI system to a cross-referencing of fingerprints
with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS),
they said mentally retarded people need added protection from
workers who may have committed crimes in other states. Inspections
would cost about $25 each, supporters of the bill said. "This
bill would remedy a significant hole in the safety net deployed
to protect people served by DMR," said John Thomas, deputy
director of The Arc of Massachusetts, an advocacy group, insisting
that the bill does not amount to CORI reform.
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Hiring the Wrong Candidates Costs the Country Billions
In a
global research study – conducted jointly by SHL and
the Future Foundation – it was found that the hidden
cost of selecting the wrong candidate for a position equals
an annual sum of US$23 billion in the UK and US$105 billion
in the United States. Translating these findings to a South
African context, the cost of managing poor performance is
estimated to be R29 billion or 2.26% of GDP. The research
illustrates that although the initial cost of selecting
a candidate is not very high, it is the cost of failure
– or the cost of selecting an incompetent candidate
– that is extremely high. Simply focussing on the
costs of initially placing a candidate ignores the larger
“hidden” costs associated with placing the wrong
candidate into a role. http://www.biz-community.com/
Article/196/22/8473.html
Fraudulent
workers' comp
Fraudulent
workers' comp claims cost employers millions every year.
And while fraudulent claims can often be hard to prove,
there are some red flags it can pay to look out for. Possible
indicators of employee fraud include: Click
here for more information
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No Irrational Exuberance Here
Executives
are still optimistic about the job market, but the optimism
was somewhat tempered during the third quarter. A recent
survey of executives in the $100,000 and up job market found
confidence down slightly from the previous period. In June,
executives were asked, “Is now a better time to be
in the job market than this time last year?” and 68
percent said yes. Asked the same question in September,
positive responses slipped to 62 percent. The time that
candidates expect to spend on their job searches—from
as little as one month to as much as a year—remained
virtually unchanged in the third quarter survey. Also unchanged
was the expectation that job seekers will need to put plenty
of effort into their search. Only 16 percent thought it
would require less than 20 applications to land a new job;
34 percent expected to send out more than 100 applications
before getting a job offer.
Marc
Cenedella, President and CEO, TheLadders.com, an online
executive search service, says “while job seeking
dipped in the spring and early summer months several factors
point to a large hiring push happening in the fourth quarter.
We have also heard from scores of recruiters that August
and September have far surpassed their placement expectations.
Companies are aggressively looking to hire top talent, he
says.
Source:
HR Magazine, November 2005
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How
to Implement a Successful Drug Testing Program
Although drug
testing can create a number of highly sensitive issues in the
workplace, the benefits that come from ensuring that no employee
is abusing drugs are often worth the difficulties, especially
in high-risk sectors such as the construction industry, in which
drug abuse can lead to injuries, deaths, and major liabilities.
Most workplaces will be able to set up programs that comply with
legal requirements, and the federal Drug Free Workplace Act provides
support for businesses that want to crack down on illegal drug
use. Although establishing a testing program can open a company
up to liabilities regarding fairness and privacy violations, the
potential liability from other employees or customers who may
be injured or suffer losses due to the actions of an employee
under the influence of drugs is much greater. Click
here for more information
Monster
Local Employment Index for October Shows Higher Online Job Demand
Monster Local
Employment Index for October Shows Higher Online Job Demand in
24 of Top 28 US Metro Markets; Demand for Sales Positions Surges
in 26 of 28 Markets, as Retailers Staff Up for Holiday Shopping
Season:
- Dallas
and Houston Show First Signs of Increased Online Recruitment
Activity Since May, as Hurricane-related Reconstruction Efforts
Ramp Up,
- Minneapolis
and Seattle Extend Five-month Upward Growth Trend,
- Phoenix
Remains Fastest Growing Market in Overall Online Opportunities,Online
job recruitment activity and related employment opportunities
increased in 24 of the top 28 U.S. metropolitan areas in October.
www.monster.com
| EXTRAORDINARY
OPPORTUNITY TO ADVERTISE IN PRIME LOCATION – MAXIMIZE
YOUR VISIBILITY: |
 |
We
are making the prime location on the landing page of the
Preemployment Screening Directory available to a limited
number of companies to promote their business (exclusively
available to Platinum members). We will feature your logo
with a live link that goes directly to your web site. |
Tips
for Protecting Sensitive Data From Malicious Employees During
the Holiday Season
Dr. Doug Jacobson,
founder and chief technology officer of Palisade Systems, recently
announced the following top ten tips for businesses to protect
customers' sensitive data from malicious employees. According
to analyst firm Gartner Group, over 70 percent of unauthorized
access to data is committed by employees, and a 2004 CSI/FBI survey
found that internal threats comprise half of security incidents
and account for the largest overall losses. Furthermore, less
than 5 percent of businesses currently deploy technology specifically
designed to identify and eliminate the unauthorized sending of
private content outside their network. Click
here for more information
What
It Takes To Secure Your Data
Before the
digitalization of data, encryption was enough to protect vital,
private data from prying eyes and malicious intent. However, as
the recent rash of media coverage over the potential exposure
of personal consumer data like Social Security numbers and credit
card information demonstrated, storage security that depends only
on encryption is far too risky. To meet stringent compliance standards
describing how long data must be kept and protected, companies
must wage war against tampering and theft with a multilayered
approach that starts with encryption and ends with the integration
of digital signatures, digital certificates and hierarchical key
management. Click
here for more information
Safeguarding
HR Information
It’s
an impressive list: Time Warner, Eastman Kodak, Motorola, MCI.
All industry leaders with significant resources and large numbers
of employees. And this past year, all of them had to tell current
or former employees that their sensitive personal information
had been compromised. Some had computers stolen while others lost
backup tapes, but the result was the same: Workers were potentially
exposed to identity theft.
It’s
a danger that is not limited to this short list of top employers.
There have been numerous high-profile cases where hundreds of
thousands of employee, consumer and student records were lost
by, or stolen from, various financial institutions, data brokers
and universities. In fact, through September there were more than
100 personal information breaches of employee, consumer or student
data affecting more than 56 million people, according to a list
updated regularly by the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC)
in San Diego. (HR Magazine, November 2005)
Security
and compliance needs extend well beyond anti-spam and antivirus
to outbound and internal message monitoring and control.
The e-mail
landscape is experiencing a dramatic shift as virtually every
aspect of how we use, manage and protect e-mail is undergoing
rapid transformation. Today we’re not only concerned with
Sarbanes-Oxley, but with HIPAA, GLBA, Sec Rule 17a-4, inbound
content control, information leakage, acceptable use policies,
compliance-based archiving, corporate risk management and liability
mitigation. E-mail management is now a vastly different and very
confusing task. The first wave of the e-mail evolution addressed
what we now call "inbound content control." The plethora
of anti-spam and anti-virus programs with which we’ve all
become familiar represents this first wave. The second wave in
the e-mail evolution is where we are now. It is focused on providing
outbound content control and is driven by: Click
here for more information
| GET
A FREE AD IN THE BACKGROUND BUZZ |
Suppliers
and vendors who provide products and services to the Background
Screening Industry are an essential part of the industry and have
been integral in the growth of the industry. Our Vendor
Showcase is the only Directory on the Internet that
is specifically focused on FEATURING suppliers and vendors to
the Background Screening Industry. We are committed to your success
so we are making you an unbelievable offer - with the purchase
of a Platinum membership listing in our Vendor Showcase
for the discounted price of $400.00 we will give
you a Free Platinum ad in The Background Buzz.
That is a $450.00 value for Free. This will bring
your company's message to the desk top of over 1500 background
screening firms.
Contact Barry Nixon at wbnixon@aol.com
to FEATURE your company in our Vendor Showcase,
today or sign up online at http://www.preemploymentdirectory.com.
Public
Sector Hiring Set to Ease
UK Hiring
rates in the public sector are dipping in the final months of
2005, but remain in line with the national average, according
to Manpower, the UK’s leading workforce management company.
Manpower’s Employment Outlook Survey (MEOS), a quarterly
report into hiring intentions, shows that the balance of public
sector employers looking to take on more staff for the end of
the year is +8%, - the same total as the average national outlook
across all sectors. This represents a decline of seven percentage
points - the public sector’s balance during the past two
successive quarters. Click
here for more information
Scottish
Job Market Continues to Outperform UK
The Scottish
jobs market continued to perform well in October, according to
the latest Bank of Scotland Labour Market Report with rises in
both permanent and temporary staff employment recorded for the
month. Executive & Professional employees were the most sought-after
category of permanent staff, while Engineering & Construction
workers recorded the highest demand amongst temp staff. Wages
and salaries recorded firm growth.
Click
here for more information
UK
Shows Solid Growth in Online Recruitment Activity
Online job
recruitment activity and related employment opportunities across
the United Kingdom increased in October, according to the Monster
Employment Index UK. The Index rose solidly during the month,
moving up three points from 103 in September to 106 in October.
During October, eight of the nine occupational categories tracked
by the Index registered an increase in online job demand. Craft
workers, legislators, senior officials and managers experienced
the highest growth in online job availability. This was largely
driven by a greater number of opportunities for workers in the
sales, marketing and PR sectors. Demand for service and shop workers
also rose, pointing to first signs of a recovery in the UK retail
sector as a result of increased consumer spending following the
Bank of England’s reduction of interest rates in August
for the first time in two years. Click
here for more information
| BACKGROUND
INVESTIGATORS’ CONFERENCE |
Thanks to
Steve Brownstein and Phyllis Nadell for another great conference.
The speakers were great, the attendance was good and as usual
the networking was fantastic. A special thanks to Phyllis for
all her hard work and long hours that paid off in a really good
conference.
| START
GETTING ADDITIONAL SALES OPPORTUNITIES TODAY: |
All firms
that either renew or sign up for Platinum level services by the
end of November 2005 will get a Platinum Listing at the SPECIAL
PRICE OF $400.00 (this price is normally reserved just
for NAPBS members) Your listing will include a front page listing
of your logo in both the Alphabetic and Geographic (US or International)
or Supplier sections as well as rotational placement on the front
page of the Directory. Be sure to sign up to for this great value
and to avoid 2006 price increase.
Services Provided
for Platinum Level:
- A listing
with your firm’s name, address, telephone number and live
link to your Web site
- Direct
sales contact name, phone and instant email link so buyers can
contact you easily and quickly
- Up to 1
page company/product description or advertisement
- 4 color
company/product Logo
- Priority
positioning above general listings plus First Page listing in
Alphabetical and Geographic or Supplier sections
- Unlimited
Free updates to your listing throughout the year
- Eligible
for logo placement on landing page for “First” contact
with employers
- Receive
referrals for business opportunities that arise from our clients
and others that come to our attention
Click
here for more information
| FRONT
PAGE ROTATION OF PLATINUM MEMBERS CREATES ENHANCED VISIBILITY |
To increase
the visibility and selling opportunities for our Platinum members
we have started rotating their logos on the front page of the
Preemployment Screening Directory. This will increase the likelihood
that employers will see your firm before they even enter the Directory.
The following firms are currently featured on the FRONT PAGE:
Click
here for more information
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