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Of Résumés and
Rap Sheets
By Jill Hecht Maxwell
If you're launching
or growing your company and feeling a little desperate for
tech talent, you may be tempted to hire first and think later.
Bad move. According to the Society for Human Resource Management,
a huge number of candidates -- at all levels -- lie on their
résumés. More than half the companies surveyed
by the organization in 1998 found that job candidates had
falsified information about their previous employment.
John Putzier,
president of FirStep Inc., a human-resources consulting firm
in Prospect, Pa., says free-form job titles make matters even
more confusing. "If I'm interviewing a 'guru,' is she a project
manager or just a wacko?" Putzier says.
The worst-case
scenario, he says, can lead to a negligent-hiring suit. "If
someone has been convicted of assault, and you could have
found that out and didn't, you could be putting the lives
of employees, customers, and clients in danger," he warns.
Fortunately,
there's a way to protect your company. First, make any job
offer contingent on a background check. Then, to save time,
hire a screening service to do the checking for you. Third-party
services, like Laborchex, in Jackson, Miss., can turn such
requests around in a matter of hours or a few days at most.
Laborchex, which
took its service online a year ago, now plays Sherlock Holmes
for 1,000 clients. For an average cost of $70 a candidate,
Laborchex staffers poll the applicant's past employers and
gather driving and criminal records, credit reports, and other
publicly available information.
The snooping
is all aboveboard, says Laborchex owner and president Rene
Barbee. "We make sure we have a legal release from the applicant
before we do the review," he says.
However, hiring
an outsider to do your background checks is potentially perilous,
says lawyer Julie Moore, president of Employment Practices
Group, a training and consulting company in Windham, N.H.
"A person can sue you for what your independent contractors
do," she says.
So if you do
hire a background checker, cover your you-know-what. Ask for
references and a copy of the company's insurance policy. Make
sure the company complies with the federal Fair Credit Reporting
Act. Finally, says Moore, get an indemnification contract.
"You want to make sure the background-check firm will pay
the defense costs and any settlement if it was their wrongdoing
that brought on the suit," she says.
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