Survey Says…”Be Cautious Using Social Media For Employee Screening.”

As a follow-up to the post yesterday about employers requesting Facebook passwords from job applicants; I was forwarded a report by titled “Threading the Needle: Employment Screening in an Age of Increased Litigation and Legislation.”  

I don’t usually pimp stuff, but this was pretty well done and informative.  And don’t be like “doesn’t happen here bud.”  It might not; “to the best of you knowledge,” but the disengaged staffing or search person may just create a situation where counsel will have you repeating that phrase.  Jus sayin.

The  new, 20-page trends survey report in which more than 650 HR professional took part  has some pretty interesting findings in it related to attitudes/actions around social networking in a time of rapidly evolving employment laws, increased EEOC enforcement and escalating litigation, including an explosion of “failure to hire” lawsuits.  Go here to go directly to the report or you can also go to the EmployeeScreenIQ and you’ll see information in the IQ Blog if you’d like to check out their stuff & things… and they do have some pretty cool stuff.

Key Findings Re: Social Networking Websites from EmployeeScreeniQ:

• Employers are split regarding their use of social networking websites as part of background screening process. 48% of respondents consult these sites as part of their screening process (only 9% say they always consult this sites), while 52% say they never do.
• These results show how divided employers are when it comes to this relatively new source of background information.
• The findings also refute a somewhat common perception that all employers spend their time poring over the online activities of workers and potential new hires.
• While the instant gratification of a Google search is undeniable, employers who answer “never” may be taking into account the inherent risk of uncovering “protected class” information that could lead to future legal problems if the candidate is not selected.
• Age, race, and religious affiliation are all characteristics that are readily available in social media sources. And then there is the issue of accuracy of the data, which is always at issue with the self-generated content that prevails on social networking sites.
• Despite the potential they might hold, social networking websites are not yet widely accepted as a trusted background-checking resource.
• We anticipate that the trend of those who utilize these sites as a screening tool will only increase in the coming years. It will be interesting to see whether the percentage of those who regularly use these sites increases in future surveys.

Source for the content here:  Jackie Jusko.  Jackie can be contacted via email at jjusko@hrmarketer.com

Top 10 Trends In Background Checks For 2012.

For the past 5 years, Employment Screening Resources (ESR) has compiled a list of emerging and influential trends in employment screening background checks. This year, the use of criminal background checks by employers for employment purposes coming under greater scrutiny of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has topped the fifth annual ‘ESR Top 10 Trends in Background Checks for 2012’:

1) Criminal Background Checks of Job Applicants by Employers Coming Under Greater Scrutiny by EEOC: With a recent survey showing nine out of ten employers conduct criminal background checks on some or all job candidates, the EEOC held a public meeting in July 2011 examining the use of arrest and conviction records by employers for criminal background checks to determine if the practice was an unfair and discriminatory hiring barrier to job seeking ex-offenders. The EEOC’s actions, coupled with the growing “Ban the Box” movement seeking to remove the criminal history question from job applications, shows that employer use of criminal records is under fire now more than ever.

2) Credit Report Background Checks of Job Applicants by Employers Increasingly Regulated by State Laws: In recent years, several U.S. states have passed laws regulating the use of employment credit reports of job applicants and current employees that have impacted the way employers conduct background checks. Seven states – California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington – currently have laws that limit the use of credit report checks by employers for employment purposes, with the most recent law, California Assembly Bill 22 (AB 22), taking effect January 1, 2012. Other states, and the EEOC, are considering further restrictions on credit checks.

3) Social Media Background Screening Checks of Job Applicants Becoming More Prevalent and More Controversial: Employers are using ‘social media background checks’ to uncover information about job applicants on websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. However, the use of social media background checks for job applicants can present legal risks. Failure to utilize social media resources can arguably be the basis of a negligent hiring claim if an unfit person was hired for a position where a search of the internet may have raised a “red flag.” Conversely, employers face numerous landmines and pitfalls that can include that include privacy, discrimination, and accuracy issues. Lawsuits and developments in this area will likely be an ongoing topic in 2012.

4) Automation in Employment Background Screening Leads to Both Increased Efficiency and Increased Risks: In recent years, employment background screening has gone from a costly and time consuming task reserved for selected job applicants to an increasingly automated and technology driven business necessity in a global economy where employers expect fast, accurate, and inexpensive results from screening providers. However, both employers and background screeners are finding with increased efficiency comes increased risks, especially when it comes to the use of unfiltered information going directly to employers from criminal database or inaccurate information obtained by “screen scrapping or automated robotic searches.”

5) Background Screening Accreditation Program Proof of Increased Emphasis on Professionalism in Industry: When the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS®) was formed in 2003 as a professional trade association for the background screening industry, the idea of an accreditation process was a central driving force in order to demonstrate that background screening was a professional endeavor. Currently, NAPBS accreditation is quickly becoming a requirement of many employers when considering a background screening provider since it is the only practical means of third party verification of the professionalism and competency of a particular screening firm.

6) Diploma Mills Offering Fake Degrees and False Credentials Likely to Increase in Tight Job Market: A 2011 report from Europe’s leading background screening firm revealed an astounding 48 percent increase worldwide in the number of known fake diploma mills in the previous year, and the number of what the report describes as “largely online entities whose degrees are worthless due to the lack of valid accreditation and recognition” is likely to increase in the coming year as desperate job applicants knowingly – and unknowingly – do business with companies that offer fake degrees and false credentials for a price.

7) Employment Screening Lawsuits Increase as Attorneys and Consumers Become Familiar with FCRA Laws Regulating Background Checks: Consumers and attorneys are looking more closely at background check reports and laws governing employment screening and filing more lawsuits against employers. On one hand, employers are being sued by victims that alleged the employer failed to perform adequate screening. On the other, employers and background screening firms also face lawsuits from job applicants complaining about the accuracy of background reports, or failure to meet the guidelines of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). In a number of cases, class action suits are being utilized as the vehicle to bring legal actions against employers.

8) New E-Verify Laws Create Complex Web of Federal and State Rules for Employers: While federal law mandates that federal contractors and subcontractors in all states must use the otherwise voluntary electronic employment eligibility verification system known as E-Verify, several U.S. states – including Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, and North Carolina – recently enacted laws mandating its use (or non-use). E-verify is a free web-based system that allows employers to verify the legal work authorization status of newly hired employees, creating a complex and confusing web of laws and regulations.

9) Offshoring Personally Identifiable Information Outside of US Increases Concern Over Privacy and Identity Theft: A new California law that took effect January 1, 2012 – Senate Bill 909 (SB 909) – appears to be one of the first in the nation that addresses the growing concerns over the controversial practice of “offshoring” personally identifiable information (PII) collected during background checks of job applicants by sending the data outside of United States and beyond the protection of U.S. privacy and identity theft laws. The privacy concerns over “offshoring” of PII is a growing trend.

10) Self Background Checks Proactively Conducted by Job Seekers to Help Verify Accuracy of their Public Information: If jobseekers want to get hired for a job these days, they will probably have to undergo a background check. And if they have to undergo a background check, it would be in their best interest to make sure the information found on the background check is accurate, up-to-date, and complete. As a result, some jobseekers are taking matters in their own hands by proactively conducting “self” background checks on themselves to verify the accuracy of their public information.

Check out “Background Checks: How to Legally Use Credit Inquires, Social Media Searches, and More.” on March 22; a BLR webinar  In just 90 minutes, you’ll understand the legal dos and don’ts for conducting background checks on employees and job applicants.

Attorney Lester Rosen is Founder and CEO of Employment Screening Resources(ESR) –– a background check firm accredited the National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS) . He is the author of “The Safe Hiring Manual,” the first comprehensive guide for background checks, and a frequent speaker on due diligence issues.

The Coming U.S. Manufacturing Talent Gap And War.

HR Leaders and recruiters responsible for talent management within the manufacturing sector might just have one of the tougher gigs going right now.  Since the beginning of 2011, the sector has added over 150,000 jobs to the economy. Economists forecast a continuing trend, and predict manufacturing employment will increase in 2012. Couple this the recent trade pacts that were passed with South Korea, Panama, and  Columbia and, US manufacturing merits some confidence.

As an outplacement guy, I witnessed manufacturing shed 5 million jobs during the previous decade as well as the decline of its overall contribution to the economy.  The sector has a long climb to broader stability, and HR and talent management will play a significant role in the sector’s success or failure.

A recent KPMG International survey of US manufacturing executive’s project that 41% plan to hire in the coming year. Wonderful, but they are looking for very different skills and skill sets.

GIA’s (Global Intelligence Alliance) survey of 95 global manufacturing executives found that the lack of workforce skills is the top concern for manufacturers across the world; ahead of concerns over lending, oil, regulation, and taxes.

The technology of US manufacturers has advanced sharply and many have struggled to keep pace with the changes. The National Association of Manufacturers recently reported that 80% are having difficulty finding qualified talent. Making the shortage worse is the retirement of a generation of implementers that drove Quality, Lean, Six-Sigma, JIT, and many other successful strategies.  Make no mistake; US manufacturing would still be kicking ass globally if not for questionable monetary, foreign trade, and social policy.

Manufacturing jobs are sophisticated and require specialized training for increasingly automated processes. The lack of talent facing manufacturers during this period of high unemployment is a challenging paradox.  Attracting talent is a hard sell due to the loss of manufacturing jobs during the past decade, and the perception that manufacturing is not a viable long-term career path.  Technical schools were underfunded before the current budget deficit issues facing many states pitting this generation of manufacturing executives against a set workforce challenges with enormous scope and complexity.

Manufacturers need workers who have a technical skill set or skilled trades that machines do not. There is a war for these employees caused by simple supply and demand.  HR leaders and staffing pros that need to acquire this talent first need to fully understand the operational needs of their businesses, the skill sets to support those needs, and then find the talent.

What HR & talent management pros can do once they realize this talent war is real.

Know your business; not just your people, and where they reside on the org chart. Spend time with R&D to learn what’s in development, the likelihood of it going to market, where and when it will be built, and what the key material components are likely to be.  Know your plants, their capacities, equipment, processes, and internal and external customers.  If you’re in corporate HR get out to the plants or at a minimum ratchet up communications with your site HR teams to get them aware, and assessing. Know it so you can staff it ahead of the game or you won’t survive.

• You’ll likely need to fill the pipeline with these skill sets at a minimum.
• Hourly talent with high-tech skills that also possess engineering skills.
• Workers with knowledge of mechanical & electrical engineering processes
• Those with the ability to work with computerized systems.
• More talent than you currently has with the ability to read & write machine programming code.
• Those who to read manufacturing blueprints & operate automated manufacturing systems.
• Workers capable of operating hydraulic, pneumatic, and electrical systems.
• More Manufacturing Software Engineers, Manufacturing Process Engineers Automated Systems Engineers & Supply Chain Engineers.

Manufacturers need workers that have at least a working knowledge of computers, mathematics, and an ability to think critically. These baseline skills will only keep you even, not ahead.  Automation has eliminated manual tasks, brining focus to machine programming, technical troubleshooting, and preventative maintenance.   Many operations need technicians who can fix assembly lines by restoring bad code in plant’s operating software.

• Where to find, and how to develop the talent.
• Engage in mapping of core processes with manufacturing leaders, identifying those employees that own core processes and, then deploy a knowledge transfer process to successors.
• Be ready to manage the “retirees” that you need to keep through flexible work plans, consulting agreements, and contract work.
• Establish how these employees will be led, managed, and communicated with.  They’ll be targeted by others, and will have leverage through high demand for their services.  Many Gen X, Y, Z, and Millennials work to live; not live to work.  They’ll leave, not organize a union.
• Agitate leaders to define a culture that is not perceived as institutional, but with process. One that has entrepreneurial spirit, but is secure.  Be first.  Be the employer of choice.
• You’ll need to re-write most of your job descriptions (with operations) to accurately reflect the functions of the position. If those are off, you’ll get garbage in the pipeline.
• The compensation plan must accurately reflect the market value of these new, evolving, and in some cases hybrid roles. They will need to be pliable, and easy to communicate.
• You’ll need a plan to accommodate or “manage out” those that need to go due to performance.  Performance management skills and process will be critical as the talent gap closes.
• Go deep with succession planning to leverage cross functional assignments and bench strength at the manufacturing level.
• Place local management on technical college boards to influence curriculum for your needs.
• Push internships ensuring potential talent for your pipeline is tapping early.
• Start & brand a technical program at your facility as a feeder system for the best and brightest.

Manufacturing has, for some time now become a knowledge-based profession where work is accomplished through critical thinking and know-how rather than through physical labor. The shortage of educated talent ranging from those with trade school certifications to a bachelor’s degree, as well as those with trade based labor skills is real.  The HR Leadership & Talent Management challenge is equally real.  As comedian Jeff Foxworthy would say…. “Here’s Your Sign.”