Pre Employment Background Screening Blog

If you are looking to do sales prospecting for your B2B lead generation efforts, cold calling is the traditional way to grow your list of clients. In order to be successful at cold calling you need several unique skills, along with a specific set of tools. Some of the characteristics you will need are perseverance, patience, and persistence. In terms of cold calling tools, you will need a customer relationship management (CRM) software such as salesforce.com in order to track the calls you make, the result of those calls, and follow-up reminders. To populate your CRM with leads, you'll need to purchase a sales database from a company like Hoover's or InfoUsa. If you want 500 free sales leads, you can go to http://www.salesleads4free.com/info-usa-sales-leads/. When selecting these leads, you can choose companies by size, industry (NAICS or SIC codes), revenue, decision-maker contact information, etc... You really need to dial in what your target market is to make sure you get the most qualified list. There is no reason to waste your time calling companies with little or no chance of ever using your product or service. So, with the skills and tools listed above, you'll have a fighting chance of growing your business through telemarketing.

Labels: Cold Calling, CRM, Hoovers, InfoUsa, Leads Database, Sales Leads, Sales Prospects, Salesforce

One of the many benefits of background screening is theft prevention. By screening your employees for criminal backgrounds before (or shortly after) they are hired, companies can significantly reduce the chance of theft and fraud from within.

In a recent article in Newsday, John Case, owner of employeetheft.com noted that employee theft costs U.S. businesses approximately $50 billion a year. In the article, case recommended employment background screening.

The article goes on to point out several signs of possible theft:

• Refusing to take PTO in a job position where theft is prevelent
  
• Consistently working on days off, staying late, or arriving early when work environment it is unwarrented
  
• Showing signs of financial difficulty that may motivate theft
  
• Finding inventory near exits or other areas it shouldn't be

Labels: background check, criminal background, employee fraud, employee theft

Online Recruitment has a nice article about skills testing and online screening, in which they cover the benefits and challenges of background screening online. Of course, a real criminal background check should be carried out offline. But this Web posting covers the basics of screening your employees for talent. Once they pass that test, then they can submit to a more serious backgound screening process.

In compliance with Megan’s Law, candidates to be hired at any school in the United States school must undergo criminal background checks prior to employment. The law was named after a 7 year old girl who was molested and killed by a neighbor in New Jersey. The killer was a convicted sex offender. In 1996, President Clinton ratified the law, which requires the release of relevant criminal information to protect the public from sexual offenders.

A school district cannot hire a candidate without clearance from the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice conducts over 1 million background checks per year for various companies that are eligible. As of July '05, California law requires that everyone working around children must be digitally fingerprinted. Once in the system, any subsequent arrest in California will trigger an alert at the Department of Justice.

Recently, their has been a great deal of media coverage about the transfer of cotrol of several US ports to a UAE (state-run) company. After 9/11, the US government focused on bolstering security at airports. However, security experts note that most freight coming through U.S. ports is never screened. Critics believe that the port deal will create even more security concerns.

One of the concerns raised by congress members is that they want more information about what background checks were performed on Dubai's top officials as part of the vetting process for the deal, as well as what employee background screening procedures it has in place. Several congressional panels, including the Senate Banking Committee, are expected to review various aspects of the deal.

David J. Edmondson, (former) CEO of Radioshack, claimed that he earned degrees in theology and psychology from Pacific Coast Baptist College in California. But the registrar of the school told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that records showed Edmondson completed only two semesters and that the school never offered degrees in psychology. He resigned before further investigation into the allegations took place.

Before his resignation, Edmondson was quoted as saying, "If I were going to make stuff up, I probably would have found something a little more impressive to make up." Apparently, that too was untrue, as Edmondson later admitted that he believed that he had received a theology diploma called a ThG, but not the four-year bachelor of science degree listed on his resume. However, he could provide proof of the ThG diploma.

Radioshack's background screening program did not include education verification in 1994, as they do today.

If you've been using a third-party background screening service for your employee background checks, but are not 100% confident in the accuracy of the reports, you should be concerned. Employers are liable in the case of negligent hiring lawsuits and workplace violence, and having inaccurate or out of date information can be incredibly costly. At Inquest Screening, we know that we provide the best information possible, and encourage you to carefully choose your service.

Some of the questions you should be asking of your screening company are as follows: Does the company follow the FCRA and applicable state laws for screening? Do they provide guidance about your responsibilities as a user of consumer reports? Do they provide forms to obtain permission from the employee? How do they get their information? How do they know it's accurate?

At Inquest Screening, we are always happy to take current and potential clients through the entire process, answering as many questions as needed. When you call us at Inquest, you'll never be directed to an automated voice system, but instead will always have a live person that can answer your questions. You'll also find that, unlike some other companies, we can customize our client interface to meet the needs of your human resource department.

We believe that employers should make informed decisions about which company they use. That's why we offer a risk-free trial service that can be used in parallel with an existing service. This will allow you, as the employer, to judge for yourself how we can meet your needs in terms of customer service, turnaround, flexibility and accuracy.

Every business knows the importance of hiring good employees. It's not only one of the most important things a company can do, but it is essential to a business's success. Good employees are what make a company profitable. Bad employees, on the other hand, can just as equally affect the success of a business and in many ways.

Employees that do not have the right experience, skill set and motivation can cost a company a tremendous amount of time in training and workflow management. They also have a negative impact on other employees, and can lead to decreased morale and a lack of progress. At Inquest, we know how important it is to make smart hiring decisions.

One of the best ways to make sure a company is successful is to screen potential candidates before or during the interview process. This ensures that human resources is working most effectively, and discourages bad candidates from ever applying for a job. And just as importantly, background screening can also protect a company in the case of a costly negligent hiring lawsuit or workplace violence.

Inquest has invested heavily in technology that streamlines our internal processes for checking criminal records, employment history, education verification, driving records and more. This means that we can provide reports quickly so that human resources can work more effectively and not worry about losing good candidates.